RAW Rapid 600 shots never cleaned !

Congrats on the new rig! You may need to stretch it out a bit to see the effects of a good cleaning.

What type of barrel came with your RAW? I'm curious if Martin is still using the Poly barrels...

I usually shoot thousands of pellets before thinking about cleaning the barrel. To me, it is overrated;that said, it is easy enough to do, but only if your accuracy starts to falter.
Also, after cleaning, accuracy may be worse...until the barrel gets a little "dirty".
All barrels are different,you have to learn what helps.
Poly barrels: Thirty years ago, I was reading about how they were used in German PB pistols. One of the reasons they were used was because they needed Less cleaning.

With my .22 RAW barrel cleaning matters much more with slug accuracy than pellets I also had my barrel professionally polished.

I rarely clean my barrels on pellet shooters. When I do I use Balsitol one pass to soak, then dry patches and quit when the patches are just gray. Squeaky clean has proved not worth it.
Slug shooters get cleaned every 4-500 shots. They tell more drastically than pellet barrels

In my experience, a good barrel shooting good pellets should need cleaning only rarely. I believe the best strategy is to clean only when accuracy falls off. My experience is with standard power rifles shooting pellets. High power and slugs may be different. But, when I compare it to my RF rifles, I see similar results. I have some RF barrels that very seldom need cleaning (shooting good quality sub-sonic match ammo).

I doubt that you posters are competition shooters, but if you are, I'll bet you clean your barrels frequently because dirty barrels DO affect accuracy. I've demonstrated this time and again with actual tests. If you're a plinker or hunter, it shouldn't matter much to you, but in a competition match, the pellet strike being off just a few thousanths of an inch could mean winning or losing. The first pic shows a typical wet (Ballistol) patch pulled through a barrel after 100 shots. I see this on almost all of my guns, many worse because I see a lot of lead flakes on the first patch. The second pic shows accuracy before and after cleaning. Run your own tests then you decide. For my 6 fpe guns like my FWB300S or Steyr LP2, they don't get dirty near as fast so I may not clean them as often.

I always start with a clean barrel, but i have to admit that some times i can run several tins thru it before i go home, and really i should do a on bench clean, i have all the stuff for it right there in my kit.

Cleaning a barrel is so easy to do I don't see why you wouldn't try it and see if it makes a difference in your PCP.

I never clean my airguns when I buy them.
I shoot a few hundred shots and only clean them if accuracy is not good.

If you ever want to give it a good scrub, just pull the barrel. 3- 3mm grubs & a indexing mark for port alignment when reinstalling. I would 1/4 fold a few patches & run 3 back to back all in barrel at same time with your Ballistol & then same with dry patches & the latter done twice. Use carbon or oak dowel & just push em thru.

blackdog899 said:

I was finding that not the case for air. Little tiny breech, baffles or air spaces on the other end.
When shooting real guns say breaking in a barrel, working up a load, changing rim fire brands I cleaned .
Pop out bolt , slide in chamber protector and rod it. Used bore snakes also.
Got a tool from Utah Air with my RAW 1000X it’s a pull through like that patch um can’t think of name.
Anyway push in from muzzle thin string will show in breech put patch on and pull back through that was easiest so far
but just realized that might not be the case where the actual barrel end is not at end.
Oh so I did clean the raw to check after groups , haven’t got to shoot yet

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I use a patchworm and a drinking straw to get past the voids in the mods and shrouds . Makes it really easy .

I mostly use an Otis pull through on my PBs. Works great on simi-autos as well . And my .22lr semis I use the Otis .17 cal pull through , it's small , and never have to tear it down or clean from the wrong end .

Gear_Junkie said:

Congrats on the new rig! You may need to stretch it out a bit to see the effects of a good cleaning.

What type of barrel came with your RAW? I'm curious if Martin is still using the Poly barrels...

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RAW rifles have traditional lands and grooves rifling in .177 and .20cal. All .22cal and up have polygonal rifling.

Some of my guns have had 5K + pellets through them without cleaning, to me a good barrel shouldn't need to be cleaned on a regular basis, all my barrels are polished which to me helps with both accuracy and lead fouling.

Please let me know when cleaning the barrel is bad . I use balistol . It is easy like using a turn signal no thought just habit .

UDABEGGER said:

Please let me know when cleaning the barrel is bad . I use balistol . It is easy like using a turn signal no thought just habit .

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HAHAHA my wife mentions the turn signal when i don't use it when no one is around to see it .

beerthief said:

HAHAHA my wife mentions the turn signal when i don't use it when no one is around to see it .

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Good woman !