Posted by Milos Brndiar on September 04, 2000 at 04:15:36:
Is it necessary or important to clean an airgun barrel from the lead
(if visible layer is present)?
Does it decrease accuracy?
If is it necessaty, how can I do that ? (I have Steyr LP1).
Thanks for your advice.
Posted by Sam on September 04, 2000 at 11:25:34:
It's doubtful if an airgun could accumulate substantial lead, but I suppose it's possible with enough soft lead pellets to affect accuracy. The safest way to remove lead is to cork the breech and pour in pure mercury. It reacts with the lead and lead/antimony/tin compounds but doesn't hurt the barrel.
No mercury? Most gunsmiths are familiar with this procedure and have mercury on hand for this purpose. Note: mercury can enter the skin through contact, so wear gloves.
Posted by RML on September 04, 2000 at 12:17:10:
One should generally stay as far away from mercury as possible, as it is
very dangerous poison! As far as I know, it is also evaporising so that
you can breath it. No help in gloves.
Posted by Sam on September 04, 2000 at 20:01:34:
RML is correct. Should you try mercury (safer to let a gunsmith do it) to remove lead in a barrel, wear a respirator. This is a last resort method, used mainly by those who shoot a lot of cast bullets in powder guns. Definitely try a good commercial solvent first.
Posted by ld on September 06, 2000 at 03:15:04:
Safest way? I would say this would NEVER be needed for an airgun barrel ... too many other safer ways. ld
Posted by RML on September 04, 2000 at 11:38:53:
There seems to be some mixed opinions about this subject.
In the user-manual of Steyr LP1 and LP10, I believe it says that it is only
neccessary to clean the barrel shooting some felt pellets. That is the way I
have normally cleaned my pistol.
But I had noticed that the rifle-people used a cleaning rod and cleaning-patches
to clean the barrel. From one of the rifle-shooters I learned to use a cleaning
rod and a patch that is big enough so that it is neccessary to use a lot of force
to pull it through the barrel. He claimed that this would clean the barrel better
than felt-pellets. The guy is a world champion, and has been shooting on top
international level for 20 years, so I believe he knows what he is
talking about, so I bought myself a cleaning rod.
Oil in air-pistol barrels does not seem to be a good idea. I have seen a posting
here at TT were a Morini pistol was not working anymore because oil had been
flowing down to the air-regulator.
Posted by Alan on September 06, 2000 at 13:19:17:
The rifle shooters are absolutely correct. I would use a string rather than a rod to pull the patch through. The only solvent to use is TSI 301. Any petroleum based solvent will destroy your seals! I also forgot to add that felt cleaning pellets are useless. If you don't believe it then shoot the pellets through the barrel and look at them. Then pull a tight patch through with TSI 301 and compare. The felt pellet will barely be dirty and the patch will be very dirty depending on how dirty your barrel is.
Posted by Randy Bimrose, Bimrose Precision Airgun Repair on September 05, 2000 at 03:15:50:
First let me say YES lead can accumulate in the bore of an airgun and it WILL affect accuracy. Now whether you use a rod or a pull thru it must be used CORRECTLY. The bore of an airgun is no more delicate than the bore of a firearm so let's dispel that myth. If either device is used incorrectly there can be damage to the bore. Both of them must be installed/removed from the bore straight out so as not to scrape/wear on the crown. If the crown becomes damaged your accuracy will be gone. Personally I use a couple of felts and push them thru the bore. They wedge against each other and make a tight seal to clean 360 degrees evenly without the tight and loose spots present with a patch. The bottom line is: use what works best for you without damaging the gun.
Posted by John Bickar on September 05, 2000 at 16:16:47:
I can't really argue with Randy because I'm not an airgunsmith, but I have never seen leading of the barrel affect the accuracy of an airgun to the extent that produces a noticeable decrease in accuracy.
I ran a couple of patches through my Hammerli a couple of months ago (for the first time in 5+ years) and they were pretty dirty, but when I had it tested by H+N in May (prior to the cleaning) it still shot sub-5mm groups. That's after about 30,000 pellets put through the barrel over the past 5 years.
Not at all like my .32 that needs to be cleaned every 10 rounds...
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