Polygonal Barrel thread, High shot count

[Florida_Man]

I have never owned an airgun with a polygonal barrel. I'm interested to hear from people who have high shot counts through one. Please share your experience.

I ordered a rifle with a LW poly barrel and will share my findings here.

I'm a firm believer in one philosophy with cleaning airgun barrels

Clean it thoroughly when you initially buy it new. Don't do anything until you lose accuracy, and its been determined its not something else first.

 

[Franklink]

I have a LW polygonal barrel in .177. By empty tins it has around 22,000 pellets through it. 

If your experience with it are anything like mine (and if we share similar thoughts on accuracy) you'll likely need to clean yours more often than it sounds like you'd like to. 

 

[Florida_Man]

I have a LW polygonal barrel in .177. By empty tins it has around 22,000 pellets through it. 

If your experience with it are anything like mine (and if we share similar thoughts on accuracy) you'll likely need to clean yours more often than it sounds like you'd like to.

Thank you, this is info I’m trying to find out. 
what is your frequency of cleaning, and is there a lengthy lead in period before accuracy is again achieved post cleaning?

 

[Nico5999]

My Air Arms S510 Ultimate Sporter in .25 has an LW poly barrel in it.

I will say, straight out of the box it needed to be cleaned around every 250 shots or so. Mind you, this was NOT a deep cleaning. Just 3 patches or so with a light CLP oil and it was back to normal. Also, I've been using the gun for 100 yd bench rest and everything is magnified at that range. I could get away with a LOT more shots inside of 75.

I wanted to extend the cleaning interval so I polished the bore with JB bore paste and Flitz. I would 10/10 recommend this to anybody who knows how to do it. It squeezed the last bit of accuracy out of the rifle and extended my cleaning interval to around 450 or 500 shots (once again, to maintain optimal accuracy at 100 yds).

IMO, Poly barrels are definitely superior to standard land and groove barrels. If you're coming from a trad barrel I think you'll like the poly.

 

[Franklink]

When new it wouldn't go more than a couple hundred shots without accuracy falling apart. Was still kinda accurate but group size would open up with a dirty barrel.

I made a couple changes at the same time in an attempt to go longer between needing cleaned. Because of changing multiple factors I'm not sure which made the difference, but I made the changes within the very first tin or two and since then I haven't seen accuracy fall apart and I'll typically shoot a full tin without any sort of cleaning. 

The early on things I did was to I JB bore paste the bore, and I started cleaning and lubing the pellets with Slick 50 One lube. I've not had the problem repeat again with those changes. After JB bore past and cleaned/lubed pellets the most I've gone between barrel cleanings is two full tins and it was still grouping well. 

With this .177 poly, first shot after cleaning goes right where it should (it doesn't seem to need any "fouling" shots post-cleaning).

All of the above is with JSB 10.34gr averaging 915fps. 

On a different note, I had a poly barrel in .22 for a completely different platform that was doing 40-55fpe with slugs and pellets and it preferred to have the bore cleaned every couple hundred shots even after JB bore paste and regardless of lube or no lube. But I think the slugs were the primary culprit there.

(edit: Nico and my experiences sound pretty similar)

 

[dizzums]

with a poly you dont got to do much cleaning, they dont hold dirt and shave lead off like regular rifling ..depends on what your shooting to im sure, but with pellets .. if it makes you feel better clean it lol ..

 

[Franklink]

with a poly you dont got to do much cleaning, they dont hold dirt and shave lead off like regular rifling ..depends on what your shooting to im sure, but with pellets .. if it makes you feel better clean it lol ..

It makes me feel better to have the pellets go where they're supposed to, so, yes I clean. 

 

[tommyb]

with a poly you dont got to do much cleaning, they dont hold dirt and shave lead off like regular rifling ..depends on what your shooting to im sure, but with pellets .. if it makes you feel better clean it lol ..

Have to say, this has not been my experience. 

I have a good accurate poly barrel on the RAW HM1000x that Martin built for me two years ago. It shoots around 940 FPS with the JSB 25g Redesigns. 

With the high velocity, in combination with the Poly barrel, I ‘always’ get a couple of patches with visible lead sediments when cleaning. My accuracy does drop off a bit after 150 rounds approximately. I use it exclusively for BR target shooting at 50 and 100 yards. I have heard from some other RAW owners that the Poly barrels do get dirty more frequently.

I would agree based on my experience, but this gun also is very accurate. No complaints! It’s easy and takes 10 minutes to clean with a few patches and definitely is worth the accuracy.

 

[Glem.Chally]

I bought a .22 unchoked poly barrel from Germany and had it machined to fit a Boss and its excellent with a wide range of pellets and slugs. Don't have super high shot count but I'd guess 3-5k through it. I cleaned it more than I do barrels these days. Got the Impact about 6 months after that so it usually gets grabbed first. 

 

[bambuino]

Somewhere Ken Hicks has a video of drill swabbing with Swab-its on in a poly barrel. I ran some JB Bore paste through mine by this method not long after receiving, as a new barrel cleaning. Just went lightly. Will prolly go this route again down the road when feel barrel needs good polishing.