How do you clean your liners?

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I've used several different ones over the years and honestly most barrels will come clean with pretty much any commonly recommended cleaner you want to use. Goo Gone, WD-40, Shooterā€™s Choice, Hoppes #9, Kroil, Ballistol...you pick it. Perhaps in extreme cases like a bore with poor surface quality (fretting) you'll see some difference in how quickly it will come clean but I doubt that would ever be of any significance with an FX barrel. The experiment below led me to favor Hoppes. I already had some on hand so I might as well use it but I don't know that I would have bothered otherwise with several of the others in my cleaning kit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ud2M1gGlU
 
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Iā€™ve been using Strike Hold for several years, which is a carry over from my powder burners. Itā€™s the best cleaner Iā€™ve ever used. I teach PB pistol shooting and our last class covers maintenance. I ask my students to bring a CLEAN pistol to class. I run a wet Strike Hold patch ,through their ā€œcleanā€ barrels and allow it to soak for 5 minutes while asking what they cleaned with. I see a lot of Balistol, Hopes, Weapon Shield, you name it Iā€™veĀ seen it. After 5 minutes I push a dry patch through each of their ā€œcleanā€ barrels and I have yet to have a patch to come out clean. The patches are always black and they just shake their head in amazement. (I should be a salesman for them) LOL

Strike Hold also leaves behind a dry lube which works very well for CCW weapons, if you are so inclined?

You can leave your barrel as cleaned or run an alcohol or acetone patch through and follow up with wax. I load up a cotton mop, ofĀ the appropriate caliber, with paste wax and insert it into the barrel. Then stroke the mop vigorously up and down the length of the barrel. Pull it out and allow it to dry. No need to run a clean patch through afterwards. Then shoot as normal.

What Iā€™ve noticed is after waxing the first shot is always back on POA / POI and you donā€™t have to send 20 or so down the pipe to season it and get your accuracy back. Itā€™s pretty amazing.
 
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What Iā€™ve noticed is after waxing the first shot is always back on POA / POI and you donā€™t have to send 20 or so down the pipe to season it and get your accuracy back. Itā€™s pretty amazing.
Click to expand...

True, this is a topic we were discussing here not too long ago.

Here are a couple of examples. First is a .22 cal QB79 HPA conversion fitted with a choked LW barrel. This barrel isn't too bad after a cleaning. It normally needs about 10 pellets through it for the POI to stabilize. With wax applied, it groups straight away. This is the first 5 pellets at 30 yards:



If it weren't for that cantankerous little guy to the left, it would have been right around MoA. No hard feelings, they're Daisy pellets after all.

Up next is a .177, also a choked LW. This is a barrel I thought I had damaged somehow the first time I cleaned it. Pellets were going all over the place and then it finally started settling down after 30 pellets were through it. I've repeated it twice more so I know it's not a fluke.

Here it is today after a clean and wax. It falls in line with less than 5 pellets:



Yes, it made a sub-MoA group with wadcutters at 30 yards. No, I can't do that every time :)

If you want to try it, get the bore good and clean and then follow up with a suitable degreasing solvent. For the cleaning step, use whatever you like--Hoppes 9, Ballistol, WD-40, Kroil, Goo Gone, etc. They're all capable of getting a barrel clean in fairly short order unless it has been neglected. Then degrease with either acetone, alcohol, or mineral spirits. Use acetone for its excellent degreasing properties and fast evaporation but don't let it get on any O-rings. I'd say alcohol is second best but once again don't get it on your O-rings. Or if there's an O-ring involved that you can't (or don't want to) remove, use mineral spirits. I've used all 3 in different situations.

For the wax, I've used fancypants One Grand Blitz Wax (caranuba) and good old Johnson's Paste Wax at different times and the results appear to be the same. I use a pullthrough cotton patch 5 - 10 times to apply the wax, putting a little more on for each pull to ensure there's enough to coat the full length of the barrel. This topic was being discussed on another forum a while back and Scott (motorhead) recommends a mop and a back-and-forth scrubbing action so you may want to follow his advice instead. That's my preference too when I can work it from the breech end (e.g. a breakbarrel or a PCP barrel before installation) but my policy is don't put a cleaning rod into the muzzle if it can be helped so patches it is most of the time.

When done, just leave it to dry fully and then get to shooting. No need to run a patch through to buff it out. The first pellet clears it from everywhere except the microscopic pores.

Another helpful point Scott made was that it isn't necessary to start over when the next cleaning is due, just run a couple of snug-fitting dry patches through and accuracy will return. I can attest to it as well. I think he said he cleans just once at the beginning of field target season and occasional dry patches are all that's needed to make it through the season. I'm sure he's done the J-B treatment to the bore so I wouldn't count on that kind of longevity as a general rule but it should give some indication as to the benefit of this step.
 
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