Hmmm…maybe I should have cleaned it sooner…

[Mole2017]

Ok, I've been lazy with my BSA R10: I never cleaned the barrel after buying it used about three years ago. I'm not sure why other than I thought it wasn't as easy as my CFX, with the transfer port to worry about and all.

The CFX only got cleaned occasionally and I don't recall it made a huge difference, though it was clearly dirty each time. Then again, maybe I wasn't a good enough shot to see it. Anyway, the R10 has been acting up and I decided cleaning the barrel would be a start.

Not having a snake, I spliced together an extra long bamboo skewer, to the end of which I slip-knotted the end of a Spectra thread. I then inserted things down the shroud and barrel to the loading port where I could snag the thread off the skewer. Removing the skewer, I threaded/knotted three cleaning pellets a few inches apart from each other. Spraying a little CRC 2-26 cleaner/lube on the first two, I pulled everything into the breach and towards the muzzle, reversing my pull a couple times to lightly scrub the bore.

Once through, I removed the dirty cleaning pellets and inserted the string again to pull two more dry cleaning pellets through. The last pellet wasn't "clean," but it was way better than that first one so I called it a take and shot some pellets at a target to see what changed. Guessing maybe I should let the CRC 2-26 residue dry some, I waited a day or so to shoot another set between some rain storms.

How dirty was it? Here's a shot of the cleaning pellets right after the cleaning, arranged first to last from right to left. I cut the dirtiest pellet in half and found it plenty dirty inside too.



Results? Here are the test groups, "before", "wet" and "dry" from left to right of JSB Heavy, 10.34 gr pellets. The dime is for scale, of course; shot at 29.5 yards, 16x on the scope.



Hmm, that last group seems better, showing some lateral spread because I’m not shooting off a bench. I'm shooting standing with a shooting stick, leaning back against my house and the railing of my stoop. This is pretty stable, but I can clearly see the motion due to my heart beating. It is not a slam dunk conclusion that the final group is due to the cleaning because I may still be "learning" the new support and such, but it is nice to see it.

But there was another interesting result: pellet velocity. I also chronied each shot to see if anything had changed, however subtle. Here's the results of the three sets of shots:

Before: 905, 906, 903, 908, 904, 909; average: 906 FPS
Wet: 901, 914, 914, 921, 918, 927, 917, 919, 921; average w/o 1st shot: 919 FPS
Dry: 915, 923, 926, 924, 926, 925, 923, 926, 926; average w/o 1st shot: 925 FPS

Points to note:
1. The first shot is often a little slow if the rifle has been sitting around. I don't know what to make of that yet. The first group was actually done after some shooting, so I didn't get a slow shot.
2. The cleaning has really helped the velocity! 925 FPS is 2.1% higher than 906. And except for that first shot, the group is pretty consistent, within +/-2 FPS of average. A larger group will have to be done to show if that is really the case, but I can say I never saw 9 shots go so well before this.
3. I must ask myself: why did I wait so long to do this? 

The forecast calls for some more rain, but hopefully in a few more days I can shoot a magazine to see if the performance holds.


.

[Back_Roads]

 I finally cleaned my prod barrel this weekend, I t looked like I may never cleaned it Will have to shoot it more to see if the wax I applied is helping.
   

[Longbob]

For rifle barrels, I use 4 feet or so of 60 lb monofilament line for a bore snake w/ the patch tied in the middle. I use Goo Gone for the bore cleaner.

I used about a foot and a half of 60 lb mono & several patches alternating 1 w/ Goo Gone and 1 clean patch last night to clean the barrel of my brand new Beeman P-17.

Which I used earlier today to kill a pigeon that was sucking down millet (like a vacuum cleaner) at my bird feeder. I shot it in the neck w/ a Gamo 7.6 gr magnum.

Gotta admit, those P-17's are absurdly accurate.