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.

[Septic]

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.

.
The couple of oil drops do make a real difference... lead was used in petrol not as a lubricant, but to cushion the blow of the valves hitting the valve seats, which is why old engines designed for leaded fuel are now often fitted with hardened valve seats and run on unleaded... Lead certainly feels like a slippery metal.. But It is also the main cause of barrel fouling in airguns, and is only used for pellets because it’s heavy, but soft, and allows the rifling to do it’s job.. So the lube is used because it helps keep the barrel clean, by preventing lead build up...

[Susube91]

I got some BSA interceptor pellets .22 and the tin was full of swarf at the bottom, so washed them in a colander and dried the, in the airing cupboard, no swarf since

[thumbhole]

Better to wash your hands at the moment rather than pellets.

[Born Again]

I did a test some years ago with JSB Exacts, I found that pellet lube did improve grouping very slightly, but only if the amount of oil was very very small. My method was to put 2 drops of oil into a ziploc freezer bag, rub it around to spread the oil all over the inside of the bag then carefully add a tin of 500 pellets and gently turn them for a minute to distribute the oil. Put the pellets back in the tin. Most of the oil is left in the bag, the amount on the pellets is tiny.

If I put more oil onto the pellets the accuracy was much worse than unlubed.

[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.

[original45]

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

Will try this one thank you for sharing tip

[xbow]

Will try this one thank you for sharing tip

This is what most folks at my old club used to use. The type with the wax in it also supposedly lubricates the pellets and stops oxidation. It only takes a few minutes to wash a tin of pellets and when I’ve done it with JSB’s there was noticeable crud left behind.

[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.