Barrel polishing by pellets

Is it a FX stx barrel?

I used flitz on a cleaning swab(cotton) cleaning is much easier and accuracy has gotten better. I also can go a lot longer between cleanings. 

Hi,

Do you think that shooting 50 pellets through the barrel and then cleaning the bore deeply can lead to bore polishing after, e.g. 10 cycles of such a process? I am talking about non abrasive method - just pure lead.

I am asking because my barrel tends to foul really fast in the choke area. I was thinking about pulling a felt pellet with JB Bore Bright through the entire barrel but I wonder if it can damage my bore.

Thanks a lot!

Mod edit: Moved to General Discussion forum

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NO .... lead that sloughs off does so due to friction, be it a tight spot in bore or surface finish roughness. THIS IN NOT A UNIFORM BORE and IMO accuracy will suffer.

Abrupt rifling within leade shaves leads off & it too gets smeared into bore every sequential shot furthering the "Fouling" process.

The "BURNISHING" of lead evenly over the entirety of the bore would be called seasoned. Tight spots and rough spots ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND ... lol

Lapping or just simply light abrasive scrubbing will at minimum reduce the tight spots a bit and generally improve the surface finish.

Lead, even harder lead alloys with antimony, is vastly softer than steel and will do nothing to smooth out a rough bore or one with a restriction. Of course a choke is a deliberate restriction and you don’t (usually) want to enlarge it. And you won’t with J-B unless you make it your life’s mission. In fact it’s too fine for some types of barrel smithing operations.

So if all you need is to reduce the sort of fine surface fretting that tends to strip off lead from pellets as they ride through, give it a go with a good cleaning rod. Work from the breech end to avoid scraping the cleaning rod against the crown, and give it 100 strokes, loading a fresh patch (or cleaning pellet) every 20 or so strokes. Avoid exiting the muzzle. Let the patch get right up to the end so you get all of the choke but don’t let it come out. I clamp a stop in place.

I like to precede all this by pushing through a few pellets to get a feel for how much resistance there is when it’s in factory form. Then after working it with the polishing compound, I clean the bore well and push through a few pellets again to see if it has improved noticeably.

Just a quick anecdote, a couple of weeks ago I was working with a pre-release version of a new PCP. After some baseline testing, I pulled the barrel to inspect it. As expected of a budget model, the bore was pretty rough. After a thorough deburr and polish, the velocity increased by 30fps (less friction) and accuracy substantially improved. I never touched the HPA internals and the hammer spring tension was locked in. All of it was from the polishing.

In my experience, JB Paste is good for getting the barrel clean, but it's not going to fix crappy machine work. It may help with extremely fine imperfections from the rifling cutting process, but maybe no more than simply shooting it. A real lapping, in which a lead lap is cast to the bore and then used with a lapping or polishing compound is different, and can definitely improve (or ruin) a barrel, depending on the skill of the person doing it. For most of us, if we have a barrel that doesn't shoot, or, doesn't shoot long due to extreme fouling, then it may have problems that can't be fixed by just aggressive cleaning methods. I've had two barrels replaced under warranty during the last year. They were both LW barrels with poor machine work. 

Have yet to do the JB polishing to an airgun but have done it to several PBers with good results. Pullung a patch though after and before the polish was a world of difference. I used a mop with just a touch of Kroil and a bunch of JB( have used flitz also) and a 100 strokes. Son has done this with several airguns with good results. Thing is to be reasonable, and where that is I don't know, with when to stop. That is the number of 100 stroke treatments.

You can use JB until your arm falls off and not worry about damage to the barrel. It's going to primarily clean, and will do some topical polishing. It's like using a fine rubbing compound on your car, and worrying about cutting through the metal. It won't. 

It even smells like rubbing compound for your car... . Maybe it is?