What is your pellet cleaning process?

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Meanadidas

Meanadidas

Member
Mar 28, 2021
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South Carolina, United States
I empty all tins of the same pellet into a microfiber cloth and roll them out where I can see each one. I inspect them for deformity, crushed skirts, dented heads, etc. After defects are removed, I grab the cloth by 2 ends and slide the pellets back and forth against each other. This action seems to help remove lots of lead burs, flashing, dust ,etc. Afterwards I place them in a plastic container I get from Dollar General ($1 for 2pk). I fill the container with hot water and Dawn soap and agitate lightly with my hands for a few minutes. After that they go into a ultrasonic cleaner with Greased Lightning solution for 5 min. I remove them and place into a stainless strainer where I rinse them with cold water. They are then placed onto shop towels with cotton cloth underneath to air dry. I cover with another shop towel to keep hair, dirt, etc from falling on them. When they are dry, I place a handful at a time into a freezer bag with couple drops of FP-10 and lightly slide around. From here they go into a container where I label them with pellet specifics. 

Depending on the brand, type, etc I may do some sizing, rolling, and weighing but I am no too crazy with it since I do not shoot competitively, just sport shooting.

I'm curious to see what methods some of you have!
 
I like to clean mine with high speed air. My process is to load them into my rifle and they get clean on their way to the target... ;-)

Joking aside, I've seen no discernible improvement in accuracy from cleaning with high-quality pellets. At one time I thought I did, but the experiment was not repeatable, so I'm chalking it up to some variable I wasn't aware of. Have you tested for accuracy with and without cleaning? 

I've also tried FP10 as well as Lemon Pledge, and I think having some sort of lube keeps the barrel cleaner, longer, but it may not matter so much what is used.

My cleaning process was to use a rotary tumbler with water and dish soap. Tumble for 15 minutes, then drain and dry pellets in a fruit dehydrator. This system worked well and did not seem to damage skirts or have any deleterious effects.

GsT
 
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When I was competing, I would empty a handfull into a plastic strainer, one that can be had at the doller store. Lower into a shallow bowl of hot water and dish soap, swirl around with a soft unused paint brush so no damage would be done. Then rinse with cool water and spread out onto some paper towels to dry. At one time I was rounding and expanding the skirts with my home made skirt expanding device, could do about 50 or so at a time. This also allowed me to inspect and throw out any serious damaged pellets. I use a clean cotton cloth spread out with a generous spray of beeswax furniture polish, then tumble gently until all the pellets are coated. This takes about 5 min for about a 100 pellets then package them for later use. I found the beeswax does not build up and does not evaporate, best of all is not a liquid as my springer did not like any liquid lubes that could cause dieseling. The beeswax also lasted much longer, I have pellets that are over 5 yrs old and look new. I no longer compete so I skip the pellet skirt expanding as I have no advantage with my current supply of AA 8.4 gn pellets. However if I find damaged skirts then it is easy to add that step back in.
 
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I have lots of brands and types of pellets and some are DIRTY. I would not shoot it in its current form!

With JSB being so popular and unavailable for many for likely a long time, finding other brands whose manufacturing and picking process is not as pristine is becoming necessity. Tuning a airgun is a science in itself and removing the variables with ammo by cleaning helps to appease the mind?

I would agree that JSB probably doesn't need a cleaning. Crosman however has two or 3 extra pellets worth of dust in every tin. 😉 H&N, while still great quality, has a good bit of lead debris. I too believe that lightly oiled pellets help preserve barrel and seal life. 

But then if I didn't have to clean pellets, I would probably miss my methodical routine. 😔 Something about a handful of small, soft lead projectiles in the hands...
 
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The problematic barrel is from an Artemis PP700SA... both .177 and .22 are crap. Never again with Artemisssss

Got the .22 to shoot a couple pellets and washing makes no difference other than to give me false hope.
Click to expand...


interesting, maybe you can try a polished and crowned barrel for the PP700 from Airgunarcheryfun.Ca? I got one and since I got lucky and have no issues with the stock 177 barrel I never bothered to put it on. 




to OP: ultrasonic cleaner?!?!? That’s pretty serious cleaning there. I tried washing and didn’t really feel like it did much. But I do use pledge to wax the pellets which kind of act as washing too. 
 
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The problematic barrel is from an Artemis PP700SA... both .177 and .22 are crap. Never again with Artemisssss

Got the .22 to shoot a couple pellets and washing makes no difference other than to give me false hope.
Click to expand...


interesting, maybe you can try a polished and crowned barrel for the PP700 from Airgunarcheryfun.Ca? I got one and since I got lucky and have no issues with the stock 177 barrel I never bothered to put it on. 




to OP: ultrasonic cleaner?!?!? That’s pretty serious cleaning there. I tried washing and didn’t really feel like it did much. But I do use pledge to wax the pellets which kind of act as washing too.
Click to expand...

I am considering the barrel from Wes but he's appears to be out of stock at the moment. Rather have Motorhead machine a barrel to fit.
 
Upvote 0
The problematic barrel is from an Artemis PP700SA... both .177 and .22 are crap. Never again with Artemisssss

Got the .22 to shoot a couple pellets and washing makes no difference other than to give me false hope.
Click to expand...


interesting, maybe you can try a polished and crowned barrel for the PP700 from Airgunarcheryfun.Ca? I got one and since I got lucky and have no issues with the stock 177 barrel I never bothered to put it on. 




to OP: ultrasonic cleaner?!?!? That’s pretty serious cleaning there. I tried washing and didn’t really feel like it did much. But I do use pledge to wax the pellets which kind of act as washing too.
Click to expand...

I am considering the barrel from Wes but he's appears to be out of stock at the moment. Rather have Motorhead machine a barrel to fit.
Click to expand...


oh that would be very interesting, please let us know how it goes. I live really close to him and would be cool to get something made by him.
 
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I will add that I have washed pellets in the past, not so much anymore with casting. I used naphtha gas (Coleman stove fuel) when washing as it evaporates quickly. I use two pickle jars, one to swish and another to pour the fluid into for the next wash. I will say there is always lead dust removed with every cleanings along with any wax or coatings. So, a lube of some sort needs to be applied afterwards to prevent oxidation during storage. I do still have the jars and on occasion I will wash some JSBs to remove the loose lead particles that cling to the bottom when the fluid is pour into the other jar.
 
Upvote 0
The problematic barrel is from an Artemis PP700SA... both .177 and .22 are crap. Never again with Artemisssss

Got the .22 to shoot a couple pellets and washing makes no difference other than to give me false hope.
Click to expand...


interesting, maybe you can try a polished and crowned barrel for the PP700 from Airgunarcheryfun.Ca? I got one and since I got lucky and have no issues with the stock 177 barrel I never bothered to put it on. 




to OP: ultrasonic cleaner?!?!? That’s pretty serious cleaning there. I tried washing and didn’t really feel like it did much. But I do use pledge to wax the pellets which kind of act as washing too.
Click to expand...

oops
 
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