Is lubricating pellets necessary?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Saw a video the other day where this young guy had a break barrel in .25 caliber. He used a crony on bare pellets, and was getting about 626-650 FPS, then he puts a dab of petroleum jelly in the skirt of the pellet, and was getting about 150 FPS more out of each shot.

Now, he said this was not recommended for a few different reasons, mainly due to the jelly being hard on rings, seals and such, but I was surprised at how this happened. I want no part of it, but I can see how some form of lubrication would give an edge in ballistics.

I will just keep to shooting mine the "unlubricated" way, but this did surprise me.
 
Upvote 0
crosman2016 said:
Saw a video the other day where this young guy had a break barrel in .25 caliber. He used a crony on bare pellets, and was getting about 626-650 FPS, then he puts a dab of petroleum jelly in the skirt of the pellet, and was getting about 150 FPS more out of each shot.

Now, he said this was not recommended for a few different reasons, mainly due to the jelly being hard on rings, seals and such, but I was surprised at how this happened. I want no part of it, but I can see how some form of lubrication would give an edge in ballistics.

I will just keep to shooting mine the "unlubricated" way, but this did surprise me.
Click to expand...
Ahhh, but this is a totally different concept. What he did was literally(!) turn his breakbarrel airgun into a breakbarrel airgunfirearm!

He used the same principle as used in a diesel engine, hence the process is called dieseling.

That process is to compress a fuel/air mixture to such a high pressure (which makes the temperature of that mixture rise tremendously) so that due to the heat a spontaneous detonation (explosion!) occurs. The added petroleum (jelly) is the fuel part in this mixture used in the airgun.


Now here’s an interesting bit of knowledge:

The similarity between breakbarrel and PCP airguns is that they both use compressed air to propel a projectile, (dûh, they are not called AIRguns for nothing right! :geek:) but the big difference is that the breakbarrel compresses (outside breathing air @ 1 bar, or 29.92 inHg pressure) air by moving the piston in the cylinder, DURiNG the shotcycle. (via the same principle as described for the engine above)
And again because of this compression the pressure increases tremendously and as a result heat is generated. but since there is NO fuel source (no petroleum jelly), there is no fuel/air mixture, (just air) and thus NO detonation occurs!

Whereas with the PCP airgun, the air is already compressed beforehand (by use of a compressor, and it is stored in the airtube or bottle of the gun).
During the shotcycle of a PCP there is no heat generated! (Like said: the air was already pressurised before!)
In fact, quite the opposite happens: due to the release of the air, going FROM hi pressure TO low pressure, heat is EXTRACTED! (You can feel it after shooting a lot with a PCP gun: the barrel feels very cold, and get sometimes damp during those humid days!)

Long story short: the gentleman from your video uses fuel not for lubrication purposes to increase precision, but to increase the energy of the projectile being shot.
Whereas this topic is about the (supposed) benefit of increasing precision with lubrication.

Precision is having all the shots land in a small group (ultimately all in the same hole!), accuracy is to get them where you want them to hit (in the bullseye!)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Back_Roads, crosman2016 and Normkel
Upvote 0
MartinT said:
Ahhh, but this is a totally different concept. What he did was literally(!) turn his breakbarrel airgun into a breakbarrel airgunfirearm!

He used the same principle as used in a diesel engine, hence the process is called dieseling.

That process is to compress a fuel/air mixture to such a high pressure (which makes the temperature of that mixture rise tremendously) so that due to the heat a spontaneous detonation (explosion!) occurs. The added petroleum (jelly) is the fuel part in this mixture used in the airgun.


Now here’s an interesting bit of knowledge:

The similarity between breakbarrel and PCP airguns is that they both use compressed air to propel a projectile, (dûh, they are not called AIRguns for nothing right! :geek:) but the big difference is that the breakbarrel compresses (outside breathing air @ 1 bar, or 29.92 inHg pressure) air by moving the piston in the cylinder, DURiNG the shotcycle. (via the same principle as described for the engine above)
And again because of this compression the pressure increases tremendously and as a result heat is generated. but since there is NO fuel source (no petroleum jelly), there is no fuel/air mixture, (just air) and thus NO detonation occurs!

Whereas with the PCP airgun, the air is already compressed beforehand (by use of a compressor, and it is stored in the airtube or bottle of the gun).
During the shotcycle of a PCP there is no heat generated! (Like said: the air was already pressurised before!)
In fact, quite the opposite happens: due to the release of the air, going FROM hi pressure TO low pressure, heat is EXTRACTED! (You can feel it after shooting a lot with a PCP gun: the barrel feels very cold, and get sometimes damp during those humid days!)

Long story short: the gentleman from your video uses fuel not for lubrication purposes to increase precision, but to increase the energy of the projectile being shot.
Whereas this topic is about the (supposed) benefit of increasing precision with lubrication.

Precision is having all the shots land in a small group (ultimately all in the same hole!), accuracy is to get them where you want them to hit (in the bullseye!)
Click to expand...
Always wondered what dieseling meant. Thanks for that bit of education!
 
  • Like
Reactions: MartinT
Upvote 0
I wash my pellets as even my QYS Olympic have a wee bit of rubbish in the boxes.
Photo shows the lead dross left on the base of the skirt after I did a 'sort of' quicky wash a couple of weeks ago (RWS R10 pellets). After washing I noticed the lead slivers and dross on the skirt base so I twirled the base against a paper towel.
I obviously didn't wash 'hard' enough, but have since seen where the pellets were put into a micro cloth and then that was lowered into a container of hot soapy water. The cloth was then repeatedly raised and lowered at each end so that the pellets ran back and forth over each other while immersed in the water.
So I tried that method and a much better result.
Once dry, I too spray the pellets with a dry silicon lube to stop any oxidation forming on the pellets.
I have a separate micro cloth I use for that and once again use that tumbling action of the cloth to get the pellets nicely covered.
That spray lube dries in just a few minutes, so I gently pour the pellets out onto a plastic sheet to dry.
If I hadn't washed those pellets then those loose bits of lead could have caused a flier or become smeared into the barrel to affect every other pellet I shot.
Yes, I am washing much more thoroughly now.

Cleaning1.jpg


Cleaning2.jpg
 
Upvote 0
When I was putzing around with with this, I used an ultrasonic washer and alcohol, got all sort of crud off of one brand. Did it matter, nope. I tried to get them to diesel, put low flash point oil on them nope nothing. The Brits use beeswax from what I've heard, so I bought some and rubbed it into a microfiber towel then I rub the pellets/slugs. Does it make any difference, YMMV on that one I can say it doesn't hurt.
 
Upvote 0
bubbahotep said:
Do you just hose it off and swirl it in water? Since ultrasonic can cause pitting idk what to do for washing.
Click to expand...
I put them in a plastic bowl and fill it with hot water plus dish soap and swirl them around for a bit with a silicone basting brush and let them sit for 5 minutes or so, drain thoroughly, rinse well and then spread out on paper towels overnight to dry. I fold up some paper towel to fit in a medium sized zip lock bag, spray some silicone spray on the paper towel, add some pellets and roll them around in the bag for a bit and then into a pellet tin. I leave the lid off for a while so the silicone dries on the pellets before I put the lid back on.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu