washing pellets ?

[davemac]

I have read about people using acetone or dish washing soap, anyone have experience  would love to here which you prefer and why, if you think it helps etc..

many thanks
dave

[uglymike]

There's several videos on youtube, I know Vermin Hunters has one. I personally don't wash, lube, or whatever, just stuff one in and let 'er rip. I need all the excuses I can with my poor shooting   

[WildCJ5]

I have a dedicated bowl I keep in the garage that is only used for washing pellets. Hot water and whatever dish soap the wife has. I dry them with some paper towels and let them set until totally dry. For lube I use Pledge.

[nced]

I have read about people using acetone or dish washing soap, anyone have experience  would love to here which you prefer and why, if you think it helps etc..

many thanks
dave

I only wash pellets if they are "dirty" preferring to simply shoot em. Here is an example of "dirty" Crosman premier Hollow Points from the 500 count tin..........

I believe that the "dirt" is simply excess graphite parting compound applied to the pellets, however I do lube my hard lead CPLs to minimize barrel fouling I found that lube (I use Slick50OneLube) mixed with the "graphite" (or whtever it is) will gum up the bore of my HW springers pretty quick.

A just received a couple tins of .177 Benjamin hollow points in the 750 count tin (I think they are rebadged CPHPs) and found this swarf in my lubing tray after lubing and dumping out the pellets.........



The Benjamin pellets had so much swarf in the tin, in the pellet skirts and on the pellets that I decided to wash the lubed pellets to get rid of the swarf. I dumped the pellets in a container of "Spray Nine" cleaner letting it soak for a while, then rinsed the pellets by dumping into a "screen strainer" and running hot water over them. After a thorough rinsing the pellets were dried, relubed, and dumped back into the Benjamin containers. When letting the water drain from the sink I noticed that this amount of swarf was still in the sink after most washed down the drain............


Anywhoo...aside from the dry pellet coating, I'm pretty sure that swarf of that "caliber" would have an effect on pellet stability if it was stuck inside the pellet skirts. 

[Habanero69er]

I only wash my Eun Jins because they tend to have a lot lead shavings.
Hot water + Dawn gently swirled around in a stainless steel bowl. Then a double clear water rinse through a wire strainer. Next I lay them out on a clean white towel & dry them with a heat gun. Finally, I tumble about 100 of them at a time in an empty 500ct JSB tin with the foam left in it to help cushion the pellets. It also acts as a wick for the 5-6 drops of KryTech Finish Line or Shooter's Choice FP-10 I use to recoat/lube the pellets to prevent future oxidation.

[Frank in Fairfield]

Pellets intended for FT are washed in an ultra-sonic cleaner intended to be used to clean once fired brass cases. I wash them in the cleaner for 12 minutes, rinsing them in extra hot water (so they dry quickly) and let them dry in the sun. Then they are tossed in a zip-lock bag with the remaining pellets of the same type and weight with a few drops of Kryton bicycle chain lube.
Does it do any good?
I do not shoot well enough to make that determination.
I think I read somewhere, except for weighing pellets, the top shooters don’t bother with washing.

Maybe our current Hunter Field Target Champion will chime in and give us his preparation secrets.

[dan_house]

IF you think its an advantage, then it is.......

I think you should at least wash to know the crud off. After that, depends on how much you want to geek out and/or how anal you wnat to be about it.

better pellets are more consisitent, but you can make the even m ore consistent with some effort. IS that efffort worth it? thats up to you.....

[Back_Roads]

 I skip a step avoid water and soap . I over lube them slightly in the tin with 30 wt ND oil <or ones preferred lube>, then dump them on a paper towel, roll them around on the towel , until most of the oil is stuck to the towel , along with the scarf etc. that was included with my pellet purchase . Wipe the tin clean of the crud and place the pellets back in the tin.

[Yng@hrt]

JSB's are pretty clean so I don't bother washing those. I am currently shooting Crosman 7.9gr wadcutter's. I like these a lot. Haven't found a bad one yet. On the flip side they are full of grim so they get a wash. I dump them into a plastic strainer, add soap, agitate while hot water is applied, move to a towel to remove the majority of the water, then onto another towel rolling them back and forth, spread them out & let dry over night.

Question; I use to add a lubricate but is this a necessary step? Seems like the lube would make it hard for the pellet to bit the fine riflings. 

[Pappy]

Chrony testing, and group sizes have absolutely improved by washing & lubing pellets.  I always use JSB pellets, and they leave a lot of residue after cleaning.  Crossman are absolutely filthy, I think the worst.  I use a sonic cleaner, clean a whole tin in 12 minutes or so ... 2 cycles, using Blitz gem and jewelry.  Let dry on a micro-fiber towel, then lube with just a little Napier power pellet lube.  If you are anal about trying to get the most accuracy you can ..... cleaning/lubing is mandatory.  If you really get anal ..... sort by weight, and sort by head size too.

Pappy / Allan

[nced]

JSB's are pretty clean so I don't bother washing those. I am currently shooting Crosman 7.9gr wadcutter's. I like these a lot. Haven't found a bad one yet. On the flip side they are full of grim so they get a wash. I dump them into a plastic strainer, add soap, agitate while hot water is applied, move to a towel to remove the majority of the water, then onto another towel rolling them back and forth, spread them out & let dry over night.

Question; I use to add a lubricate but is this a necessary step? Seems like the lube would make it hard for the pellet to bit the fine riflings. 

Crosman uses a hard lead alloy for their pellets (I've read that antimony is added) and decades ago learned that the hard lead Crosman pellets tend to foul the bore quickly and the "packed lead fouling" can be hard to remove. "Waaayyy back when" my brother and I shot Crosman Premiers directly from the 1250 count box. My brother started to get poor accuracy with his R9 after a while and the usual "check stock screw tightness" and pulling a patch through the bore didn't help. Puzzled my brother used a bore scope and found that the rifling literally disappeared in the bore at the choke and the pulled patches simply polished the fouling. He then got out his Hoppes #9 and a .177 brass brush to clean up the fouling. After a Hoppes soak and a bit of "brass brush treatment" the rifling was again visible and his accuracy was restored.

After that episode my brother and I decided to start lubing our CPs so the fouling wouldn't get "packed like solder" in the rifling. First we tried FP10 and wasn't satisfied with that lube because it seemed to oxidize the lubed pellets that are stored in leather pellet pouches and the oxidized surfaces had a kinda gummy feel. The next lube we tried (and I still use) was Slick50 One Lube from an aerosol can. The One Lube didn't oxidize the CPs and also reduced the bore clean interval to about "once per 1250 count box) and it only takes a couple pulled patches to clean the bore.

There is one caution to lubing pellets with OneLube however........the stuff will diesel if it gets into the pellet skirts. To use the OneLube I spritz a small amount in a "lube pan", then spread it thinly over the bottom and sides, then I dump in a box of CPs, stir them gently with a finger to get only a thin film of lube on the pellet rifling surfaces. For me and my HW springers, lubing doesn't change the accuracy of velocity, it simply extends the barrel cleaning sessions and makes the barrel cleaning easier. Here are a couple pics.........
Here is the origional can of OneLube I bought at an ACE home store decades ago and I'm still using the same container since so little is "spritzed in the pan" to be spread around. LOL....by the $3.29 price tag you get an idea how long ago it was bought............

Seems that the packaging has been changed in the last couple decades but it's still available from ACE at $5.59 per can.........
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=21099766

Here's a box of CPLs being lubed in my lube pan (LOL...an old frozen dinner container).........


Not long ago I read a post claiming that the "WD40 Specialist Water Resistant Silicone Lubricant" wouldn't diesel when used as a pellet lube so I bought a can to test. I sprayed some of this lube directly on the pellets (would give certain dieseling with OneLube), stirred 'em around, gave the pellets some time for the lube carrier to evaporate, then shot a few from my HW95. Sure enough, no dieseling which surprised me since the WD40 can has this warning..........


I'm guessing that the issue is the carrier and as long as it's been evaporated the lube didn't diesel. Still, if I do lube pellets with the stuff I'll use my "film spread in a pan" procedure.

I've read more than a couple posts where shooters claim they never clean their bores and accuracy is "perfect". Well, I do know that barrel fouling will destroy grouping and here is a perfect example..........
I received a HW97 for some tuning years ago where the owned complained about bad accuracy even though he (supposedly) cleaned the bore just before he handed the gun to me. After my tuning I shot these poor groups at only 18 yards sitting on a bucket resting the gun on cross sticks........... 

Even though I was told the bore was clean I did another bore cleaning using a patch moistened with denatured alcohol pulled through the bore, followed by several dry patches, then several pellets to "season the bore", I shot this "bucket and sticks" group.....

[Yng@hrt]

Not only a claim with respect to lube, but facts to support it. Exactly what I was hoping for.

Thank you nced.

[Habanero69er]

JSB's are pretty clean so I don't bother washing those. I am currently shooting Crosman 7.9gr wadcutter's. I like these a lot. Haven't found a bad one yet. On the flip side they are full of grim so they get a wash. I dump them into a plastic strainer, add soap, agitate while hot water is applied, move to a towel to remove the majority of the water, then onto another towel rolling them back and forth, spread them out & let dry over night.

Question; I use to add a lubricate but is this a necessary step? Seems like the lube would make it hard for the pellet to bit the fine riflings.

If you don’t re-lube them, they can begin to oxidize. I don’t think a lube is going to keep the pellet from engaging the rifling.

[Pappy]

I too have the test results, like Ed does .... but I'm just too lazy to look for the pics of the targets.  Another good point about cleaning your barrel ..... I always run a couple of dry patches through the barrel of PCP after every tin of 500 pellets.

Pappy

[terry1001]

JSB's are pretty clean so I don't bother washing those. I am currently shooting Crosman 7.9gr wadcutter's. I like these a lot. Haven't found a bad one yet. On the flip side they are full of grim so they get a wash. I dump them into a plastic strainer, add soap, agitate while hot water is applied, move to a towel to remove the majority of the water, then onto another towel rolling them back and forth, spread them out & let dry over night.

Question; I use to add a lubricate but is this a necessary step? Seems like the lube would make it hard for the pellet to bit the fine riflings.

If you don’t re-lube them, they can begin to oxidize. I don’t think a lube is going to keep the pellet from engaging the rifling.

This is the main reason for lubing the pellets, washing them removes all the lubricant used in the manufacture when they are formed. If I do wash (not very often as I only use top quality pellets) then I lube with a product called LT1, it's applied with a few drops inside a zip lock polythen bag and the pellets are gently shaken/rolled around in it. This applies a very fine film to the outside of the pellets where they come into contact with the bag. It's probably best to only do a few weeks worth of pellets at a time.

[nced]

JSB's are pretty clean so I don't bother washing those. I am currently shooting Crosman 7.9gr wadcutter's. I like these a lot. Haven't found a bad one yet. On the flip side they are full of grim so they get a wash. I dump them into a plastic strainer, add soap, agitate while hot water is applied, move to a towel to remove the majority of the water, then onto another towel rolling them back and forth, spread them out & let dry over night.

Question; I use to add a lubricate but is this a necessary step? Seems like the lube would make it hard for the pellet to bit the fine riflings.

If you don’t re-lube them, they can begin to oxidize. I don’t think a lube is going to keep the pellet from engaging the rifling.

This is the main reason for lubing the pellets, washing them removes all the lubricant used in the manufacture when they are formed. If I do wash (not very often as I only use top quality pellets) then I lube with a product called LT1, it's applied with a few drops inside a zip lock polythen bag and the pellets are gently shaken/rolled around in it. This applies a very fine film to the outside of the pellets where they come into contact with the bag. It's probably best to only do a few weeks worth of pellets at a time.

I recently bought a couple tins of cheap 750 count .177 Benjamin HollowPoints and the tins had a lot of swarf as a previous reply showed so they were washed. Here are a couple pics right after washing and sizing the heads to 4.48mm for my tight leade HW95. Next to that pic is a pic of the same pellets about a week after the lube and head size............

The washed and lubed pellets are indeed darker than the pellets directly from the tin, however I really don't think the oxidation affects the pellet negatively.

[Habanero69er]

Maybe not in the short term. But putting a couple drops on lube in a tin is just a preventative measure & definitely will not adversely affect pellets.

[nervoustrigger]

There is certainly sufficient anecdotal evidence that barrels with a tight choke benefit from lubed pellets, appreciably extending the cleaning intervals necessary to maintain accuracy.  The MM hammer forged barrels for the Marauder are a good example.
 
Regarding graphite on pellets, I think it’s more of a perceived problem than a real one.  Yes, it stains fingertips and produces “filthy” cleaning patches…so it feels right when we get it all out and patches start coming out clean on the other side.  But it does not build up in the rifling the way that lead does so I am not convinced it has any negative effects that justify a regimen to clean it away and replace it with something else.
 
Nonetheless, I do typically clean my pellets because over the years I’ve gotten slightly better groups as compared to pellets straight from the tins.  Seldom are the differences dramatic, and it’s not like I’ve done scientific double blind tests that rigorously controls for all the variables so take my experience with a grain of salt.  I wouldn’t be surprised if at least part of it is psychological and if that’s the case, so be it.  A lot goes on in between the ears that determines how we perform and having confidence one’s equipment plays into that.  So if I think clean, lubricated pellets will improve my performance, they probably will.
 
However, more recently I have begun to think the improvement has less to do with the pellets being clean or some inherent benefit of a dry wax lube compared to graphite, and more to do with tumbling them in a wire strainer as I wash them.  Doing so releases loose flashing and reduces the parting lines.  I don’t see much of an improvement with quality pellets like JSB and H&N, presumably because they don’t have much of a parting line to begin with.  But a recent experiment with Crosman Premiers showed a dramatic improvement.  I wrote of it here:
https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=134454

[RayT1946]

      Many thanks to everyone on this thread for all the great information! I think this thread should really be a "stickey". Wow, all the info on the cleaning, the different lubes and the results. I have been fooling with precision airguns for 45+ years and have never seen this much info in one place ever!

       Thanks again guys!.......................

[davemac]

well after trying both methods acetone is faster but they both work about the same as far as end result ,. easy either way. I know one thing I will always wash my pellets, way longer intervals between cleaning barrel,  and it may be in my head but is seems way more consistency shooting also.