What happens if you do not clean a new smoothtwist X-barrel?

Yes if you wash and dry pellet there is more friction so it will deposit quicker , the x rifled barrel is just like any barrel and with airguns I dont clean until I get poi shift or I Have some ST I can go 5000 shots and still retain poi and some guns with dry pellets 100 shots max and u got to run a patch threw . So I think it all depends on each barrel and fit and how smooth the machining is .But I only run a patch never a brush on a PCP gun.

It may depend upon aspirations. For finest accuracy at World benchrest championship level, many/most shooters clean their barrels very regularly.

Many not only clean the barrels after each target card (25 shots to count plus up to a similar number of sighting shots with wind changes) but they may put felt cleaning pellets through during the shooting of a card. The 10 ring is 2 mm at 25 metres/28 yards and even in poor wind conditions, missing that 10 ring or failing to completely obliterate it for an X for countback with more than half the shots can make a big difference in where one is placed. Almost every shooter at that level uses .177 calibre. If cleaning fastidiously made no difference why would the world's best bother?

On the other hand if finest consistent accuracy is not wanted or required, then many barrels will give excellent accuracy for hundreds even thousands of shots as others will attest to. Furthermore, barrels which are not of highest quality and have machining marks as many do, may well benefit from the "leading strategy" often referred to on the forums. Such barrels may best be left to lead-up as they say until what accuracy they have deteriorates.

Again the top shooters only use the best pellets which are generally very clean of swarf or loose lead particles. If you like a brand that has such particles in the tin, then washing, cleaning them and possibly re-lubricating them makes sense. Otherwise those particles may accumulate in the barrel and aggregate in one or more spots resulting in subsequent shots having scratches or small grooves in the heads or delicate skirts or both. As I have shown in sm video in the past, a tiny injury to the head of a pellet can cause it to stray from a good group or even spiral . Then if a series of shots suffer the same injury to the pellet heads, even if they spiral they may still form a group but in a different place (wandering group). Then, as others may attest, a good barrel clean generally brings the group back where it should be. It takes very little time to keep a barrel clean and only a couple of shots to bring a good barrel right on song again as top br shooters prove.

With relevence to your OP, after thoroughly cleaning my .25 FX Crown with STX barrel, when new, the very first 100 yd group it shot at 100 yd went under 3/4". I keep it clean and it will shoot sub inch 5 shot groups at that range whenever conditions are excellent. Initially the barrel took over thirty patches before I was satisfied. From then on it only requires a pull though every 50 or so shots as the bore has no machining marks, having had the lands pressed in from the outside ( as clearly described in a post further down ).

Best wishes with your rifle and shooting whatever you choose to do about its cleaning routine.

Kind regards, Harry in OZ.

Shoot it. I never clean the barrel. It cleans itself.

I also never cleaned a barrel on my airguns. But Ive to clean my pouder burner after every 30 - 50 shots. I also spray every new pellet tin with a sprinkle of silicone spray. Im not able to find any deposit of lead into the airgun barrel. No matter if polygon or other barrel.

I clean my barrels whenever I feel accuracy is dropping off. One gun likes to be cleaned every 100 rounds another likes it about every 500. 

Would the gunk in the barrel act as lube and/or polish the barrel until most of it are pushed out by shooting the gun? The reason I ask is that I have a fx crown in .22 which require regular cleaning to prevent POI shift. If I lube the pellets I can shoot much longer, and the barrel will be cleaner. I did clean it when it was new as most advise on internet says. I read some has said especially on the regular smoothwist barrels they have never cleaned the barrel, and others have only done it while it was new. The manual doeas not mention anything about the need for cleaning a new gun, which I find a litle strange. Could there actually be some benefits of leaving the gunk in there?

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You're not alone. I too notice POI shift and degraded accuracy after surprisingly few rounds through my Crown. I'm currently experimenting with different cleaning technologies to see what works best and what will help the barrel break in more quickly and not require such frequent cleaning. Maybe I just have higher expectations for accuracy than many, but you're certainly not alone in having a Crown that wants to be cleaned frequently. And this is not the case, I should note, with the Lothar Walther traditional land and groove rifled barrels I own. They need to be cleaned much more infrequently. It is my hope that some combination of break-in, cleaning, and polishing out of the barrel will make this not the case. Otherwise I may contact FX and/or try buying another liner and seeing if that gets me to where everyone else seems to be, which is cleaning very infrequently. 

I would clean any new barrel as im sure the factory would leave some sort of oil coating to protect it from rust etc, i own 2 FX rifles with original st barrels and found washing and lubing the pellets keeps the barrels cleaner longer.

A shooter I trust told me he only runs a patch through when new. After that he shoots a few sabot rounds any time he thinks a barrel needs cleaning. I'm trying it with a few of my guns now. I used a few polymags the other day and it seemed to work.

Yes, do clean the new barrels. Factory shipping gunk needs to go. After that, it all depends. Clean when accuracy drops off. then take 50 or so shots to "Lead In" the barrel. So far, I've cleaned my barrels once each, when I got the gun / STX upgrade barrel. Past that, there's no powder, so no powder residue. It's only lead that wears off the pellets and possibly the release agent from the pellet swaging process. It doesn't build up very quickly if at all.

One of the Best thing about airguns is that they don't require cleaning. You should clean factory gunk out, but past that, only when accuracy drops off.

 

On my FX Streamline (Smooth Twist Barrel 500mm), Crown (Smooth Twist X Liner 600mm), & Wildcat MKII (Smooth Twist X Liner 600mm) of coarse I cleaned when new to remove anything that may have remained in the barrel from manufacturing. There is on every new air rifle I ever purchased some gunk in the barrel. I use ballistol and a patch worm kit. After that I only clean if and when I notice a abnormal change in POI grouping. For example if my FX guns are all shooting pellet on pellet for months on end @ 25 yards(which they are) and suddenly it’s noticed that my groups are 1 plus inches. Through the process of elimination I’ll check things like stock screws, scope mounts, etc., and finally possibly clean the barrel. Otherwise if they’re dime sizing or shooting tight groups I leave well enough alone. Crap pellets (IMO) anything other than JSB, Predator, or H&N affiliates dirty up my barrels much faster and I rarely use them because of that reason. Same practice goes for all other airguns I own which just so happen to all have traditional Lothar Walther barrels. Some folks don’t realize that smooth twist barrels are glass mirror smooth inside because in manufacturing the insides of them never see tooling. FX have multi-million dollar CNC machines that produce absolutely perfect barrels and liners that are totally free of burrs and imperfections, I chuckle to myself when I read that someone comments that they pollished a FX barrel by hand . They probably cause more harm then help. Just my opinion, I’ve been wrong before.

Very beautiful guns Joe!

I clean the barrel on my SL when I notice flyers....maybe 1,000 pellets?

I clean the barrel on my Crown (and WC I had) around every 400 pellets........seems to need it by then due to diminishing accuracy.

And I always put a good cleaning on any new gun before shooting it, air rifles or not.

Some folks don’t realize that smooth twist barrels are glass mirror smooth inside because in manufacturing the insides of them never see tooling. FX have multi-million dollar CNC machines that produce absolutely perfect barrels and liners that are totally free of burrs and imperfections, I chuckle to myself when I read that someone comments that they pollished a FX barrel by hand . They probably cause more harm then help. Just my opinion, I’ve been wrong before.

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I'm going to nitpick here, because I must. First, CNC doesn't assure quality, nor does the cost of the machine itself. All it takes is one stubborn little piece of swarf, a flaw in the tooling, etc and that precision can rapidly go out the window. A multimillion dollar state-of-the-art CNC machine, of whatever flavor, is no better than the operator's or tooling manufacturer's worst day. Something to keep in mind. 

Second, mirror finish may or may not truly be optimal. For example, inside a regulator, you DON'T want a mirror finish, and in fact a lot of the skill in making them is consistently achieving the correct level of polish/scratch. Why? Because those scratches help retain lubricant. Similarly, in your barrel, a perfect mirror on mirror contact between the lead and the steel can potentially result in something called vacuum welding. Without going into too much detail, essentially metals without some sort of boundary layer can cold-weld to each other, and it is a real problem in a huge variety of different and interesting applications. To be clear I'm not saying a perfect mirror bore is good or bad, I'm simply saying I don't know what you want exactly and the correct answer is non-obvious. 

Third my understanding of the Smooth-Twist manufacturing process is they start with a circular bore, which they take advantage of to (probably) rotary hone it. Either way polishing a circular bore with precision is a LOT easier than a rifled barrel, and my understanding is they polish the barrel at this stage. Then, after that, a clamping device presses or "cold forges" the barrel into its polygonal shape. This pressing process WILL affect the surface finish inside. Micro-fissures have a very real possibility of opening up depending on grade of steel, heat treat, etc. I would assume that minimizing this was part of FX's development process, and so it should be a non-issue, but defects are certainly still possible everywhere from their manufacturing end to whatever steel mill they source the raw tube stock from. Again, imperfections and batch errors are certainly possible if not probable, and you can't assume that something which was perfect as a cylinder could be significantly deformed and remain perfect as a polygon. Further FX sells these barrel liners for a mere 100$ each, which I'm very thankful for. To us, the end line user, that offers incredible versatility at an unbelievably low price. However at that low price I highly doubt FX is able to afford someone with a bore-scope spending 20 minutes on each and every barrel to ensure they are all perfect. More likely they do what most companies do which is batch testing, that is to say picking a few from each run, and check them to ensure no systemic errors. 



None of this is meant as a criticism of FX by any stretch, all manufacturers are bound to reality, I'm simply pointing out that FX is no more a guarantee of perfection than any other brand. I'd also add that there appears to be a significant minority of people on here who seem to find their STX barrels need cleaning on a surprisingly regular basis. I don't know why exactly this is, it might be that we few have higher expectations for accuracy and possibly longer ranges, or it could be that FX had an issue with some barrels. Until several of us purchase "identical" liners, install them, and test back to back it is very difficult to say whether or not the phenomenon is from the user or FX let alone determining the cause. 

My 25c (because this post was too long to be just 2c) I genuinely hope there was something of interest or use in there. 

Thanks like I said been wrong before. Very informative!

Again the top shooters only use the best pellets which are generally very clean of swarf or loose lead particles. If you like a brand that has such particles in the tin, then washing, cleaning them and possibly re-lubricating them makes sense. Otherwise those particles may accumulate in the barrel and aggregate in one or more spots resulting in subsequent shots having scratches or small grooves in the heads or delicate skirts or both. As I have shown in sm video in the past, a tiny injury to the head of a pellet can cause it to stray from a good group or even spiral . Then if a series of shots suffer the same injury to the pellet heads, even if they spiral they may still form a group but in a different place (wandering group). Then, as others may attest, a good barrel clean generally brings the group back where it should be. It takes very little time to keep a barrel clean and only a couple of shots to bring a good barrel right on song again as top br shooters prove. ............. Harry in OZ.

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Here is an example of the lead that can be deposited in a barrel to cause what I was describing above. The Sreyr br rifle had shot about 300 pellets since cleaned new. It had gone from being a tack driver shooting in the 0.1"s to 1/4" even 3/8" at 25 metres. After a proper clean it was back to tack driving. The lead may have begun depositing in the first few shots, after 50, or 150, who knows. ... but if consistent precision shooting is demanded, then the 20 seconds it takes to pull the barrel through, or two felt cleaning pellets shot through would seem like worthwhile insurance..

Note the lead particles and pinpoint shiny stuff. Kind regards, Harry.

The only thing one can know for certain about any specific barrel is, nothing. If you don't clean it, it gets dirty. At some point it will affect accuracy. I have RAW barrel (LW I guess), that rarely needs cleaning, my Steyr barrel fouls rather quickly., but it's still new. I have a Crown with the new X barrel. It fouled very quickly at first, now it seems to have settled down to a less frequent basis. It will never shoot with the RAW and Steyr match rifles, but I had no such expectation. I don't think that is due to the liner itself though, the barrel system just has too many parts. I shoot washed and lubed pellets, and I think that generally helps. 

However, I`m still back now from a shooting session with my Huben K1 (V3). Before I was shooting, I cleaned the barrel first time and get some dirt out from barrel. Of course I was also shooting weeks before and get allways some good results regarding the accuracy.

The shooting today was awfull. No wind all was o.k but I got the worst results today with the Huben !!!! I don`t understand. The groups in 55 yards range more than 2" !!!

Heeeeelp, Im disappointed and perhaps I will stop now with airgun shooting because I dont see any progress and I feel me like the biggest dumbass !

joeKool brings up some good ideas and opinions and STO's comments and the way he explained it certainly deserves a + Accuracy. 

"What happens if you do not clean a new smoothtwist X-barrel?" It could affect your accuracy a little, a lot, or not at all. It depends on YOUR barrel, what velocity you shoot at, and certainly the pellets you shoot. I once bought a few tins of $4.95 CHP's (Crossman Hollow Points) from Wally World just to try in my HW springer. Beyond the deformed skirts, the head sizes were from "drops in the barrel" to "can't even push it in". They were filthy to touch and when I ran a patch through the bore it wasn't pretty. After 100 shots I put em on a shelf where they still are.

It always makes sense to initially clean your barrel. There are a lot of ways, but in the end a snug fitting patch should come out clean. Using accuracy as a guide is good, but a lot of things can affect that. If you find your groups are a little wider than usual, and you clean the barrel, and they tighten back up, well there you have it.

Thanks like I said been wrong before. Very informative!

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Thanks mate!