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FX Wildcat Barrel Fouling

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parallax

parallax

Member
Aug 2, 2016
124
3
MI
We had a very calm morning for wind yesterday, so I took my .22 FX Wildcat Gen 1 to the 100 yard range. Straight-away I shoot this group and needless to say I was disappointed. The gun had been shooting .750" 10 shot groups at 50 yards very regularly (my usual airgun shooting distance).

1545403834_15503097755c1cfdba40e3b3.02489062_IMG_0972.jpg


My initial thinking was high variation in muzzle velocity, but I didn't have my chrono with me at the range yesterday. Once home, I checked MV and 18.1g JSB's were at the usual speed - 890 feet per second. So I decided to check out the barrel with my bore cam. This is what it looked like:

1545404038_17325043195c1cfe86784a82.69033807_IMG110101-000111F.JPG


I am a bit surprised as I regularly run Ballistol soaked patched thru the barrel and figured that routine would be sufficient. I scrubbed the barrel with a nylon brush soaked in Hoppe's #9 and now the barrel looks build-up free. The build up was only on the "twist" end of the barrel, making the brushing easy.

One other note, I could see the lead build up near the barrel crown without the bore scope - I couldn't get a good picture.

Have any of you FX guys run into this situation with your FX Smooth Twist barrels? What do you do for FX Smooth Twist cleaning? 
 
I haven't yet experienced this phenomenon with my Wildcat Mk1 .22. But the Smooth Twist barrel is bound to "shear" some lead at the Twist end of the barrel. So far at least, my Wildcat just spits out that lead without fouling the bore. In your Wildcat, it seems to be sticking and fouling the bore. I agree with Michael and suggest that you remove the fouling with a brass brush and follow up with JB Bore Paste to polish the Twist end of the barrel. At some point you will have polished the bore to the degree that the shaved lead particles will be less likely to "stick" and will simply be spit out the end of the barrel with each shot. 
 
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I have Crown with the smooth twist X barrel, which is full length rifled. But, I have noticed that it fouls rather quickly. The rifle is new, so this may improve with some more shooting. It comes clean with a tight patch and Ballistol, but lead particles are clearly visible on the patch. So far, I've had accuracy go away with as few as 50 shots. But, I believe I can see some improvement since the last cleaning. Barrels are different.
 
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Thanks for the feedback guys. I do use JB Borepaste, to remove copper fouling, in my powder burner stainless steel barrels with really good success. I must be mis-remembering someone suggesting that JB is too aggressive for the softer steel used in air gun barrels. I will give JB a try at my next cleaning.

Does anyone know the type of steel used in FX barrels?

New group after the cleaning in almost similar wind conditions:

1545421896_1226607915c1d4448b4c1f5.49774313_IMG_0973.jpg


Much better results👍
 
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I was wondering about this, as lots of people had said the ST and STX barrels "never" needed to be cleaned, or almost never. You never know if it is because some people'e really don't need to clean their barrels, or they just don't know the difference. 

I figure I need a cleaning every couple hundred rounds on my Crown. I'm unsure of whether I should try some JB Borepaste to "polish" it out as I clean (currently I use dry patches, as that has worked best of all the different cleaning agents I've tried), if I should fire-lap the barrel, or if I should stop being such a priss and figure that most barrels which run lead need to be cleaned every couple hundred rounds anyway and that this gun isn't special in that regard. 
 
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Parallax I recommend you clean your bore with the Hoppe's Elite instead of what your using now. It will remove all lead deposits without any need for using a bronze bore brush or abrasive lapping compounds of any kind. Furthermore, if you clean your pellets before shooting them you will only have to clean the bore much less often. Napier Pellet Lube also helps keep your bore slick and clean as well as dramatically improving your accuracy. Try it! You may be pleasantly surprised at the results you get!
 
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Yes Chuck, your suggestion is very good. All I have available for cleaning, right now, are the petroleum based (kerosene) Hoppe's cleaners. The barrel o-ring isn't likely to react well to petroleum, so I was very careful to keep the barrel tilted down while cleaning. Then I ran a bunch of Ballistol and dry patches to clean out the Hoppe's.

I just ordered some Elite & Napier. Thanks for the advise.
 
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Well Parallax you are most welcome! I had to laugh at your mention of the old school kerosene based Hoppe's because I loved the smell of it so much it was hard for me to change over to the Hoppe's Elite! As a youth I got to clean all my Dad's guns and his service revolver with the old Hoppe's so the smell of it brings back many fond memories of him. The Elite has no smell and just looks like soapy water... its hard to figure out why it works so fantastic but it sure does. Petroleum based solvents have an adverse effect on your petroleum based o-rings so I am glad you aren't going to use it anymore. 

You might want to use a bore brush with some Elite on it for your first cleaning and then maybe once a year depending on how much you shoot. I clean my barrels from the muzzle end which is fine as long as you wrap a piece of tape around where the jag meets the carbon fiber cleaning rod so it does not abrade the crown. I use an undersized .22 short bronze brush jag with patches wrapped around it so they don't fall off. The patches I like are the round ones at Bass Pro Shop. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/otis-small-caliber-cleaning-patches
 
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