Polished my FX Crown .177 Barrel Bore this morning

[ThomasT]

Hello everyone,

Finally received all of the required items to do a “polish job” on the bore of my FX Crown .177 cal rifle barrel yesterday. This morning I removed the barrel and did a through cleaning of the bore until nothing but clean patches were coming out. I did make one small adjustment to the process, I divided the barrel into 3 sections rather than 4. This being a 600mm ( 24-inches ) long barrel I felt like 3 sections of 8-inches long would work the best. I’m not sure if it was my imagination, but the center 8-inches sure felt a bit tighter when running the bore mop through it. The bore mop itself was a darker color ( dirtier looking ) than the other two mops so I am guessing more material was removed. If there were any micro imperfections in that section, I’m hoping that the polish work did what it is supposed to do and remove them. Now I cannot wait to do some target shooting and see if there is a definite improvement in the accuracy of this rifle.

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[Cannonball]

Good luck Thomas, hoping you hit 200 now.

 

[ThomasT]

Good luck Thomas, hoping you hit 200 now.

Hello Cannonball,

Me too

I am hoping to be able to hit 200 now on a regular basis. A couple of "flyers" on each card have me shooting 197 and 198 almost every day lately. So if this polishing works maybe it will eliminate those extra flyers .

Not sure how many rounds I will have to shoot through this "new" barrel to get it seasoned, but I believe I should be able to see a difference pretty soon.

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[Feinwerk]

Did you try pushing a pellet through the barrel to feel how even the friction was? That will help you identify any remaining tight spots that might need more polishing.

In any case, good luck with your shooting.

 

[ThomasT]

Did you try pushing a pellet through the barrel to feel how even the friction was? That will help you identify any remaining tight spots that might need more polishing.

In any case, good luck with your shooting.

Hello Feinwerk,

No I did not try that, now I wish that I would have done that before assembling it all back together. I will do that next time I take it apart.

Mother nature has decided to postpone my test shooting this morning, but no complaints from me because we need the rain too badly.

Thanks for the suggestion and have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[tcarlson777]

After your barrel polish job, the barrel cleaning should go a lot faster. It used to take 20+ patches to clean my barrel, and now it is under 10. I think your barrel should be seasoned after about 20 shots, hopefully. Happy shooting this weekend, @ThomasT.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Thomas, what equipment and compounds did you use?

-Marty

 

[ThomasT]

After your barrel polish job, the barrel cleaning should go a lot faster. It used to take 20+ patches to clean my barrel, and now it is under 10. I think your barrel should be seasoned after about 20 shots, hopefully. Happy shooting this weekend, @ThomasT.

Hello Tom,

Well I have rain in the area from that front coming up from the Gulf so might not be able to shoot today, but no problem. Inside the barrel sure looked good, looked like it was chrome plated so should be really easy to clean. I believe I will go ahead and remove the barrel again and try that "pellet trick" and do any more polishing if needed. Hope you have a great weekend.

ThomasT

 

[ThomasT]

Thomas, what equipment and compounds did you use?

-Marty

Hello Marty,

Here is a photo showing all of the supplies. You cannot find any Burlite but CPL is what you will buy. I used 5 of the Cotton Mops, 3 to do the polishing, 1 as a pre-cleaner, and 1 as a final cleaner. I used a BUNCH of the patches before the polishing to make sure the barrel was completely clean. I ran 1 down the barrel after each of the first and second polishing to clean out residue and then a BUNCH after the polish to do a final clean. This is really very easy to do but takes a bit of time. I did 20 strokes for each of the 8-inch sections and I simply put blue tape on the Dewey Cleaning Rod at 8 inches, then 16 inches and finally at 24 inches. At 24 inches the tip of the Mop DID NOT come out of the muzzle end of the barrel.

Hope this will help,
ThomasT

 

[ThomasT]

Hello again everyone,

OK let me make it clear that I am just sharing information now. Beings that I have never pushed a pellet down a barrel after polishing, this is all new to me. But here is what I have just experienced, I removed the barrel again and put it in my vice with a pair of soft jaws. I used the Dewey Cleaning Rod to push a clean unmarked pellet slowly down the barrel from the Breach to the Muzzle. And yes I did feel several spots along the barrel that did offer a bit more resistance and I used some blue tape to mark each spot on the Rod. I used a new clean mop with some JB Bore Compound to “rework” those marked sections. I changed mops with more JB Compound and then worked an area about 90% of the length of the barrel. I did not go all the way up to the “choked” section. I cleaned the barrel real good and then pushed a new pellet slowly down the barrel, as before, but this time could not feel any difference any where along the barrel. I must assume that I did remove those areas of resistance and the Bore of the barrel is now close to being “equal” along the entire length except for the choked section. I hope this information will be of some help to those that plan on polishing the bore on their barrels.

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[Feinwerk]

Wow that's perfect. Hope you get good improvements in accuracy and reduced spread in your velocities.

 

[ThomasT]

Wow that's perfect. Hope you get good improvements in accuracy and reduced spread in your velocities.

Hey again Feinwerk,

Did your little "pellet trick" and it sure appears that I did make some positive improvements to the bore. I will know when I can get back out on my target range and shoot some pellets down this nice new clean and smooth barrel

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[0akhonor]

Good work- I too get the flyers, drives me nuts.
May I ask what velocity/ pellet and weight/ reg pressure you're using? I've done the polishing, experienced all weights and style of .177 pellets- and get good results, but most of my other similarly priced .177 rifles just shoot more consistently. I want to use the FX for FT- have a saber tactical stock, hawke scope- it should be more consistent than it is .....

 

[Revoman]

Thomas!
Did you happen to note if both pushed pellets were of the exact same diameter before the pushes? The second one could be slightly smaller in diameter than the first?
Just a suggestion as it sounds like you did a great job.
I had done the exact same thing with a .22 liner but made sure that the second slug (not pellet) was of the same diameter. They both had tight spots, about eight of the to be precise with the first slug. So, I redid the mops as you did, but without much of a change, it dropped from eight to about 4 tight spots. I'm considering redoing it again but am not sure about taking too much off.

 

[ThomasT]

Good work- I too get the flyers, drives me nuts.
May I ask what velocity/ pellet and weight/ reg pressure you're using? I've done the polishing, experienced all weights and style of .177 pellets- and get good results, but most of my other similarly priced .177 rifles just shoot more consistently. I want to use the FX for FT- have a saber tactical stock, hawke scope- it should be more consistent than it is .....

Hello Oakhonor,

My settings are:
FPS: 770
Regulator: Medium
Hammer Spring: 14
Pressure: 110
I am shooting JSB Exact Monster 13.43

Like you, the flyers are driving me crazy. If I can get rid of all but one on a card then I will be a happy shooter

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[ThomasT]

Thomas!
Did you happen to note if both pushed pellets were of the exact same diameter before the pushes? The second one could be slightly smaller in diameter than the first?
Just a suggestion as it sounds like you did a great job.
I had done the exact same thing with a .22 liner but made sure that the second slug (not pellet) was of the same diameter. They both had tight spots, about eight of the to be precise with the first slug. So, I redid the mops as you did, but without much of a change, it dropped from eight to about 4 tight spots. I'm considering redoing it again but am not sure about taking too much off.

Hello Revoman,

I did check both pellets with a digital micrometer ( as best I could ) but did not check their weight. As noted earlier I did 20 strokes per 8-inches the first time. The second time I worked the tight spots, back and forth about 10 times and followed that up with 10 additional strokes in the 90% area. The Mop came out black, a lot darker than any of the original three Mops. I have not been able to do any target shooting because of the rain but hopefully I can tomorrow.

Have a great day,
ThomasT

 

[MartyMcFly]

Hello Marty,

Here is a photo showing all of the supplies. You cannot find any Burlite but CPL is what you will buy. I used 5 of the Cotton Mops, 3 to do the polishing, 1 as a pre-cleaner, and 1 as a final cleaner. I used a BUNCH of the patches before the polishing to make sure the barrel was completely clean. I ran 1 down the barrel after each of the first and second polishing to clean out residue and then a BUNCH after the polish to do a final clean. This is really very easy to do but takes a bit of time. I did 20 strokes for each of the 8-inch sections and I simply put blue tape on the Dewey Cleaning Rod at 8 inches, then 16 inches and finally at 24 inches. At 24 inches the tip of the Mop DID NOT come out of the muzzle end of the barrel.

Hope this will help,
ThomasT
View attachment 272375

Thanks Thomas, sure is helpful!
-Marty

 

[john8]

Great thread, am about to embark on polishing my rifle barrels. The more I learn the less likely I'll avoid mistakes, can't wait to see the results. Has anyone noted a speed increase?

 

[Fuciliere]

What's the difference between JB compound againts a rubbing compound use for cars?

 

[ThomasT]

What's the difference between JB compound againts a rubbing compound use for cars?

Hello Fuciliere,

I don't know the answer to your question, but I must think it is the ingredients and the binding agent. There are so many various grinding / polishing compounds each one designed for a very specific purpose.

Have a great day,
ThomasT