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HW/Weihrauch HW 97 Barrel Cleaning

For decades of spring piston airgun ownership I’ve made a habit of pushing a felt pellet down into the bore (from the breech) about 1/8”, filling it up with Ballistol, and gently pushing it thru the bore with either a wood dowel or a brass rod. Two or three of those followed by one dry one removes ugly black stuff and leaves the rifling with a nice thin layer of corrosion protection. I am somewhat stymied about how to do that with my recently-acquired HW97. The muzzle has a (?) muzzle brake of some sort attached to it that seems to preclude pushing a pellet in from that end and the breech just isn’t accessible to push a pellet thru from that end as I’ve done in the past. So, what’s the drill here?

Motorman
Eastern MO
 
If you happen to have a string grass trimmer around your garage, take a piece of your trimmer line a little longer than your barrel. Tie a string to one end and then tie a cleaning patch to the string. Feed the trimmer line from the muzzle end down to the breech. I like the trimmer line with the twist to it as it is a little stiffer and easier to feed down my barrel. Once you are ready to pull the trimmer line with string and the patch thru the barrel, squirt it with some Ballistol and pull it through with the attached patch. Do this 2-3 times and then pull a dry patch thru and then you are all set. I hope I'm describing this clearly enough. Its pretty simple and Works about the same as a patch worm kit and its somewhat cheaper if you have the material lying around.
 
I have a otis kit and a patch worm, the otis works way better. It you’re worried about it closing on your fingers just cut a small block of wood or delrin about a 1/4 or a little bigger thick, just long enough to fit in the breach opening. Now cock the rifle and put the block in then slide the compression tube up against it, now it’s safe.
I use a rifle vise, but you could just lay it on it’s side while cleaning. Now cut a section of plastic straw to go in the muzzle up against the crown and sticking out of the muzzle 1/2” or so. Now feed the otis or patch worm in and out of the breach, attach a 2” patch (is what I use) and put a little ballistol on it and pull thru several times, changing patches and adding ballistol until clean, then pull a few dry patches and done. Been doing this way for years never had a problem and takes maybe 15mins. I only clean if the groups open up that doesn’t look normal to me.