Barrell cleaning

[95Road King]

 How often do you clean an air rifle barrell??

[airgunandy]

What kind of air rifle? Most don't need cleaned very often. When the gun begins to lose accuracy. I clean after about 3 or 4 tins of pellets especially with the cheap, dirty pellets I use.
A springer that's still full of lube from the factory may need to be cleaned after every use to get the excess oil out of it.

[Cossack2]

I clean my springers with a bore brush and patches about every 500 shots or when accuracy starts to wane. I always shoot the same kind of pellet, RWS Meisterkugel and can tell  when that starting to happen. Lead pellets even at 1200 fps are not going fast enough to lead the barrel. Mostly it's the surface crud from the manufacturing process that's an issue.

[Center Shot]

I clean the bore when the accuracy starts to go south. I pull patches through with a weed whacker string alternating between a patch socked in TSI 301 and a dry patch until they come out clean. You should never use a cleaning rod as air rifles have very shallow rifling.

[dks7895]

Anyone use a Bore Snake on their airgun?

[95Road King]

I clean the bore when the accuracy starts to go south. I pull patches through with a weed whacker string alternating between a patch socked in TSI 301 and a dry patch until they come out clean. You should never use a cleaning rod as air rifles have very shallow rifling.

     How do you hold the patch on the string?? What diameter string you use for a .17??

[Center Shot]

Sorry to take so long to get back.
I make a loop in the end and hold it together with a piece of shrink tube (used to insulate wires). The one I am using now is .062" dia.

[95Road King]

Thank's Centershot!!

[sixgunSal]

Get yourself some 80-100lb fishing line - cut off about a foot more then the length of the breech to the end of the barrel doubled - put a bend/kink in it at the half way mark - get some soft patches (I cut 1 1/2" (about) circles out of old T-shirts and save them in a dry tin) - roll the patch up - push the kinked end of the fishing line thru the barrel end and out the breech - put the rolled up patch halfway thru the kink - add some oil (I use Goo B Gone) and pull it thru out the end of the barrel - repeat as neccessay - finish with dry patches.  Do not use a patch more then once.  I have never put a steel/hard rod thru my airgun barrels - I'd be afraid they would mark them up.

[ECV Slick]

Get yourself some 80-100lb fishing line - cut off about a foot more then the length of the breech to the end of the barrel doubled - put a bend/kink in it at the half way mark - get some soft patches (I cut 1 1/2" (about) circles out of old T-shirts and save them in a dry tin) - roll the patch up - push the kinked end of the fishing line thru the barrel end and out the breech - put the rolled up patch halfway thru the kink - add some oil (I use Goo B Gone) and pull it thru out the end of the barrel - repeat as neccessay - finish with dry patches.  Do not use a patch more then once.  I have never put a steel/hard rod thru my airgun barrels - I'd be afraid they would mark them up.

A BIG +1 on that!!!  I never use any kind of a cleaning rod, and only use fishing "string" or dental floss to pull patches through the bore.  It's more work - but airguns don't get dirty like powder-fired guns do..