Can you coat, grease, lubricate a pellet for slightly tighter fit?

[45flint]

Wondering if this would keep round balls from rolling in barrel. The fit is pretty close cause when they don't roll, pressure is acceptable. I have used "bore butter" in black powder guns, it's a natural grease. I'll try soaking pellets in SAE 20 ND Oil for a starter this morning, that can't hurt. Anyone have any experience?

[ccdjg]

Prompted by your suggestion I have just tried an experiment with beeswax, although I suppose any sort of wax would work. I have some 4.5mm lead ball (Gamo) which easily roll down the barrel of my 4.5mm Haenel 28-R. I melted a little of the wax in a pan and added some of the lead ball to it. While still hot and liquid I then transferred the shot onto absorbent paper letting them roll around it bit. When cold the shot were thinly coated with a layer of wax but felt quite dry and non-sticky. They were now a push fit in the barrel. I loaded 8 of these into the magazine, quite easily, and was able to fire all 8 in succession with no jamming and none could be made to roll out of the barrel even with hard shaking. So this seems to have been successful. No doubt the same result would be obtained with grease, but wax has the advantage of the ball shot being easier and cleaner to handle, and not sticking together in the tin.

[Abasmajor]

Thanks to both posters for sharing what would seem to be a top tip.

Regards

Brian

[45flint]

Prompted by your suggestion I have just tried an experiment with beeswax, although I suppose any sort of wax would work. I have some 4.5mm lead ball (Gamo) which easily roll down the barrel of my 4.5mm Haenel 28-R. I melted a little of the wax in a pan and added some of the lead ball to it. While still hot and liquid I then transferred the shot onto absorbent paper letting them roll around it bit. When cold the shot were thinly coated with a layer of wax but felt quite dry and non-sticky. They were now a push fit in the barrel. I loaded 8 of these into the magazine, quite easily, and was able to fire all 8 in succession with no jamming and none could be made to roll out of the barrel even with hard shaking. So this seems to have been successful. No doubt the same result would be obtained with grease, but wax has the advantage of the ball shot being easier and cleaner to handle, and not sticking together in the tin.

Awesome, thanks for your experiment. I love a easy and cheap solution. The Gamo pellets are very inexpensive and available. So to make these work solves the issue. Awesome. Issue solved and haven't even finished my morning coffee. I'll try the grease this afternoon, but I like your solution given the ease of handling.

[45flint]

Give the man from Leeds a Gold Star. I found some bees wax and quickly treated my Gamo 22 cal. round balls. So easy to do just about like washing them. Just like above, this cured the issues. Easy loading no loading hang ups, and no pellet movement. In fact I was getting a better seal and was getting velocities at times equal to my skirted pellet attempt. Ave. velocity was 180 with a high of 220. The wax actually seals the lead, and fine to touch, all good there. I shot at a packing box about 15 feet out and seemed to have pretty good accuracy. Will try with my .177 next.

Went back out with the 22 and a target, shoot last 5 coated pellets into a 1 inch group at 15 feet.

Interesting paper cartridges in the blackpowder era were sealed with beeswax.
"The bullet end of the cartridge was crimped shut, and the powder end was filled and folded closed. The bullet end of the completed cartridge was then dipped in a mixture of melted beeswax and tallow to lubricate the bullet."

[harvey_s]

This is a thinly veiled sex thread ain't it....

[Hsing-ee]

If you want to increase the diameter of your pellet, it might be better to push it through some kind of die that very slightly compresses it.

The answer would really be to find another pellet which fits the bore better, or toss the gun and get one with a proper barrel.

Coating pellets with gunk is retrograde and the kind of thing people did when they only had black-powder muskets, irregular balls, tow, paper, wobbly ramrods and too much time on their hands.

[Rickenbacker]

To be fair Al, I think they're referring to wobbly old collector's airguns in fairly obsolete calibres. So it's not going to matter.

[45flint]

Somehow this thread has gone in some unitented directions? I typed and erased far too many one liners. I guess there are some things you just cant discuss in public. Lol

[Airsporter1st]

This is a thinly veiled sex thread ain't it....

You coat your balls with hot beeswax if you want to........

[harvey_s]

You coat your balls with hot beeswax if you want to........

Mmmm....http://www.a-k-a.eu/kink-advice/2012...-wax-play.html...just as I thought

[eyebull]

...If you want to increase the diameter of your pellet, it might be better to push it through some kind of die that very slightly compresses it....

Not sure if that would work well with ball shot though.
For pellets, I would tend to agree with you.

[air-tech]

Not sure if that would work well with ball shot though.

You would end up firing lead patties!

[Hsing-ee]

Not sure if that would work well with ball shot though.
For pellets, I would tend to agree with you.

Perhaps bigger, softer balls would be the answer? Although shooting spherical ammunition makes the quest for accuracy pretty tough. Round ammo is for airsoft fun and shotguns.

[45flint]

Perhaps bigger, softer balls would be the answer? Although shooting spherical ammunition makes the quest for accuracy pretty tough. Round ammo is for airsoft fun and shotguns.

Never fear the quest ended yesterday with a 60 year old English pellet that seems to cycle the pistol and seal the barrel. Accuracy is probably still an issue given my 65 year old eyes.