barrel conditioning

[Baggawind]

I,d like your views/ findings folks. How many pellets does it take to re-lead a barrel after cleaning ? I,m still having problems with this CZ barrel. When I tested it last week it hadn,t been cleaned, having put only JSB through it. But, without cleaning, I tried some H&n Sniper Mediums through it and the results were amazing - cloverleaf at 45yards. That was until everything went tits up for reasons i,ve explained elsewhere . Now today I cleaned the barrel on so called experts advice because I wanted to stick to the Snipers . " Experts" say that barrels should be cleaned every time you change pellet brands because of different levels of antimony in the lead. Some say it takes only 20 or so pellets to re-lead a barrel , others say 1 or 2 tins. So which is it ? I put 50 or more through the CZ today and the accuracy simply wasn,t as good as it was last week, without cleaning. I really would like to get this rifle shooting straight otherwise its just a waste of cabinet space ( and Money ).

[Gambo]

Just to upset the applecart, and put a fly in the ointment, I don't think there's a definitive answer Mel, as all barrels (and barrel/pellet combinations) are different.

I'd concur that when changing pellet brands it's preferable to put a few shots through before any serious accuracy testing is done....or if you want to be really anal, then a barrel clean instead. Personally, I think 20-30 shots is sufficient for a change of ammo.

I've also had rifles that like very clean barrels, and need to be pulled through every 150 shots or so or accuracy suffers.......then on the other hand I've had rifles which have produced poor groups just after being cleaned, and then needed to leaded-up again before accuracy returned.

One the whole though, I'd suggest that as long as you are sticking to one quality brand of pellet though a quality barrel, not much in the way of cleaning is necessary for the vast majority of rifles...but like I said, there are exceptions....you just need to known the intimacies of each of your barrels/rifles. 

[Baggawind]

You know I never bothered with cleaning barrels until I started reading stuff on various forums. I think i,ll go back to JSB,s and lead it in with those as they are easier and cheaper to obtain. I,ll save the Snipers for what they are intended for - RATTING . Bloody airguns 

[airgunnut]

Have you ever lapped a barrel?
You can do a mild version with the vfg cleaning intensive felts and the bore cleaner (ultra fine grinding paste) if you use a rod and the felts/paste you lap the high spots in the barrel

[Baggawind]

Yes, many times , using a lead plug fitted to a cleaning rod covered in Solvol Autosol. This CZ barrel doesn,t appear to have any tight spots , only a tight choke. I haven,t tried many brands of pellets so far so i,ll just try leading it up with JSB,s .

[Gambo]

CZ barrels are reputed to be very very good indeed....so much so many of the world's top FT shooters have them machined to fit their competition rifles.

Have you tried going down to a smaller head size of pellet Mel?

[21grains]

For Hunting I never clean Barrel, only use H&N Cuda's 21.14

For Bench Rest Pull wet Patch w/KryTech(Pellet Lube) not to mix Oils, Than One dry Patch, use H&N Cuda's Lubed w/KryTech. That all I do and It's than
good for around 75 Shot's. on last Card it start's to Wander and have to chase POI around in last 5 or so Targets. POI goes around to Right like Rifeling and I have to chase POI on every Shot when POI goes away after 75 or so. Every Gun/Barrel is different. So don't go by My Results You have to figure it out for Your Kit and Pellet, Most important thing I've learned is Don't forget to use the right Head Size for your Barrel. Mine is 5,52 and 20.8 gr. Cuda's are the Ball's in My Kit.....Franky

[rabbit sniper]

I never clean a barrel and stick to 1 pellet. A guy at the club bought the same brand of pellet (superdomes) same batch etc opened his new tin and couldn't even hit the target never mind get a group. All the pellets looked spot on but there was a tiny dent on the tin so he bought another tin of that same batch and full mag pellet on pellet so out of curiosity filled the mag with the first and couldn't hit a barn door so passed them to the guy next to him and he had no problem with them. He continued with the new tin and stayed on tune all afternoon.

[Baggawind]

Well, after several attempts at getting the CZ barrel to shoot straight it looks like i,ve cracked it. I did a bit more lapping of the choke and shortened the barrel by 3mm to get rid of a very tight spot then re-crowned it. This morning , at the indoor range at the farm , I put in a 6mm C-to-C group at 50 yards , equal to the little Kozak . Happy with that.

[Gambo]

Good to know the CZ tube is now giving the beans.

I've only got one CZ barrelled rifle, a very early S200, and that gives phenomenal accuracy with 5.52 JSB's.