Didn't clean new gun barrel, now what?

[TROY]

Bought a new gun and was excited to start shooting right away. Probable 100 rounds so far have been put through it. Now I'm reading all kinds of advice about thoughly cleaning new barrel before shooting. So now what do I do? Clean barrel now and start over on break in? Just to understand, barrel break in is shooting enough pellets to put a coating on the barrel and the groupings should get more consistent?
Just trying to understand procedures that will help get the best out of my gun. Thanks for any advice.

[Sandspike]

You didn't hurt anything. If it is shootin to your satisfaction.....just keep shooting. Kinda like...if it works...don't fix it.

[TROY]

You didn't hurt anything. If it is shootin to your satisfaction.....just keep shooting. Kinda like...if it works...don't fix it.

It's not grouping good yet. But I figured that I haven't shot enough yet. Also had issue with pivot screw backing out so I went ahead and replaced the plastic washers with brass and loc tite on screw. That was done yesterday. Planing on shooting a lot this weekend so we'll see if groupings start to tighten up.

[HYspd]

clean it and keep on rollin from there..

leaving it dirty won't help it any

[Geoff]

no harm, no foul

clean her up and keep shooting.

[Roadworthy]

I'll agree with the cleaning.  If the pivot screw is a continuing problem lube both sides of the barrel where they contact the pivot washers.

If the pivot screw gets tight before grabbing the barrel the pivot washers may be too thin, allowing the shoulder of the screw to bottom out.  Select thicker washers or put a thin shim between each washer and the fork.

[wimpanzee]

Go ahead and clean it now with some bore paste or something. I like using ballistol, personally.

[nced]

You didn't hurt anything. If it is shootin to your satisfaction.....just keep shooting. Kinda like...if it works...don't fix it.

It's not grouping good yet. But I figured that I haven't shot enough yet. Also had issue with pivot screw backing out so I went ahead and replaced the plastic washers with brass and loc tite on screw. That was done yesterday. Planing on shooting a lot this weekend so we'll see if groupings start to tighten up.

Not too long ago I tuned a HW98 for a friend of my brother because the gun "twanged too much" and "it started shootin' poor groups". I tuned the gun with home turned spring guide and top hat which cured the twang/vibration, however the gun still didn't group well. Hoping that I didn't screw up something with the tune I cleaned the bore just for grinns. Here's the result........


See the two shots lower on the target? The gun owner had a 4-12 Hawke Airmax scope mounted so I tested his scope to see if the point of impact would be changed simply by shooting a group at 18 yards, then moving to 10 yards, focusing the scope and taking a couple shots using the same aim point as the 18 yard group. Well....this Airmax "only" shifted the poi about 1/4" to the right by focusing and shooting at the two distances which was MUCH better than the TWO 4-12 AirMax scopes I owned. Here's a couple scanned targets shot with the two different AirMax scopes I owned "straight from the box".........
This is the target I shot with the first Airmax without even zeroing (only checking for focus related poi shifts)....

LOL....the group was moved horizontaly about 1 3/4" to the left between the two focus distances and shooting positions.

I returned the first AirMax to Hawke and received another new scope and it also had a focus related poi shift, but much better than the first scope.......

Notice that with this scope the 10 yard poi was about 1/2" right of the 18 yard poi.
Anywhoo.....since I've never had such "poi shifting" with any other scope I used (even my $70 4-16 WallyMart CenterPoint) I kinda swore off the Airmax after (3) NEW scopes in a row "poi shifted".

Anywhoo....back on subject.......here is a pic of the first patch pulled through the bore of a NEW UN-SHOT .177 R9 I bought years ago.........

LOL....the price tag gives you an idea of how long ago that was! 

[nced]

I'll agree with the cleaning.  If the pivot screw is a continuing problem lube both sides of the barrel where they contact the pivot washers.

If the pivot screw gets tight before grabbing the barrel the pivot washers may be too thin, allowing the shoulder of the screw to bottom out.  Select thicker washers or put a thin shim between each washer and the fork.

Good points! While so far I've never had a R9 with barrel shims that were too thin.............every break barrel R9 I've bought came from the vendor with the pivot bolt tension adjusted way too tight. An excessively tight pivot bolt will accelerate shim wearing which makes for frequent pivot bolt tension adjustments to compensate for lateral poi shifts. An excessively tight barrel tension can also give an inconsistent barrel latch up.

The old Beeman R9 owners manual recommended adjusting the barrel pivot tension this the cocked barrel "just holds" in any position of the cocking arc. While this does work, I personally adjust the barrel tension till the cocked barrel "just falls" from any position of the cocking arc. The "fly in the ointment" with these "tension adjustments" and the HW break barrels was the fact that often the old style "cocking shoe sliding on a piston liner" would have excess sliding friction because the sliding fit between the liner and receiver tube ID would be tight due to an overly thick cocking shoe. I used to deal with this by honing the cocking shoe till the "wings" were thin enough to be an easy slip fit. The new HW break barrels such as the R9 & R1 use a different style of cocking shoe that rides the edges of the cocking shoe slot in the receiver instead of a piston liner so I didn't have the "too tight cocking shoe issue" with my latest R9.

Anywhoo.........I only have first hand knowledge of the HW break barrels with a solid cocking lever like the R9s and R10s so perhaps different brands of airguns are different.