Cleaning an AP

AJOO8 · Post by **AJOO8** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:07 pm

What kind of a cleaner can you use on an AP barrel? Will the same thing work on the AP as it does on the Winchester? Or is there a solvent made for air guns?

Nicole Hamilton · Post by **Nicole Hamilton** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:25 am

No, you cannot use the same ordinary petroleum-based cleaners or lubricants on an airgun, due to the possibility of dieseling (combustion due to high pressure.) Airguns don't need cleaning often, but when you do clean one, you should use a non-combustible synthetic; the most popular seems to be TSI-301.

Alex L · Post by **Alex L** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:52 am

The cleaning pellets used by most shooters, is VFG No.501
You "Shoot the Barrel Clean".
You do not use oil on the patch. Just put it in the barrel, like you load an air pellet, and fire it .

On the outside of the gun you can use a rag to remove any grime. That is all that is necessary. This is for a Steyr LP10, as well as for other pistols.
Regards, Alex L.

jrmcdaniel · Post by **jrmcdaniel** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:19 am

First, you rarely need to clean an AP barrel. There are no powder residues and the pellets move more slowly and do not "lead" the barrel like a fast-moving bullet might.

Secondly, AP barrels are made from softer metals than typical powder barrels. Thus, over-cleaning can damage the rifling and crown very easily.

If you must clean (and the "rule" for many shooters is "Only clean when accuracy degrades.") -- use a non-metallic such as a pull-through starting from the breech. A couple of drops of FP10 or similar lubricant/solvent is OK.

As far as Dieseling -- this is an issue only for piston guns. Compressed air guns -- whether single or multiple pump or tank -- cannot Diesel. Thus, the type of lubricant is not important for that reason (although some lubricants can damage o-rings).

For my SAM M10, I clean about twice-a-year with heavy use. I remove the barrel so I can feed a pull-through from the breech end. I also remove the front deflector so I don't damage the cone. (I can then clean the cone which seems to get a deposit of lead dust on it, too.)

You can further reduce the need for cleaning by lubricating the pellets. One-Lube, Krytech, and similar lubricants (couple of drops per 500 pellets) are used by field target shooters (who shoot at 900 to 1100fps and can run into "leading"). For AP, this is probably not of much value but probably can't hurt, either.

Best,

Joe

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:02 pm

I have never found a compressed air Scuba or CO2 gun to diesel BUT spring air will do it with VIGOR because of the dynamic compression effect of the spring plunger.

Tony Pikman (a National Team RF shooter) showed me this at the Crossman a few years ago. I was amazed. He put oil in the bbl and fired it with and without pellets. You can do what you like. I do oil my bbl occaisionally and I have oiled some pellets with no ill effect in both Scuba and bulk CO2 guns.

Randy Bimrose can comment further on spring air seal problems.

regards bruce

Bruce Martindale · Post by **Bruce Martindale** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:05 pm

Somehow wasnt logged in above, any way, the cleaning pellets are worthless unless you have soft targets to play with :)

The weedwacker line pull thru is the best way to go. There are also some fancy and expensive German kits but the name escapes me. Daryl S was playing with one with good results. Scott may have them.

regards bruce

AJOO8 · Post by **AJOO8** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:21 am

TY for the help.

Yeah coach was saying the cleaning pellets are junk too. What he was having me do is take some 50lb test fishing line and loop it around a patch and pull it through, I wsa just wondering if there is something you can put on the patch.

Fred Mannis · Post by **Fred Mannis** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:55 pm

AJOO8 wrote: I wsa just wondering if there is something you can put on the patch.

As noted above, TSI301 was the most popular, but is no longer available. I use a few drops of FP10 on the patch, but I'm not really sure that it is better than a dry patch.

Nicole Hamilton · Post by **Nicole Hamilton** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:05 pm

Fred Mannis wrote:As noted above, TSI301 was the most popular, but is no longer available.

Since when? I saw it on the shelf of a local gun shop just last week. And if you go the TSI-301 website, there's a link where you can buy it online by the bucket (literally.)

CharlesC · Post by **CharlesC** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 3:19 pm

I might as well throw my 2 cents in here: I have found that pulling a dry double .22 rimfire patch thru the barrel of my IZH-46 and custom Crosman 1377 Match pistols cuts the size of rested groups by half after shooting 2 or 3 hundred dirty Crosman wadcutter pellets. If I use any more than one pull of a doubled patch thru the bore it takes several shots to re-season the bore. I definitely do not use an oil or solvent on an airgun bore. I don't personally feel it's needed. I have changed to shooting more accurate RWS pellets in my match guns and my barrels may stay clean longer now. I also don't want to subject the muzzle of my match barrels to the abrasive effects of a bare weed wacker or monofilament fishing line without a bore protector. I use a 2 inch long piece of plastic inner hollow R/C model airplane control rod as a bore protector and fish doubled monofilament line thru it from the muzzle. Control rod tube fits nicely in a .177" bore.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:38 pm

CharlesC wrote:I might as well throw my 2 cents in here: I have found that pulling a dry double .22 rimfire patch thru the barrel of my IZH-46 and custom Crosman 1377 Match pistols cuts the size of rested groups by half after shooting 2 or 3 hundred dirty Crosman wadcutter pellets. If I use any more than one pull of a doubled patch thru the bore it takes several shots to re-season the bore. I definitely do not use an oil or solvent on an airgun bore. I don't personally feel it's needed. I have changed to shooting more accurate RWS pellets in my match guns and my barrels may stay clean longer now. I also don't want to subject the muzzle of my match barrels to the abrasive effects of a bare weed wacker or monofilament fishing line without a bore protector. I use a 2 inch long piece of plastic inner hollow R/C model airplane control rod as a bore protector and fish doubled monofilament line thru it from the muzzle. Control rod tube fits nicely in a .177" bore.

The line I use is a soft cord... Kinda wired but it works...

Fred Mannis · Post by **Fred Mannis** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:16 pm

Nicole Hamilton wrote:
Fred Mannis wrote:As noted above, TSI301 was the most popular, but is no longer available.
Since when? I saw it on the shelf of a local gun shop just last week. And if you go the TSI-301 website, there's a link where you can buy it online by the bucket (literally.)

I placed an order for some at Neal's Guns about 6 months ago. They were out of stock and waiting for some to arrive. When I was in Colorado Springs in Dec I stopped in to ask about the order and was told that TSI301 was no longer in production. Probably a bunch in the supply chain though.

Bob Fleming · Post by **Bob Fleming** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 11:15 am

After reading the information on the web site,
http://www.tsi301.com/tsi321main.htm
it looks like TSI321 is better for air guns.
My spring piston guns all have plastic parts, some are mostly made of plastic. Anyone tried it?
Bob Fleming

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