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I never need to clean my barrel -- am I the only one?

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S

stovepipe

Member
May 13, 2024
242
230
Idaho
I've got an FX Maverick Sniper 30 Cal shooting NSA 54.5gr slugs through an FX Smooth Twist Superior Heavy barrel (1:18 twist rate). I cleaned the barrel when new and again after about 200 rounds through it. My muzzle velocity is approximately 950fps (don't know for sure because I can't trust any of the chronographs I have). I inspect the barrel every few hundred rounds to see if it needs cleaning. The barrel is always shiny clean with just a minuscule lead flake here or there left from the previous shot. I don't clean or lube my slugs. The NSA's always come with a lot of thin bits of Lead slag on them which I just blow away or flick off with my finger as I load the magazines. I've only got about 1200 rounds through this barrel, but so far I've had no need to clean it after the first 200 rounds.

Am I the only one that doesn't have to clean my airgun barrel?

stovepipe
 
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My gun barrels get cleaned about once a year. They're all Original Smooth Twist barrels (pellets only) & have a reputation for extremely low maintenance. I'm surprised actually to hear that yours haven't required it yet especially since you're shooting slugs. Everything I've read here re: shooting slugs indicates that barrels will need more frequent cleaning as the slug's tighter fit & more barrel contact creates more debris. Consider yourself lucky so far, I guess. You'll know when it's required as accuracy will start to suffer. Until then, keep slinging lead! Have a great holiday weekend.
EDIT: I should mention that my "cleaning" doesn't involve brushes. Just "pull-throughs" & patches.
 
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"Crickets" ... a Slang term for being quiet when something happens in there otherwise loud & verbal existence.

So to say ... Suspect Crickets, meins don't expect to hear many agreeing with you, as most DO periodically clean or wipe down there barrel bores especially shooting Slugs :unsure:
 
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Clean your barrel?

You mean UNSEASON IT just so you can shoot another 100-200 pellets through it to season it again?

I think cleaning your barrel is an excuse, a scapegoat, shooters compensation if you will.

Funny some people will swear you need 100-200 pellets to season their barrel, while others will swear they need to clean their barrel every tin. Probably more placebo than anything else...

-Matt
 
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Stubbers said:
He's just trolling you. (Motorhead, not Gerry, lol)

I don't really clean my barrels, been 5 years in pcps and its a non-issue to me. I think many people will chime in that they don't clean their airguns barrels religiously.

-Matt
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When my Cricket holds a dime size group at 50yd, why clean. Haven't cleaned my Cricket 1 or Cricket 2 in years. Three shot 1 hole groups many times at 25 yds. Maybe I am lucky, but have a friend that shoots way more then me, he never cleans the barrel. He shoots many 1 hole 30 yd groups with his Cricket and Vulcan. Had a RAW didn't clean barrel in 10 yrs or so same story. Stubbers we may be different. lol
 
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I can typically go a couple thousand pellets before I may need to clean. The old adage of cleaning if the groups start to open up does generally ring true in my experience. But it's not often at all. However, I typically stick with one ammo choice for each gun after I found what works and this does seem to help immensely. I've found that if I switch ammo I will often have to clean the barrel if going back to the original ammo because the groups will have opened up. I assume this is because the different pellets changed how the barrel was leaded. Slightly different head size, different hardness of lead, etc. So I greatly avoid changing ammo since this almost guarantees the need to clean, at least for me and my setups.
 
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I've found two scenarios when barrel cleaning helps me the most.
1 - shooting slugs - especially in my EVOL .22 the barrel seems to foul pretty quickly.
2 - when testing a lot of different pellets. I find a good cleaning before and after trying a bunch of different brand and weight pellets helps a lot.

For most guns which are just pellet shooters, the rate of needing a barrel cleaning is pretty low. Again, the EVOL is the standout in that it seems to need much more frequent cleaning that all others.

Also - I've found the distance you are shooting plays into it a bit as well. For 50 yards and in cleaning doesn't seem to help too much. For 100 yard shooting I find a dirty barrel can have more effect on a group starting to spread out.
 
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