Do you guys check for tight spots in your barrel

[Barryg]

I shoot some pellets into a roll of foam and check the rifling marks, if they look good then I'll only run a pellet through the barrel with a cleaning rod when I clean it.

If accuracy is good regardless of tight/loose spots I wouldn't worry to much.

Some chokes can be over tight though, I picked up a Mk2 .177 77 some time back that had barely seen any use and the power was down, when I checked the rifling marks the choke had sized the pellets down to about 4mm the rest of the barrel up to that point was good, so when I sold it I did make the new owner aware it would need the choke removing.

But its not just the choke if you push a pellet through a barrel, you can feel any tight or loose spots before you get to the choke.

[Barryg]

Is your Hw80 .22 barrel shooting with good accuracy ?

Yes that is what is so disappointing now I know its got a tight spot affecting its power and its not as efficient as it could be

[TonyL]

It isn't something that I've ever done nor felt the need to. As some others have said, I would do it if I felt there was an accuracy issue.

[Barryg]

It isn't something that I've ever done nor felt the need to. As some others have said, I would do it if I felt there was an accuracy issue.

I only checked because I was looking at my spare barrel and remembered hearing about tight spots in barrels.
I have been thinking about it and I think that there is only a problem when using green pellets as the soft skirt will take up any slack with lead, my .22 80 barrel loses a fair bit of power when using green pellets as dose my Diana but my TX loses none so I am expecting the Diana to have a tight spot when I check it later and the TX to have no tight spots

[TonyL]

Understood, Barry.

And I won't be using any of those tin pellets until we're forced to, should that ever be the case in the future.

[evert]

When I have rifles apart in the workshop, I usually push a few pellets through the barrel.
If you have never done this before, you'd be surprised how many barrels are tight at the breech, only to be save by the choke.

[Barryg]

When I have rifles apart in the workshop, I usually push a few pellets through the barrel.
If you have never done this before, you'd be surprised how many barrels are tight at the breech, only to be save by the choke.

Do you agree this can lead to power lose and are the newer HW barrels better?

[Shedder]

I was trying to find out why an Airmagnum barrel was hopelessly inaccurate and I did try pushing pellets down the barrel. It was an "interesting" exercise because I found that there is/was a tight spot about two thirds of the way down the barrel at a point which seemed to coincide with a "dovetail" shaped notch that is deeply machined into the barrel. It did concern me that this tight spot had apparently been made during the machining/manufacturing process. However, the inaccuracy seemed to be nothing at all to do with the tight spot, but was caused by a poor crown. Visually the crown looked fine, but in desperation, and thinking I had nothing to loose, I coarsely reground the crown and the accuracy was transformed.
The lesson seemed to be that the last quarter inch of the barrel is most critical to "accuracy" but I was pretty shocked by the depth of the machined notch in the barrel and the tight spot it had caused. Afraid that has made me suspicious of Umarex quality. (I think the notch is associated with retaining the 88g bottle cover on the Airmagnum, but i have since fitted a straight barrel)

[Bellycrawler]

I'd be more concerned about a loose spot than tight. Any rod could be pushing the skirt out / deforming & it's your brain interpretation what resistance you feel. Is the end of a rod shaped to fit the pellet correctly to push in the required area or flat & not put the pushing force evenly possibly deforming the skirt.