When I first bought my Huben k1 PCP Bull-pup. I thought I wasted $1800 on a piece of junk that would not group at 100 yards. The first thing I did was clean the barrel, but what i noticed was the patch was getting caught up in certain spots while pulling it through. I then had my friend use a borescope to look in the barrel. Turns out there were some cloudy rough spots on the crest of the rifling in 5 different spots. So he polished it for me and it was like shooting a whole different gun. Rock Chucks at 100 plus yards haven't stood a chance since. Will definitely try it myself now when I get a new air rifle. It really does help especially for the air rifles that sit in warehouses for a long time. Mother Nature can creep into anything. Thanks for the video. Need more tech videos like this. Nic did an excellent job.
After watching this video I decided to give my FX M3 barrel a polish. All I can say is WOW accuracy was good before but after a polish it was noticeably better, average scores on the target increased by about 7% Just take your time, smooth and steady is better than fast and furious
Thank you for investing your time in producing this presentation, and sharing your knowledge. Immensely informative. I am sorry about the weather - I hope your butt recovers! 100% for commitment. Best wishes.
Great job, Nic. Showing in detail the barrel polishing process my turn some of the sceptics into believers. I've heard about the improvement can make to a rifle with a good barrel and good trigger. Now with a little elbow grease you can get the most out of any air rifle. Some of those pellets sitting around may go from plinking pellets to good hunting pellets too!
This is almost exactly the process I use. The only difference and something I might add is to push a pellet through the barrel and see if there is any resistance where it shouldn't be. Then I mark my Dewey rod and focus on that specific area while using the JB Borepaste, like 10-20 strokes in that one specific few inches. Then I do the whole process Nic uses. Good shooting on the airgun Challenge Nic, hopefully I'll see you when I come to the east coast for a FT match. I'm not sure if Eric has dates up for a GP this year. Cam K
Hey Cam! Sometimes I'll slug a pellet through the bore, but I noticed that with my Air Arms rifles, the whole thing felt pretty good? There were no rough spots since they came very well finished from the factory. With other rifles, I did that, and also added more repetitions to the actual polishing stroke. Last time I spoke with him he was thinking about it...hoping it'll materialize 🤞
@@nicgregoris5404 just like you said, the AA PCPs I've had they were all pretty consistent but I could have only confirmed that by slugging it. Regardless if there was a little imperfection, the process you used would soften it for sure. The TX barrel can benefit from slapping as well, especially the lead and a few inches in. Are you going to shoot in piston this year?
Your worst pellets pre polish, did the best! That was great sir! I am only just now getting into PCP's, I have a few propellant driven tools. Thank you! Excellent video!
excellent "how to", only thing I've added to the process is good solvent cleaning, then warming the barrel to a low bake temp (275-300F) and a quick mop through with FrogLube, let cool then a couple passes with double patches to pull the excess back out of it. its made for firearms but dang if air guns don't seem to love the stuff. the metal pores expand when its warmed up to drink in the FrogLube, gets locked into those pores when it cools, making surfaces like "teflon slick". rifling still catches head+skirt to throw spirals like it should but the flats between the rifling get sealed+smoothed for lower friction. bore doesn't dirt up as fast, much quicker+easier cleaning. I don't know that Flitz wouldn't behave similarly if "cooked in" then mopped clean after, its a really good product too. after doing air cylinder wall and shot tube of 3 Daisy spring plunger BB guns (Red Ryder type) with all 3 of them gaining 10-11% fps doing nothing else, I was convinced! all organic, minty smelling, nice to work with.. done the bores of the 3 budget air rifles I have here with it too, polished and sealed, its also very rust preventive.
well explained abstract in the beginning and organized/concise information delivery throughout!! a high ranking barrel cleaning/polishing video here. considering there are thousands of them on YT. and thankyou for recommending removing the barrel from the action to better control the polishing process. finally a polishing vid I mostly agree with lol!! (didn't show before after)
What JB compound are you using as there a few kind. Would appreciate it as I want to tune up my hatsan airtact and use it rather than place it in a closet. Is it possible to do the whole step with flitz only?
Like the video but I can’t find any info for removing my barrel for my s510 anywhere could you give me any direction on where to look for that info. Thanks
Removing the barrel on the S510 is very easy after you remove the shroud. Where the shroud screws onto the breech, Air Arms uses quite a bit of threadlocker so you will need to take a bit of heat to that and work it loose. I used a heat gun on the low setting. Remove the upper from the air tube before going about this. Once you remove the shroud, there are two grub screws that hold the barrel in place. One is exposed and the other is below the magazine retention plate (thin metal piece with two screws just in front of where the magazine is inserted). Remove that, loosen those screws, and the barrel will pull right out.
Nothing specific. Search for the caliber and barrel cleaning on Amazon. Lots of good options will pop up. Just make sure the threads on the mop match the threads on the rod. Biggest time this is an issue is on a .177 rod when using a larger (.22 and up) mops. You can buy adapters for the .177 rods if needed.
Could you do videos on showing how to straighten a barrel or compressor tube? Get them in alignment. Got two vintage air rifles with bends. One (old HW35) has the barrel pointing to the right by an inch or so, and a bow/bend downwards (NOT barrel droop, this is a bend) And the second one has a pretty straight barrel but the compressor tube is bent slight to the right but mostly up. (So the breech appears crooked or the forks, but it's the compressor housing behind the forks)
First off great video but I have a Question as you polish for instance when you pass a section your polishing do you just polish the next section only or do you cone all the way back
The patches getting lighter is because the first patches had the lead on them.normal cleaning does not remove all the lead.polishing compound does.lastly no "swarf" is produced in polishing. it is more like dust than swarf.
Hey this was an excellent video. Some real good tips in there. I always hate cleaning my barrel because I have had a few of them shoot terrible afterwards but shooting a good soft pellet will help it lead in quicker. My favorite pellet’s are the Air Arm’s Diabolo Field. I haven’t shot everything but every rifle I have will shoot them great. Did you find that it leaded in quicker after you polished your barrel? I was kinda thinking the polishing would make the lead-in process faster. But I have no experience with it. Hey thanks for making this , you did a A+ presentation. It’s a 20 minute video packed with everything you need to hear , no wasted time. An air gunner with one eye , lol I know you’re a real one🫡. Keep up the good work bud!
Yes it should - hit my rimfires with it too. Careful though, too much polishing can increase friction so if you’re running a custom barrel (like a Proof) I wouldn’t do it. Factory barrels are what this is aimed at.
What's the logic behind polishing the breech end 5x more than the choke and muzzle end? Seems to me like an even polish through the entire bore would be most beneficial.
Great question - I wish I explained this in the video. The logic behind polishing the breech more than the muzzle end is that the leade is generally the toughest part of the rifling. When the pellet is pushed into the rifling by the probe, this poses the largest risk of damaging the projectile or having the largest deformation effect. If your choke is especially tight or rough, then polish that more. You can slug your bore before the polishing to identify tight spots as well. In order to keep the video to a manageable length, I omitted these smaller details.
Had to do a little research to get you the answer on this one. Not an easy process or for the weak of heart. Pull the guts out. Run the rod through the compression tube. Make sure you measure the rod so it doesn’t exit the barrel on each stroke.
When you say 20 strokes, do you mean when pushing the rod in, it counts as one stroke. And when you pull the rod out it counts as another stroke? Or pushing the rod in and out counts as one stroke? Also what hopps number 9 mop did you use for .22 caliber?
Great Video! My only question is why would you not want the whole thing polished the same. So instead of 100 at the breach end and 20 at the muzzle why not 100 for the entire barrel?? Does having that resistance as the pellet travels down the barrel improve accuracy? Thanks again for the info!
Great question. Nic's method is the same as I was taught years ago. Not sure that we have an exact answer other than that is how it has always been done. If you happen upon more information please make sure to share and we will do the same.
I can't figure that out either as a fabricator; it seems more sensible to me to fully polish the length of it to make the choke machining more efficient.
@@Bodhi1satva After the JB paste, I clean with rubbing alcohol or acetone dipped patches to really strip all the gunk out of the bore after the first round of polishing. I'll then pull a few dry patches thru so there's none of the chemical left in the bore. I do the same thing after the flitz polishing. Once I've polished the bore and it's back in the rifle, I only clean when the rifle starts to act up (or about every 300 rounds when I'm at a competition). I clean using ballistol and an Air Marksman pull-thru. Nothing crazy.
They looked similar on camera, but when looking at them in person the difference was much more stark. Polished groups were about 1/4"-3/8" smaller. I wish I had taken pictures with calipers showing the groups since the scope cam and target cam doesn't quite do it justice.
I understand you. The paste won't harm the crown like he says it can, turning it into a trumpet shaped thing. The crown is the most important part to polish. He even points out it'll come out black and that's metal but you can't measure it at all if you tried. So I say go out of the bore but like he said always work from the chamber area. Everything stays lined up properly so you never harm the crown.
I think that the method " Awsome Airgans" is good to get some "chatter" out of the barrels before this mothod. I believe to always test your progress by pushing a pellet through often. I am only happy when i can push a pellet through with the same force all the way. I finish with his way shown here. If you have a barrel that tou think you have to replace, there is nothing to lose. I have a metal rod with a slit, that I have sanded tight paches out of barrels with a cordless drill. You then have to get those burs out again that was caused. I have fixed bad barrels, spending lots of hours and if it is smooth and a pellet slides through with the same friction, it is golden. (I only shoot slugs and slugs are a lot less forgiving than pellets)
I believe that some have polished them, but I have no experience with it and can't recommend. Give Utah Airguns a call and speak with their smith. They would have some solid advice.
Since i have seen this video, i have done this to my two stx Superior barrels and it shoots even better,also my velocity went up a little bit, because it has no tight spots anymore (and less barrel cleaning)
Some will even wax the barrel after polishing. In general, a good polish will keep the barrel from leading up and needing cleaned as frequently. A good polish can (doesn't always) increase accuracy. Have yet to see a (general like the one in the video) polishing hurt accuracy.
Nick, your a good presenter but the hand movement is distracting. You can emphasize with less repetitive hand movement. Also!! All gun barrels have tight spots. Projectile fit is extremely important.
My FX barrel has at least one o ring inside the barrel. Surely you don't polish over that o ring. Also, you would not be able to get the polish from around the underside of that o ring when you were don without removing it and very carefully cleaning the grove in which that o ring resides. What say ye?
You can either remove the o-ring and use a small pipe brush/compressed air canisters to clean out the groove, OR polish right over the o-ring and replace it when finished. I've starting leaning towards the latter.
@@michaelwilmshurst3663 Study more of FX barrel systems. There is a liner in barrel and barrel is in shroud. Liner can be removed completely. Liner itself is like a piece of pipe, rifling pressed on outside, zero O-rings inside! Google it. Whole point of those liners is that You can switch them (different twist rates) according to what are You shooting - pellets or slugs. But if You don't want to, You don't have to, one liner is capable of shooting both.
🤔 our experience and testing shows differently, especially if you are wanting to extract the great performance from your platform. Light polish = greater accuracy
I imagine 100s ruined good barrels watching this video o dear, it's not needed on air riffles it can do more damage than good I bendy rod like his is dangerous, I've seen so many crown ruined by these videos it on takes ones tiny mistake and the crown is gone must see 100 riffles a month for re crowning they say don't no what happened first thing I do oil on a white patch all I see is polishing pastes left behind, I'm happy makes me about £1140 on re crowns
Plenty of reasons. #1 being lead buildup. #2 manufacturing grease, #3 a good polish will help reduce imperfections in the barrel making process. May want to try it before you knock it. No "Bull Shit" here.
shows how clueless you are because cleaning a powder burner isnt just about cleaning the burnt powder out but also the copper and lead. Your ignorance is really showing.
