After putting more than 3000 shots through my Daystate Regal .22 I decided to polish the barre to improve accuracy l. I passed a nylon brush coated with VFG bore cleaning compound 50 times .after cleaning with several patches the barrel looked mirror shining..i shot so far about 100 pellets but the accuracy is very bad 3-4 inches over 50 yards for 5 shots..Does that mean the barrel is damaged or I need to shoot more? Thanks for your input.
lost accuracy after barrel polishing
- Thread starter kmhusain52
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You may have gone too far. In the instructions for that product it states that you have to use oiled patches to remove the abrasive from the barrel, then dry patches to remove the oil. Have you done this? If so maybe you dinged up the crown a bit with the rod/joint between the rod and brush? If none of these are the issue then you just went too far.
I prefer JB non-embedding bore paste and cotton mops for polishing. If polishing it typically takes just ten passes to shine a barrel up well enough to inhibit fouling if that is the problem. If accuracy is needed I'll do ten passes first, then five each time after until satisfied. There are no shortcuts when polishing a barrel and it can take a good deal of time to do it right.
It just occurred to me you will have to go through the testing procedure again to find out which pellet/pellets it prefers again, if you haven't already.
Good luck and I hope you can find the accuracy you are looking for. John
I prefer JB non-embedding bore paste and cotton mops for polishing. If polishing it typically takes just ten passes to shine a barrel up well enough to inhibit fouling if that is the problem. If accuracy is needed I'll do ten passes first, then five each time after until satisfied. There are no shortcuts when polishing a barrel and it can take a good deal of time to do it right.
It just occurred to me you will have to go through the testing procedure again to find out which pellet/pellets it prefers again, if you haven't already.
Good luck and I hope you can find the accuracy you are looking for. John
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Thanks for your kind reply John
unfortunately , I should have done more reading- which i am doing now - rather than jumping to get the job done.the gun was doing good 0.5 inch ctc 50 yards rested , but recently opened up to 1-1.5 inches with more frequent barrel clean ups required..that's why I decided to polish it. Now i will continue shooting as i have just read in another forum that a gentleman needed 200 shots to get back to his original accuracy before lapping his barrel. Thanks again John.
khamis Husain
unfortunately , I should have done more reading- which i am doing now - rather than jumping to get the job done.the gun was doing good 0.5 inch ctc 50 yards rested , but recently opened up to 1-1.5 inches with more frequent barrel clean ups required..that's why I decided to polish it. Now i will continue shooting as i have just read in another forum that a gentleman needed 200 shots to get back to his original accuracy before lapping his barrel. Thanks again John.
khamis Husain
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I NEVER use anything aggressive to clean my barrels, just a drop of gun oil and some patches, and a copper brush for guns that shoot FMJ. Avoid anything with copper solvents in your air rifle barrel for instance, like the JB bore paste. You can do more harm than good with that stuff if you don't know what you're doing. When cleaning, always protect your muzzle crown and chamber (in powder burners especially), just the slightest damage can cause serious inaccuracy.
After cleaning, your barrel needs to be seasoned again, that's normal. Depending on the level of cleaning, that might take a few shots to even 100+. Air rifle barrels don't need much cleaning at all. I only clean my air rifles (or oil my barrels) when I store them for a longer period of time to prevent them from rusting, of when ever I see groups opening up. My advice, stop the whole polishing thing (totally unnecessary with air rifles!) and season the barrel first, and next time just use cleaning pellets, a cleaning rod, or a bore snake.
After cleaning, your barrel needs to be seasoned again, that's normal. Depending on the level of cleaning, that might take a few shots to even 100+. Air rifle barrels don't need much cleaning at all. I only clean my air rifles (or oil my barrels) when I store them for a longer period of time to prevent them from rusting, of when ever I see groups opening up. My advice, stop the whole polishing thing (totally unnecessary with air rifles!) and season the barrel first, and next time just use cleaning pellets, a cleaning rod, or a bore snake.
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I have several airguns which have over 4,500 pellets shot through them. All are as accurate as they were when I bought them. The only thing I "clean" is the suppressor, and then only occasionally. Like the old adage, if it isn't broke, don't fix it!
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Interesting that everything I mentioned is in the responses to your post on the yellow except how to use the product properly. Again I hope you it's only a matter of seasoning the barrel and maybe a different pellet. Good luck Khamis.
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Yes you are right John, facts coming from experienced people are the same with minor differences. Novices don't leave a stone unturned in search of wisdom and advise. I will update the post with following findings for others to learn.
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I polished the barrel on my Regal but with the barrel out of the action. My main focus was to smooth the breech area some because mine was really tight and pellet loading was definitely noticeable. I also worked on the remainder of the barrel as well. I used JB's Bore Paste on a oiled cotton mop. I never let the mop come out of the muzzle all the way to minimize any contact with the crown. I didn't see any noticeable increase in accuracy but it didn't hurt it either. Maybe 10-15 shots and it was back to normal.
I've switched tins of pellets and my groups would increase sometimes. If your shooting JSB 18gr beware that there are two different varieties, a thin skirt and a thick skirt. At times they seem to shoot different.
Jimmy
I've switched tins of pellets and my groups would increase sometimes. If your shooting JSB 18gr beware that there are two different varieties, a thin skirt and a thick skirt. At times they seem to shoot different.
Jimmy
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Do the alloy pellets run cleaner than the lead? So far, I have only used lead, but was wondering if I should switch to the alloy ones?
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I am a target shooter. I shoot only JSB only using 18,15.9 and 14.3 which he likes the most. But frankly I don't know the 18 gr has differences. Thanks for your input
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JSB is known for it's softer lead compared to H&N for instance. JSB uses the same lead in all their pellets so from a cleaning perspective you won't see any differences. It's true that some brands leave more residue than others, but since lead is soft a few cleaning pellets every now and then will be sufficient to clean the barrel. Alloy pellets, different story. Depends on the composition but copper alloy will leave more residue that won't be removed with just cleaning pellets, but needs to be removed with a solvent of some sort (more so with powder burners because of the heat and gunpowder factors). It also depends on the cleaning process of the pellets during manufacturing. JSB look matt, H&N looks shiny and if you take a white rag and rub it over a few JSB pellets, you will see more residue than with H&N, and that's because they clean their pellets better than JSB. That doesn't mean it makes them more or less accurate though! JSB is known for it's accuracy, but using them will result in "dirty" barrel faster.
What Jimmy did makes sense on an air rifle (as it does on powder burners also), polishing the breech (chamber) is something that can be done on occasion, but with air rifles you never ever do that as the preferred regular cleaning method for the (especially whole) barrel. The metal used for airgun barrels is of a softer kind that that used in fire arms (and that's where the JB bore paste is made for originally) so you may end up enlarging your barrel diameter. And since the cleaning process is done with a soft velcro pellet you will eventually get parts of your barrel that are uneven in diameter when you do this on a regular basis. That's why I warned about using that stuff. It's made for removing copper and powder fouling and when used polishes (thus removes material from!) the barrel.
What Jimmy did makes sense on an air rifle (as it does on powder burners also), polishing the breech (chamber) is something that can be done on occasion, but with air rifles you never ever do that as the preferred regular cleaning method for the (especially whole) barrel. The metal used for airgun barrels is of a softer kind that that used in fire arms (and that's where the JB bore paste is made for originally) so you may end up enlarging your barrel diameter. And since the cleaning process is done with a soft velcro pellet you will eventually get parts of your barrel that are uneven in diameter when you do this on a regular basis. That's why I warned about using that stuff. It's made for removing copper and powder fouling and when used polishes (thus removes material from!) the barrel.
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Word of warning.
In some suppressor designs, it is inadvisable to use so-called "cleaning pellets" (these are the little felt pellets used to clean the "dust" out of an airgun barrel). They sometimes "stick" in the suppressor with predictable results when a pellet is then fired. If possible, the suppressor or its cones, should be removed before using them.
In some suppressor designs, it is inadvisable to use so-called "cleaning pellets" (these are the little felt pellets used to clean the "dust" out of an airgun barrel). They sometimes "stick" in the suppressor with predictable results when a pellet is then fired. If possible, the suppressor or its cones, should be removed before using them.
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I made the assumption that this was somewhat obvious (my bad), but yes Alan you are absolutely right! Shrouded barrels and silencers (or even some muzzle brakes) can cause problems with cleaning pellets because when they leave the barrel, they expand. Thanks for the additional info.
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Just an update on the situation. Based on the numerous recommendations to recrown the barrel I decided to do that. I haven't done that before but frankly i was out of hope to be able to use it again. Ihave learned the lesson to read and read again before doing any task and very cautiously I recrowned it. The 40-50 initial shots showed some progress and better groups. I passed many Ballistol wet and dry patches.Today I continued putting 30 more shots with obvious progress until I obtained the old days lovely 0.5 inch ctc groups at 50 yards. I was told that the barrel's pellet preference might change and that was true.I used to get the best groups using JSB Express 14.3 gr., today the JSB Heavies 18.1 gr. gave the best results.
I am very pleased to recover my damaged barrel and that was not possible without your advise , comments , vast knowledge and guidance of you all. Thank you. Khamis
I am very pleased to recover my damaged barrel and that was not possible without your advise , comments , vast knowledge and guidance of you all. Thank you. Khamis
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Sounds like you damaged the crown while polishing. If you use a cleaning rod, always make sure you protect your crown. Since almost all PCP's don't allow you to clean the barrel from the breech/chamber side you have to push the rod down the barrel from the business end, and there's where damaging the crown becomes a problem if you pull it out all the way, and then back in. It's better to use bore snakes with PCP's IMHO, in stead of cleaning rods.
Good to hear your rifle shoots well again. Wise lessons are learned here.
Good to hear your rifle shoots well again. Wise lessons are learned here.
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When cleaning I use the weed trimmer string and feed from muzzle. I have a straw that i split lengthwise to slip into moderator. Patches soaked in balistol and then dry ones. Only takes a couple wet ones to remove lead dust.
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Be aware that most weed trimmer line has abrasive in its formulation. Learned this while researching using it as 3D printer filament. Nylon 3D printer filament is pure.
Thurmond
Thurmond
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