barrel cleaning job!

[ak27]

Today in the evening i dropped down a few oil drops inside my IHP 35 barrel as a part of daily maintenance check and i have found out that the oil seeping at the muzzle has turned brown in color.

All i did was to take an old cycle spoke and clean it with silicon carbide paper and coat it with high-grade light oil. Then i stuck a bit of lint free cloth to one end of it with fevikwik, rolled it around and pasted the other end with fevicryl. I tried pushing it directly into the barrel but it was kind of tight. So i dipped it in light oil and pushed it into the barrel from both the muzzle and breech end. To my disgust, the white cloth turned pitch black with a few throbs!

Can any one please explain the reason for the blackening of the rag? Is it because of internal rusting or some stagnated lubricant and dust etc?

[Mark]

The black you see is from the lead pellets. It is either lead oxide or it is remnants of old pellet lubricant, or most likely a mixture of the two.

Quite normal, unless there is traces of red (rust) in it.

However, I do need to caution you that more damage is done due to improper cleaning than neglect and you should do a search on the topic here. Having said that, I commend you on your resourcefulness!

[skeetshot]

I would NOT put a rod in an air rifle barrel.

Air rifle barrels are made of very soft steel and the lands of the barrel are very easily damaged.

For any cleaning, first choice is felt pellets and if that is no enough, the next is a pull through made out of nylon line.

A regularly used barrel will have a coating of lead and that serves to protect it.

Too much of lead in a barrel will no doubt affect accuracy, and that may be handled with the pull through or felt pellets.

A few drops of light machine oil helps in the maintenance of a barrel. (too much causes dieseling, a situation where the oil enters the air cylinder and ignites and explodes under the compression pressure -- not desirable).

[ak27]

Thanks for the enlightenment guys! your posts have really discouraged the creative side of me! but, evidently, it's for the good only.

[ak27]

The black you see is from the lead pellets. It is either lead oxide or it is remnants of old pellet lubricant, or most likely a mixture of the two.

Mark, you have mentioned 'pellet lubricant'. Were you referring to some special lube specific to the rifle barrel or just light machine oil as skeetshot has suggested?

[mundaire]

Pellets are coated with a lube (most often a thin film of waxy varnish), the residue of this lube mixed with lead tends to cling to the barrel and coat it over a period of time. However, I'd suggest never clean your airgun (or for that matter .22 LR) barrel unless you notice a drop in accuracy - it's just not needed!

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[ak27]

Thanks for the knowledge and useful suggestion Abhijeetji

regards,
aditya kona

[Mark]

Thanks for the enlightenment guys! your posts have really discouraged the creative side of me! but, evidently, it's for the good only.

I hope you have not been discouraged from being creative, you just need to do it in the proper direction!

When I was too young to know better, I did a bit of damage through ignorance. My mom used to joke about me never having a working flashlight because I took them all apart, etc.

The trick is no matter what you are working on, someone somewhere has already messed one up and there is a story somewhere on the internet. So just research, or ask someone more knowledgeable first before you remove that bolt that you'll regret.

But don't stop being creative about it, just know there is a "right" way to do things and a "dumb" way to do them as well.

Not to mention the dumb way is usually a bit more expensive!

[captrakshitsharma]

Bro golden rule ..Don't fix it if it ain't broke.. So keep shooting the air rifle unless u feel it getting inaccurate. An air rifle barrel will go through thousand s of pellets before it gets fouled. Nice try anyways will give u points for creativity.
If u want to maintain it just a few drops of pell gun oil will do and occasionally some bore cleaner soaked felt pellets are enough.

[ak27]

@Mark how kind of you to take time to rev up my slightly tinted curious side! Will definitely remember your valuable suggestions the next time my hands get itchy to tear something apart.

@captrakshitsharma got it sir, dont break something in a superfluous attempt to fix it! Thanks for the tips and support.

[art_collector]

U did make quite an effort in cleaning the barrel. Thank your stars that the lint free cloth did not get stuck in the barrel. Best would have been barrel cleaning felt pellets. G.Smith makes them. You could either write to them or check up with one of their distributors in your area or around.

AC

[ak27]

Offcourse i knew about the cleaning wads sir, but their sheer inavailability and my obsessive compulsive disorder have compelled me to try something so gross!!
Can anyone say something about a nylon pull-through? I have no idea about it. It sounds like DIY stuff so, please explain how to make it.
Thanks!
Regards