Barrel "Conditioning".

[Paradox]

Very interesting post will save me and a good few others a bit of head scratching lol
Cheers craig

[leeben]

Great read this thread, no one has mentioned 'smooth twist' so I will.
When I got my .177 fx bobcat mk2 new I ran h&n ftt through the it,it grouped brilliantly straight off I put a whole tin of these through with great results. Next I tried jsb express again a full tin with very good results indeed. Next jsb exact,again with the same results.
Ok the first half dozen of each type were not tight but they weren't bad either but tightened down very nicely.the thing is I've not cleaned the barrel at all? So far I've put around 2500 pellets through it 1500 of then being exacts as they suit my mtc ret the best.
yes they are all good quality pellets and no doubt it will spray others all over the shop but I honestly never cleaned the barrel between types with no problems. Smooth twist gets my vote for the most unfussy barrel I have ever shot 'I've shot plenty' will report when it goes off the boil.

[Tommyd345]

Thanks for the filter tip tip! I'll try that

[markjmctec]

i have always thought that cleaning barrels was a good idea and something that should be done just to keep everything accurate and on target, but after reading parts of this thread it has made me think twice. I have always cleaned the barrel using a soft copper brush and never seen and visible damage and now this appears to be wrong thing to do i should be using cloth and no cord as this can wear out part of the barrel.
Now i am confused as i thought metal was more hard wearing than cord, i see the FT boys with the cloth pull throughs and using them every 100 shoots or so. Now are they doing correctly as they are at the top of the airgun evolutionary tree as it were and all the rest of us aspire to be as good as them respectfully.
So i ask if my grouping is the same cleaning the same barrel for 20yrs with a copper brush then where is the damage and why has it not effected the grouping at 40yds (Theoben Sirocco)