Video Guide to All Things Barrel Polishing

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Nico5999

Nico5999

Member
Apr 5, 2015
430
497
New York, United States
americanairgunner.com
Hey y'all,

Before RMAC '21, I took the plunge and polished the bore on my virtually brand spankin' new Air Arms S510. It scared the bejeezus out of me and I was terrified I would ruin the gun. It ended up being one of the single best things I've done to improve an air rifle and I've done several more since.

There's a lot of great info on this forum and in other places, but I really had to sift through it for weeks to find everything I thought would be relevant. So, since I've linked up with the great folks at American Airgunner, I have made - what I think - is the definitive barrel polishing guide at least for those new to the practice. I think someone already threw the vid up in a different topic, but I wanted to post it here for reference for anyone who is interested in the process.

Hope y'all enjoy!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeSlwGDb7AQ


 
  • Like
Reactions: _CTAIRGUNNER_
Would the process change in any way when polishing FX original Smooth Twist barrels (being that just the last few inches are rifled)? My Royale 500 & Boss are both GREAT shooters but you mentioned you've never had a gun shoot worse from polishing. Have you personally ever done these type of barrels & what was the result? BTW, I do not target shoot other than sighting in, I'm a hunting/pesting only type of guy, but if long distance accuracy would improve even by a hair I'll put in the work! 
 
Upvote 0
Would the process change in any way when polishing FX original Smooth Twist barrels (being that just the last few inches are rifled)? My Royale 500 & Boss are both GREAT shooters but you mentioned you've never had a gun shoot worse from polishing. Have you personally ever done these type of barrels & what was the result? BTW, I do not target shoot other than sighting in, I'm a hunting/pesting only type of guy, but if long distance accuracy would improve even by a hair I'll put in the work!
Click to expand...

Gerry, I haven’t watched the video yet(I will), but I wanted to let you know I’ve cleaned and polished barrels and a lot of FX liners and I have yet to get a complaint. If a barrel can be removed easy enough, I bypass the pull thru’s and always place them on a padded vice and run the cleaning rod thru them.

Everyone has their own concoctions and tooling to do the job, but mine is a mix of my own that I’ve just experimented with which consists of-

Tools-

Padded Vice

a ball bearing, single piece, Dewey rod

Brass brushes

mops and sponges.

Cleaning consumables-

O’Riley’s brake cleaner

Goo Gone

Acetone or Isopropyl Alcohol

JB Bore Brite

Metal Wax

FP10.

The initial lessons I received I give all credit to two people- NERVOUSTRIGGER and THE KNIFEMAKER for offering their expertise. These two guys know all about barrels like no other! 

Now with all that said, I’m not locked in to my methods. If I watch this video and see something I could add to my repertoire I will.

Lastly, I know of the accuracy out of your Royale and your Boss, from what you’ve described to me in the past. If that has been working for you 100%, then don’t change your system. After all, it’s all about having no doubts and having the utmost confidence in your guns performance right before you squeeze the trigger, right?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phildog59 and Bobbybeef
Upvote 0
Would the process change in any way when polishing FX original Smooth Twist barrels (being that just the last few inches are rifled)? My Royale 500 & Boss are both GREAT shooters but you mentioned you've never had a gun shoot worse from polishing. Have you personally ever done these type of barrels & what was the result? BTW, I do not target shoot other than sighting in, I'm a hunting/pesting only type of guy, but if long distance accuracy would improve even by a hair I'll put in the work!
Click to expand...

I personally have not polished any FX barrels and don't own any FX rifles so I don't have any first hand experience to add. 

I would say polish the bore as usual, but focus on the portion where it transitions from smoothbore to rifling. I think nervoustrig and other users advised that same thing or something similar?

If it is really singing for you, I might be tempted to leave well enough alone. Although as has been stated, its really hard to muck anything up by polishing. 

See what you can find about FX shooters polishing their stuff. I'm sure someone has done it.

Good luck!

Nico
 
Upvote 0
Very good video on barrel polishing Nic. For pellets, you couldn't ask for a better explanation. I do think if you shoot a lot of slugs, especially through a choked barrel, you'll sometimes need more than just the cleaning and polishing swab. I've found that using a brass brush in a similar manner as your cotton swab, on the last 6 inches or so of the barrel (near the crown end), helps to get the imbedded lead from the grooves. I usually lube the brass brush, and using it with the protected rod with a ball bearing handle, give it 8 to 10 strokes, never allowing the brass brush to exit the muzzle end of the barrel. After that I polish the same method as you have described.

I learned this when I was shooting a LOT of JSB KO .217 dia. 25.4 slugs from my Red Wolf HP. It was actually lights out at 990 FPS and 100 yards, as good or better than the RDM pellets. Then over time the accuracy degraded to the point of having flyers even at 50 yards. I cleaned the barrel in a normal way, shot it again, no improvement. Polished the barrel again in the usual way, no improvement. Brass brush as described above, back to the laser beam that it was... And like you said, as long as you don't allow the brush/swab to exit the muzzle, you're good to go.

One other thing I do that wasn't mentioned is I clean/polish the barrel with the breech o-ring installed. Its really tough to get all the residue out of the o-ring groove if you remove the o-ring. Then once I'm done I just replace the breech o-ring. Easy day...
 
Upvote 0
Would the process change in any way when polishing FX original Smooth Twist barrels (being that just the last few inches are rifled)? My Royale 500 & Boss are both GREAT shooters but you mentioned you've never had a gun shoot worse from polishing. Have you personally ever done these type of barrels & what was the result? BTW, I do not target shoot other than sighting in, I'm a hunting/pesting only type of guy, but if long distance accuracy would improve even by a hair I'll put in the work!
Click to expand...

Gerry, leave it alone. Unless you notice a decrease in accuracy, those older ST barrel don't need it. Maybe just do a regular cleaning about once a year, but other than that leave it alone. After you clean that ST barrel it may take 50 to 100 shots to regain the usual accuracy. This is normal, don't panic... ;)
 
Upvote 0
Very good video on barrel polishing Nic. For pellets, you couldn't ask for a better explanation. I do think if you shoot a lot of slugs, especially through a choked barrel, you'll sometimes need more than just the cleaning and polishing swab. I've found that using a brass brush in a similar manner as your cotton swab, on the last 6 inches or so of the barrel (near the crown end), helps to get the imbedded lead from the grooves. I usually lube the brass brush, and using it with the protected rod with a ball bearing handle, give it 8 to 10 strokes, never allowing the brass brush to exit the muzzle end of the barrel. After that I polish the same method as you have described.

I learned this when I was shooting a LOT of JSB KO .217 dia. 25.4 slugs from my Red Wolf HP. It was actually lights out at 990 FPS and 100 yards, as good or better than the RDM pellets. Then over time the accuracy degraded to the point of having flyers even at 50 yards. I cleaned the barrel in a normal way, shot it again, no improvement. Polished the barrel again in the usual way, no improvement. Brass brush as described above, back to the laser beam that it was... And like you said, as long as you don't allow the brush/swab to exit the muzzle, you're good to go.

One other thing I do that wasn't mentioned is I clean/polish the barrel with the breech o-ring installed. Its really tough to get all the residue out of the o-ring groove if you remove the o-ring. Then once I'm done I just replace the breech o-ring. Easy day...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words Mike! Really appreciate you chiming in regarding slugs since I literally have never shot a slug out of a single one one of my air rifles so I have no experience there. Totally blanked on what to do with the breech o-ring...oops! I keep a can of compressed air around to clean out that little groove since I typically remove it before hand, but you're right! That is a total PITA so I'll steal your way.
 
Upvote 0
I also did a bore polish on my P35 recently and I watched your video first. I also consulted other sources of information. I did not use bore mops. I tried thread on felt plugs first but they would only go in reverse if I pushed on them with a small dowel, I could not pull them out with the cleaning rod without them falling apart. A simple cleaning patch worked better for me. I also used Flitz, couldn't find my JB. I now have located it and may try again. Mops are a better idea than felt plugs for sure.

Before I polished I cleaned up the barrel port. I was surprised that there was a small lip at the barrel end of the port. I removed that and gained about 20 fps. I smoothed it also and also smoothed the leade with fine sandpaper. I also used a brass round head screw to polish the crown. After doing all this, I'm not sure the accuracy had changed. But I did gain fps. But maybe the Flitz was too fine for the first step.

My way of not letting the applicator out of the muzzle was to put a washer and a piece of 1/2 cpvc plumbing pipe over the cleaning rod to limit, effectively, it's length. I had the pipe so it cost nothing and was very effective. Washers can fine tune the length.

I think this is a good idea and plan to do my new guns in the future. My other two PCPs are shooting well and have had over a thousand pellets through them at this point so I am not currently planning to polish them. Maybe if my final results on the P35 improve I will change my mind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _CTAIRGUNNER_
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu