Pellet testing

[triggerfest]

When you are testing various branded pellets, do you clean your barrel when switching brands ?

After 30 years of airgunning, I still have not cracked this nut 

[Chris USA]

I never have. There are people that will swear that you need to "season" the barrel with the new pellet lead mixture and pellet size. If a new gun, some quick pull throughs might be in order prior to beginning testing.

I will generally shoot several 5 shot groups to test grouping. Some will be an obvious no-go from the start. I will repeat again with the winners. The final elimination comes down several 10 shots groups of the finalist.

No wind and being on your game for the session are also important.

That is how I do it.

[BkYdPlinker]

when i got started into airguns i read some blogs about this and found through alot of time and effort shooting, that if i wanted the most accuracy out of my pellets, i did need to clean between brands. I tested this by cleaning the bore really good then shooting brand X. And i would do this for all the brands, just brands, not diff types of the same brand(all lead, not copper or alloy). Then i would shoot the best of brand Y, that i knew shot good out of a cleaned and leaded barrel, and shoot it right after brand X with no cleaning between. The groups did open up and i would get a few fliers here n there. i did find that diff types of a brand, as long as its lead, not copper or alloy, didnt seem to matter much. Most manufactures seem to use 1 type of lead for their pellets no matter the type or design. i dont know if im right or wrong in this statement, as i only spoke with 2 about their lead and hardness. i use H&N Baracuda Hunters in both .177 and .22 for longer ranges, and .177 crow mags and .22 Terminators for critters inside 20 yrds. i can switch back and forth with no accuracy issues. This may or may not be true for your air gun. Try it and see. Clean and lead your barrel with 10 shots or so with 2 diff brands and establish a group. Then after you get a group with the 2nd brand, shoot the 1st brand without cleaning and see what happens to that group, etc.

[nced]

When you are testing various branded pellets, do you clean your barrel when switching brands ?

After 30 years of airgunning, I still have not cracked this nut 

Yep, but I don't know how much difference it makes. I only shoot two different brands of pellets from my .177 HW springers, die lot marked and dated boxed 7.9 grain Crosman Premiers and more recently 8.4 grain 4.52mm Air Arms domes. These pellets are of different allows whereas the CPLs are harder than the "more pure lead" AA domes so it only makes sense to pull a few patches through my bore when switching between the two.

[triggerfest]

Lead is lead. But I think it is more how a brand lubes its pellets that might give an impact when switching brands.

But then, when you have pulled a few patches through the barrel, do you then need to shoot a dozen pellets again to achieve accuracy or are you dead on from the first couple of shots ?

[null]

I never clean my barrel unless there is obvious fouling.

My Walther CP88 for example has had well over 10k rounds through it and the barrel looks brand new. I've shot all kind of brands of pellets through it.

My Marauder has had slugs and pellets from a LOT of manufacturers through it, and I've never clean that either. The Marauder has had well over 10k rounds through it.

Only thing I do is oil the seals and make sure there isn't lead buildup anywhere in the breach.

[Bill_in_TR]

Whenever I am testing another type or brand of pellet I will usually compare it directly to the current pellet that I have determined shoots best in that rifle. I shoot the first group with a pellet as a conditioning and POI check. Then I will shoot four five shot groups to test for group size. If that pellet does not group well then I will shoot the known good pellet following the same procedure just to make sure that my shooting is not at fault. If the known good pellet performs as it normally does then I am confident that the new pellet results are legitimate.

I don't clean my barrel between different pellets. I just shoot that preliminary conditioning group before relying on the results of my group testing. So far my known good pellet has almost always performed consistently.

[VillageSniper]

  In my FWB barrels the shots settle after maybe one seasoning shot- no cleaning between brands.  My HW95  barrel would foul with certain pellets and i did clean it while testing.  If there are a lot of lead shards coming out of your barrel as you clean, i would clean between pellets.  I started shooting the newer HN copper washed FTT power pellets as a method of cleaning.   They are hard and seem to clean  the barrel pretty well.  Just a couple of shots once you are ready to clean and switch pellets.

Vs 

[Lt. Dan]

I never have. There are people that will swear that you need to "season" the barrel with the new pellet lead mixture and pellet size. If a new gun, some quick pull throughs might be in order prior to beginning testing.

I will generally shoot several 5 shot groups to test grouping. Some will be an obvious no-go from the start. I will repeat again with the winners. The final elimination comes down several 10 shots groups of the finalist.

No wind and being on your game for the session are also important.

That is how I do it.

Chris, I had to look at this twice to see if I  wrote it.  This is exactly,  to the letter,  how I do it.  Thanks.
Dan

[triggerfest]

Thanks for your insights !

At least good to see that I am (already for 30yrs) on the same track as most of you guys, not cleaning my barrel when switching between brands during testing.

Keep the insights coming pls !

I like for instance the thought of the copper plated pellets as cleaning device 

[35 shooter]

I never clean between switching pellets, but I have noticed some brands(must have different lubes on them) take 5 to 15 shots before they settle down after shooting another type or brand pellet through the bore before I can tell how accurate they’re truly shooting.
Most probably a bore seasoning thing?

[nced]

Lead is lead. But I think it is more how a brand lubes its pellets that might give an impact when switching brands.

But then, when you have pulled a few patches through the barrel, do you then need to shoot a dozen pellets again to achieve accuracy or are you dead on from the first couple of shots ?

"Lead is lead"
Not necessarily. The boxed Crosman Premiers I use have antimony in the lead alloy as a "hardener" whereas some brands are softer lead. When I shot unlubed CPLs in my .177 R9 the bore fouled rather quickly spoiling accuracy, plus the fouling was packed so tight in the rifling that it was difficult to remove. To resolve this "tight fouling" I started lubing my CPs decades ago and still do.
 

[Bill_in_TR]

Even though I shoot a "conditioning" group between pellet changes in all honesty even that conditioning group with my known good pellet is always good if I am shooting well that day.

[Frank in Fairfield]

No

[fwbsport]

I've never cleaned an air rifle bore since my first pellet rifle springer in 1969 and have never seen a reasonable reason to do what others do; nevertheless it will be evident with One shot whether the "new" pellet will shoot differently than where the "old" pellets went.
JMHO!

You can damage your bore faster than a different pellet would by cleaning.

[triggerfest]

You can damage your bore faster than a different pellet would by cleaning.

I like that thought !

[nced]

I've never cleaned an air rifle bore since my first pellet rifle springer in 1969 and have never seen a reasonable reason to do what others do; nevertheless it will be evident with One shot whether the "new" pellet will shoot differently than where the "old" pellets went.
JMHO!

You can damage your bore faster than a different pellet would by cleaning.

Hummmm.....then I wonder how a Sheridan with a BRASS barrel could last for decades shooting lead pellets but a steel barrel can't handle a couple cleaning patches through the bore a couple times a year.

Anywhoo.......you are correct that the rifling insteel airgun bores is very fine and prone to damage by improper cleaning practices (like those used for cleaning powder burner bores) but my experience is that the gun will tell you when a bore cleaning is needed by the "opening up of the groups". LOL....then it's simply a matter to pull through a couple patches using a "crown Saver".................

1st patch pulled through a new Beeman R9 a couple decades ago. LOL....the price should give an ID of how long ago that was..............


Fouled HW95 bore vs cleaned HW95 bore..........

Anywhoo...my remedy for "bore fouling accuracy degrade" was/is a bore clean to remove the fouling.

[BkYdPlinker]

yep, looks good, i guess i should of specified not to use a steel cleaning rod in an airgun barrel.  i use something similar, but its just a long radio control plastic antenna tube with some heavy fishing line with a loop at the end. what i do works for me so ima stick with it. evreyone has their own ways of getting to the same objective which is in the end the most accuracy you can get.

[Bayman]

I believe that seasoning shots are required between different brand pellets. Also seasoning shots are required after cleaning a barrel. I just pushed several patches through my Hw50 because it wasn't shooting upto par. After doing so my Avg velocity dropped from 790s to 760s. With the same tin of pellets. Took nearly a 50 shots before the velocity returned to the 790s. The accuracy wasn't good either at the start but improved as the speeds returned to normal. In the end the accuracy was better than before cleaning the barrel but it took a while to get there. Because of this I only clean barrels as a last resort. Also I've had guns take hundreds of rounds to shoot right again after an aggressive cleaning. That really stinks because while you're waiting for the accuracy to return you can't tell if you fixed it or broke it.
As far as seasoning shots between brands goes, its definitely required. Maybe not a lot, but some. I find it usually takes one maybe two 5 shot groups to season a barrel after switching brands. Some brands take longer to clear out than others. Crosman in particular are the worst to clear out. After shooting Crosmans my velocities and accuracy on the next brand drop as dramatically as if I cleaned the bore. This is probably due to the high antimony content in the Crosman. Since Crosman QC is inconsistent and it can easily take 50 shots to clear the Crosman cooties from a barrel, I don't use them (sorry Ed). I think it's better to find a pellet that the gun likes and stay with it. Even if it is a Crosman  Either way I've wasted more time, energy and money searching for a better pellet when the gun is already shooting excellent. Perfection is the enemy of excellence.