Washing your pellets

[Pball]

Just wondering if people still do this , wash the pellets and oil them
My friend says there's no need to as there produced with an oil content , last week I washed my. H&n match wad cutters finding not a lot of dirt but small fragments of lead and a. Few slithers ie shard style bits
Today I washed a cheaper h&n. The. Excite wad cutters. No dirt. No nothing
Wondering if any ones came across such as above.

[GreggNY]

I used to wash especially crosman premiers over here because they were especially filthy. Overall, don't see the need anymore as most brands do seem a bit cleaner for whatever reason. But I too have found small specs or shavings of lead mostly in the bottom of some tins so it's easy enough to not pick those up

[angrybear]

Some pellets are pre-lubed but not all, lead itself is a kind of lube which is why it used to be added to petrol, but your friend is mistaken about the oil content.

I tip out a new tin on to kitchen paper, if there's lots of swarf (bits of lead) then they get a wash & lube if not then in to a small plastic bag with a couple of drops of lube & just swirl hand to hand for a few minutes to mix & back it to the clean tin.

No idea if it makes a difference but who cares I feel better for doing it.

[max headroom]

no oil.
washed with washing up liquid. rinced and dried. dipped in a mixture of zip wax. 1 part zip wax to 5 parts water.
and wash and dry the tin.

[lensman57]

Just wondering if people still do this , wash the pellets and oil them
My friend says there's no need to as there produced with an oil content , last week I washed my. H&n match wad cutters finding not a lot of dirt but small fragments of lead and a. Few slithers ie shard style bits
Today I washed a cheaper h&n. The. Excite wad cutters. No dirt. No nothing
Wondering if any ones came across such as above.

On the odd occasion that I do wash the pellets, I just leave them in the Ultra Sonic cleaner with warm water and a drop of house hold washing up liquid. The residue is mostly a small amount of metal shavings . I have stopped lubing them a while ago as I found no advantage in my PCPs and Dieseling and inconsistency in my springers. If they go through with the legislation and ban Lead then we might have to look into alternative ways of lubing as Lead itself is one of the best lubricant metals available but I doubt that Tin has this property.

A.G

[Bonzo!]

if you are going to wash pellets i suggest not using household washing up liquid as this in most brands contains salt
car shampoo does not

[Eidem]

Not to bothered about washing pellets any more. I keep a tin of all the pellets I have washed and one tin washed and lubed.

My two FWB 300s likes:

JSB ecact: Washed, washed and lubed, unwashed, no difference
JSB expresss: Washed, washed and lubed, unwashed, no difference
H&N Field target trophy: Unwashed does great, Washed or washed and lubed does not do well

My 97 Likes

Air Arms diablo field: Washed, washed and lubed, unwashed, no difference
JSB exact. Washed, washed and lubed, unwashed, no difference

My Stoeger Likes:

H&N Field target trophy. Washed and not lubed. Unwashed not so well, washed and lubed not so well.
H&N Field target trophy power. Unwashed. Washed or washed and lubed not so well


When I get a new kind of pellets to try out, I still wash and wash and lube some of them to compare with the same

I wash my pellets in acetone, then rinse thoroughly in warm water. Dishwasher soap does not properly dissolve grease
and oil from the pellets.

If one has to shake or stirr the washing water to much, I find it that one starts to wear on the pellets. More and more
lead bits will show up in the washing liquid and in the end the pellet has become inaccurate.
pellets straight out of the tin.

[radar100]

As above, I used to wash and lube pellets, now I just wash either in warm water and soap or ultrasonic cleaner with a bit of washing up liquid.
I had a hell of a time trying to figure out why my ProSport was grouping like a shotgun and finally found it was the lube. However I have a 95k that is fine with lubed pellets. You may find that it makes a difference, or not, some say it does, some not. Have a go and see what works for you and your rifle.

[blooregard]

How I handle the pellets depends on which rifle I am using, though I stopped washing a while ago.

My HW100 isn't bothered as long as I feed it H&N, my Sniper-K likes the pellets to be sized and lubed. My FTP900 is not too bothered about pellet type, size or cleanliness but is really partial to lightly lubed pellets.

One thing I will say about washing pellets is that if it makes you feel better then do it every time. If you don't it will put you off.

[severnsider]

There is much to be recommended for washing pellets and treating them carefully. I don't hold with the idea of tipping them all out at once into a cleaning solution, but rather I do them one at a time whilst wearing surgical gloves (a) to avoid the possibility of corrosive skin products affecting the surface of the pellet and (b) to avoid the risk of picking up any germs from the people who made and packaged the pellets.
A rinse in acetone followed by a polish with warm beeswax imparts a healthy lustre to each pellet, but one should always take care to ensure that the area inside the pellet skirt is clean in order to avoid possible imbalance of the pellet inflight. Easy enough on .22 pellets (I use cotton buds for this, one per pellet) but on .20 and .177 pellets I have found that feathers from a pillow, when attached to a wooden cocktail stick, are ideal for dealing with the smaller area.
I've been doing this for the past ninety-five years and have not yet managed to miss a barn door at ten yards, so for me yes - washing pellets is most worthwhile and to be recommended to anyone who wishes to extract the best performance from their Webley Junior.

[Silver Captain]

I was considering it but after much reading I have decided not to, just take good care of them to ensure they are not misshaped through bad handling.

[snock]

If it were that effective, wouldn't manufacturers sell pre-washed pellets to improve value?

There are greater factors to control than simply minute specs of crud...

[Rickenbacker]

There is much to be recommended for washing pellets and treating them carefully. I don't hold with the idea of tipping them all out at once into a cleaning solution, but rather I do them one at a time whilst wearing surgical gloves (a) to avoid the possibility of corrosive skin products affecting the surface of the pellet and (b) to avoid the risk of picking up any germs from the people who made and packaged the pellets.
A rinse in acetone followed by a polish with warm beeswax imparts a healthy lustre to each pellet, but one should always take care to ensure that the area inside the pellet skirt is clean in order to avoid possible imbalance of the pellet inflight. Easy enough on .22 pellets (I use cotton buds for this, one per pellet) but on .20 and .177 pellets I have found that feathers from a pillow, when attached to a wooden cocktail stick, are ideal for dealing with the smaller area.
I've been doing this for the past ninety-five years and have not yet managed to miss a barn door at ten yards, so for me yes - washing pellets is most worthwhile and to be recommended to anyone who wishes to extract the best performance from their Webley Junior.

This ^^^^^.

Plus, a great way to store them is on pallets. One pellet per pallet. In a 'balanced enviroment' temperature controlled warehouse.

On the other extreme, olympic standard match-target shooters mostly use them straight from the tin.

[tugg]

This ^^^ plus seal them individually then run them through a vacuum autoclave to assure they are 100% sterile

[tugg]

If it were that effective, wouldn't manufacturers sell pre-washed pellets to improve value?

There are greater factors to control than simply minute specs of crud...

no they can't be bothered to even get the head size and weights correct so why would they worry about some swarf.