Barrel "Conditioning".

[frazier]

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen shooters on a sighting in range with four or five different makes of pellets opened in front of them, taking five or so shots with each type and then saying that their gun is not grouping.

Whenever a brand of pellets is changed (sometimes even different batches of the same pellet) or if the barrel has been cleaned then the barrel has to be "conditioned" to that particular pellet by putting at least ten shots (I do 20 to be on the safe side) through it before trying a group.

Different brands of pellets have different percentages of elements in them which affect hardness, coefficient of friction, B.C's etc which all have an effect.

Just thought a "Heads-Up" on this subject might stop a bit of frustration....

Neil

might this also account for inconsistent chrono results until the barrel is conditioned to the new pellet then?

[u.k.neil]

might this also account for inconsistent chrono results until the barrel is conditioned to the new pellet then?

Could well do mate.

Neil

[punydan]

I was about to buy a pellpax sellection but if this is right then they are a waste of money as you only get 10 of each pellet.
Dan

[Sam.S]

Thanks for the tips

I cant get a descent grouping with my bsa lightning, maybe its down to this barrel conditioning malarkey that i'm missing.

[verminhunter]

Well yesterday I had a bit of a shock, on sunday i went shooting with the .25 rapid and did some tests of mine, i placed a 3/4" marine ply wood at 100yds to see what kind of damage it does to this very strong wood, i shot 3 time at the wood, the pellet nearly went through but not quiet but still not bad for 100yds and this wood is solid.

But what got me was my groups, they were around 3ins apart from each other , last time i did this with the same rifle they were all touching each other bit like a clover leaf shape(mind you it was windy). So I thought the barrel is due for a clean after firing 250 shots through it.At 50yds the pellets were nearly pellet on pellet but still i was'nt happy, so after a good hunt i went home and the following day decided to clean the barrel.

Took off the silencer, tilted the rifles down and pushed a wadded end of the rod with WD40, soaked the barrel but not right up to get iside the porting, about 4ins away from the end, got the pull throughs and also cleaned it that way too. I cleaned and cleaned until the barrel was spotless.

Fired the first 5 shots through, then went out to re zero after putting the silencer back, it was dreadful! like a shot gun, I went through the first mag no joy, 2nd mag no joy now uselly around 7 shots the rifle was back on song but this time it wernt having it. 3rd mag no joy, now I'am getting worried, 4th mag and only at the end did it start to tighten up , man was I frightened.

Filled back the bottle and gave it another 24 shots spot on. But the reason why iam posting this up is this. I phoned up Benny and UK neil and to my horror told me that over cleaning or too much cleaning can cause problems and may damage the barrel, the barrel needs its lead. The only reason i gave it a clean was to tighten up the groups but I should not have cleaned the barrel this way(never done it this way before mind you).

So from Ben Taylor and UK neil their advice is not to clean the barrel too much, just afew pull throughs just to remove any excess lead but even then the pellet will take it away. Ok so it does not do pellet on pellet at 100yds but as long as it places the pellets in a circle the size of a bunnies head thats where you want to be. Because thats where the barrel has setteled down and also not a good idea to do a long range shoot out when the weather is windy( silly boy).

So be warned lads dont over clean your barrel like I did, they dont need it and from what neil and ben were telling me more barrels are damaged by excess cleaning then anything else, just afew pull through patchs or better still the tips you put in roll ups bit like cleaning felts but ahell lot cheaper.
Happy Shooting.

[Sam.S]

So be warned lads dont over clean your barrel like I did, they dont need it and from what neil and ben were telling me more barrels are damaged by excess cleaning then anything else, just afew pull through patchs or better still the tips you put in roll ups bit like cleaning felts but ahell lot cheaper.
Happy Shooting.

I was also told dont over clean your barrel, especially with those cleaning rods, the one with the wire bristles in particular.

You mentioned using tips for roll ups to clean the barrel, do you shoot those through or just pull them through with something?


Cheers

[verminhunter]

I was also told dont over clean your barrel, especially with those cleaning rods, the one with the wire bristles in particular.

You mentioned using tips for roll ups to clean the barrel, do you shoot those through or just pull them through with something?

Cheers

Just shoot them through, 5-6 just enough to take off the excess lead.
Dont use the wire brush and rod can cause damage to the rifling.