N/A How much to clean barrel?

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beerthief said:
"The old wives tail that brushes are fine in soft air gun barrels seems to continue no matter how much data is shared."
and this will probably go on forever .
Stan in KY.
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We all believe a lot of wives tales (or tails). When we don't know the answer there's always a wives tale (or tail) to fill the gaps in our knowledge. It's the best guess you've got when you've got nothing else. It gives us the courage to forge ahead and **** things up really good.
 
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Bedrock Bob said:
We all believe a lot of wives tales (or tails). When we don't know the answer there's always a wives tale (or tail) to fill the gaps in our knowledge. It's the best guess you've got when you've got nothing else. It gives us the courage to forge ahead and f#c& things up really good.
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Or, sometimes you have to believe what you see and experience first hand, despite some telling you that what you see and experience must be a figment of your imagination. 😂
 
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I've heard an old husbands tale that mercury will clean a rifle barrel better than anything. My father told me they plugged the barrel, filled it with mercury for a time and then worked a wet leather patch through the bore. It would strip copper and lead to clean metal.

I've used mercury to amalgamate gold. I know it grabs any metal except iron. Its a powerful reducer. It stands to reason it would work great in a barrel. I've never tried it but I'm pretty sure the old gunsmiths did it that way. At least that is the husband's tale I have believed for years.

Don't try it. It's just an old husband's tale about cleaning barrels. It's not a suggestion.
 
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I wanted to add that I have a borescope that will fit .22 unfortunately not .177. I have used the borescope to inspect many LW barrels both poly and land and groove, cz, Fx, scout. The LW barrels had the best internal finish overall! The Cz’s have been good, the Fx barrels have a lot of longitudinal fissures but shoot! Remember a super clean barrel doesn’t mean it’s a shooter!

I think the key is to adopt a cleaning regime that is specific to the barrel which is to start with a perfectly clean barrel then shoot a specific pellet and weight till accuracy falls off clean again start over with new pellet. If you shoot in Comp. This is a way to eliminate variables that can cause stress and concentration loss during a match.
 
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I used to clean my airgun barrels a lot more than I do now. I will always clean a new gun because I don't know what is in the barrel. I will clean until there is essentially nothing on a patch soaked with ballistol pulled through. But after that I wait until the barrel tells me it needs cleaned which is when it seems to shoot noticably worse. I used to think that occurs more often than I think it does not and I am probably still cleaning too much. In other words, the normal reason my guns stop shooting well is not the barrel it is ME. As I get better I clean less. But as long as you pull patches with a mild cleaner like ballistol through with a plastic device you are not going to hurt the barrel with more cleaning.
 
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From here on out I'll only use the softest cotton patches cut from well worn pink panties on my Hatsan 95. Oil of Olay for a solvent.

If even one of those deep chatter marks in that barrel were to suffer surface damage I'm sure I will miss more often. And its certain I will shoot better if I never use a rod. Instead I'll only use the finest silk thread lubricated with honeydew and kissed by the morning sun.

If a brush ever touches that wooly abomination of a barrel I will consider it ruined and beat it into a plowshare with a drilling hammer.
 
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I clean my guns often. Powder burners after every use because I want to remove all the soot and chemicals left behind as soon as possible.

Air guns are different, but I still clean mine every 500-1000 pellets. The bore is never that dirty but I just like it clean and it doesn't take more than 10 minutes anyway.

Concerning barrel damage, barrels are hardened steel. Wire brushes are made of soft steel or brass. The bore will wear out the brush, not the other way around.

One thing that will damage a bore is chrome because it's hard too. Keep chrome and other hard metals away from the bore and all will be good.
 
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