polishing the leade on a Benjamin 392

[RBQChicken]

Not sure which gate to post this to - feel free to relocate.

The leade (where the rifling begins) on my 392P is a well defined ledge.  You can load a pellet and push it in with your finger easily, but when you go to seat it with the bolt there’s some real resistance.

The gun shoots well with JSB 18 grainers, but scatters many other pellets.  It has kind of a loose bore and I reasoned that it shoots JSB’s well because at 5.52 mm they are a little bigger than many pellets .

Following that reasoning I tried H&N FTT’s in 5.53 mm, and they were really hard to seat with the bolt and they didn’t shoot well at all. 

I’m thinking the pellets are getting torn up a little at the leade and found this article:

https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=97694.0

I'd like to try polishing the leade like this guy did, but I’d like to hear if others have done this with their 392’s.  A few of the responders in the article said they were going to try it but no one ever followed up to say they did it and report on the results.

Has anyone else tried this?  How did it go?  Any other tips on how to do it?   Thanks.

[Mole2017]

Me too! I picked one up at a yard sale and found it to be somewhat less accurate than my CFX. Careful examination determined that there was an edge at the beginning of the rifling that was shaving pellet skirts here and there, i.e. not uniform.

My first idea was I needed to make some sort of tool to chamfer that edge, but I haven't pursued it. So, I'll stay tuned...

[anti-squirrel]

I haven't tried the task on my 392- all it needed was cleaning the muzzle from overspray, but I think I'll break out the magnifying glass and give the leade a going over.

If I was going to soften up that edge, I'll let you know what I use, though I'll add pellets cycle pretty well- it wasn't always that way so maybe the leade got a little polished from cycling harder pellets.