What do you guys think about polishing the interior of a springer barrel like we do with pcp's?
Your thoughts.
Your thoughts.
HW/Weihrauch Polishing springer barrels
- Thread starter MEC17670
- Start date
Any barrel that needs frequent cleaning, or whose accuracy benefits from regular cleaning, is a good candidate for polishing with a light abrasive like J-B Bore Compound.
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Honestly can't see how smoothing out rifling with a polish or whatever hurts.. ... As long as you don't get carried away by removing too much bore ...lol.
My hatsans really benefited from a deburring / polishing .
My hatsans really benefited from a deburring / polishing .
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If the gun shoots accurately, why mess with it. With the best target 22 rimfire rifles and pistols, it’s recommended to not even clean them until absolutely necessary. Nothing foreign down the bore. I use this motto with my airguns also.
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Yeah, for folks who haven't researched this or aren't careful .... yes don't mess with it.
- Others .... nothing like a polish and waxing
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I'm a big fan of the JB bore paste. I haven't had to clean my own airgun barrels after switching off Crosmans and polishing my barrels with JB.
Anytime I get a gun sent to me. I test fire it over a chrony and check it's accuracy. Then on used guns I'll run a bronze brush through it to get out any fouling. Then new or used I polish them with a few tight patches embedded with the JB.
The downside is this will remove any and all fouling, good and bad, so it often takes a couple hundred shots to get peak accuracy.
The upside is with quality pellets a polished bore might not ever need another cleaning. And a polished bore is typically more accurate.
Not an air rifle but a good example of bore polishing. I have had a Marlin bolt 22lr that's shot terribly since I got it in 2012. I've cleaned it several times, run thousands of rounds of different brands and types in between, I've pilar and glass bedded the stock. Nothing could get the gun under 3 MOA at 50yards. Last week I decided to try giving it a good scrubbing and for the first time polishing the bore with JB. The brush did not show any heavy fouling BUT OMG did the tight patch chatter all the way through the bore. It was apparent this rough bore has been my problem. After serval tight patches of JB the bore still chatters somewhat but it's alot less. The guns groups were cut in half to 3/4" at 50 yards. And there's less radical flyers and the cold bore shot is under 1" of the POA. When it was often 3" off. This was the most welcome change because it turned the rifle into a usable hunter.
That barrel was obviously machined poorly. Polishing was my last process attempted to fix the gun when it should have been my first.
YMMV
Anytime I get a gun sent to me. I test fire it over a chrony and check it's accuracy. Then on used guns I'll run a bronze brush through it to get out any fouling. Then new or used I polish them with a few tight patches embedded with the JB.
The downside is this will remove any and all fouling, good and bad, so it often takes a couple hundred shots to get peak accuracy.
The upside is with quality pellets a polished bore might not ever need another cleaning. And a polished bore is typically more accurate.
Not an air rifle but a good example of bore polishing. I have had a Marlin bolt 22lr that's shot terribly since I got it in 2012. I've cleaned it several times, run thousands of rounds of different brands and types in between, I've pilar and glass bedded the stock. Nothing could get the gun under 3 MOA at 50yards. Last week I decided to try giving it a good scrubbing and for the first time polishing the bore with JB. The brush did not show any heavy fouling BUT OMG did the tight patch chatter all the way through the bore. It was apparent this rough bore has been my problem. After serval tight patches of JB the bore still chatters somewhat but it's alot less. The guns groups were cut in half to 3/4" at 50 yards. And there's less radical flyers and the cold bore shot is under 1" of the POA. When it was often 3" off. This was the most welcome change because it turned the rifle into a usable hunter.
That barrel was obviously machined poorly. Polishing was my last process attempted to fix the gun when it should have been my first.
YMMV
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Hey Bayman,
I know you've likely heard this before:
I use 400 grit clover paste to start my cleaning process instead of JB Paste. Probably twice as coarse ...............
Run about 20/30 strokes using a patch/jag. This will not hurt the bore and shouldn't have to be done again.
I bet this cuts your groups in 1/2 once more .... since your barrel is obviously a problem.
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Thanks Kirk. A little birdie
told me about this trade secret years back. I've never tried it because I've never had a Weihrauch that might have needed anything more aggressive than the JB. But Damn if that Marlin wouldn't be a good candidate for the Clover routine. Right now it's shooting pretty much what I expect a $189 22lr to. I may leave well enough alone. When the accuracy goes south again, I'll try the Clover. I have considered using the valve grinding compound I have, but I think its 320 or 250 grit. Too coarse for my comfort.
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In my 40 years of springer experience have found that pushing a pellet or two thru with a wood dowel will tell me more about how consistant my barrel is if there is a problem. Have had to replace more than a few barrels where overpolishing got carried to far. In my experiences, I have more often found burrs on the breech and muzzle ends of the barrel causing pellet deformation rather than a barrel in need of polishing. Unfortunately the tools used to chamfer the barrels at the factory often get dull creating tiney burrs that can mess up the pellet when inserted or as it leaves the barrel. Before getting carried away with polishing the barrel, insert a pellet like it was being loaded, then push it back out from the muzzle with a long dowel carefully....look closely with a magnifying glass for any shaved edges/ surfaces on the pellet. You may need to recut or polish that loading point, not the whole barrel !! Same for the muzzle/ crown. My trick there is to use a cotton swab and insert into the muzzle and pull out slowly and carefully....look for cotton fibers hanging on inside edge of crown, or in many cases you can see/ feel the burr grabbing the cotton fibers as the swab is pulled out. Pushing a pellet all the way thru can also show shaved lead when using a long dowel to carefully push the pellet out of the barrel. Can't speak for PCP rifles as all my years of experience come from springers. Don't be in a hurry to start polishing a barrel until you know for sure you even have a problem.
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I agree one might want to check the crown, leade and slug a barrel to see where the problem might be. I should have slugged my crappy Marlin first and it would have saved me a lot of headaches. That's if there's a problem to begin with.
If there's no problem, there's no long-term harm in reseting a barrel to bare steel with in a proper scrub and a JB polish. Not sure if anyone can over polish a barrel with JB paste. It's just not that abrasive. I've never had it adversely affect a barrel. It's certainly improved the accuracy on a lot of the guns I've worked on. The only way I could see this going bad is if someone was dumb enough to wreck the crown with the rod by going in through the muzzle. At that point they'd wreck the crown dry patching.
Now you might be able to over do the clover grit but I can't say as I've never used it.
Ymmv.
If there's no problem, there's no long-term harm in reseting a barrel to bare steel with in a proper scrub and a JB polish. Not sure if anyone can over polish a barrel with JB paste. It's just not that abrasive. I've never had it adversely affect a barrel. It's certainly improved the accuracy on a lot of the guns I've worked on. The only way I could see this going bad is if someone was dumb enough to wreck the crown with the rod by going in through the muzzle. At that point they'd wreck the crown dry patching.
Now you might be able to over do the clover grit but I can't say as I've never used it.
Ymmv.
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Lots of good input to my question. I will definitely try pushing a pellet with a wooden dowel and take a good look at it.
I have an extra Hw80.22 barrel that I had cut down to 13 " trying for a faster lock time. I choose 13" because that's the length of the barrel in my Hw97k in .20 caliber. Paul Watts tuned and the gun is a laser out to 50 years, pcp type accuracy. Proven hunter
Anyway my 80 is a great ground squirrel gun , but would like to make it easier to shoot. Hence shorter barrel, faster lock time.
Why mess with good shooting gun? This gun has to be shot every day to get to a level needed to be efficient. Anything to make it easier.
I have an extra Hw80.22 barrel that I had cut down to 13 " trying for a faster lock time. I choose 13" because that's the length of the barrel in my Hw97k in .20 caliber. Paul Watts tuned and the gun is a laser out to 50 years, pcp type accuracy. Proven hunter
Anyway my 80 is a great ground squirrel gun , but would like to make it easier to shoot. Hence shorter barrel, faster lock time.Why mess with good shooting gun? This gun has to be shot every day to get to a level needed to be efficient. Anything to make it easier.Upvote 0