Air rifle care
Having become the owner of an air rifle or pistol, many do not even think that they need to be cleaned sometimes. Some people clean their weapons, but they do it wrong. Let's find out what is the correct cleaning of pneumatics.
The barrel of a rifle, especially if it is a "worn out" rifle, quickly becomes covered with lead. As a rule, these are microscopic pieces of a bullet or lead dust. What does the cleanliness of the barrel affect? Yes, almost nothing. However, one fine day, the accuracy of fire begins to decline sharply and you can forget about accuracy.
The shot for rifles, after which they need to be cleaned, is different for different models. This characteristic is directly related to the power of the rifle and the bullets used, but, as a rule, it should be cleaned after 100-150 shots. Also, many imported rifles have a "choke" constriction, and it is in this place that the main lead coating takes place.
Most air gun enthusiasts use inexpensive cleaning kits. They can be bought at any online store that sells weapons and equipment. The standard set includes a brass ruff, a plastic-coated three-knee ramrod and a nylon velvet ruff. You can use such a set outdoors when you need to clean the barrel without much hassle. For a full-fledged home cleaning, it is advisable to get a meter-long non-separable cleaning rod with a plastic sheath.
There are also such "professionals" who clean their pneumatics with a steel ramrod (supplied with Russian-made rifles). Don't do that! After a couple of cleanings, you will definitely damage the barrel rifling.
For many, the correct cleaning consists in driving the nylon brush along the barrel several times, and if the rifle is lucky, then with some oil. This is far from "proper cleaning of airguns"!
To understand how much lead remains in the barrel after such cleaning, you can do a simple experiment:
- Rub the edge of the rifle barrel with a pencil and try to erase it with oil (you can rub it for a long time).
- Take regular medical cotton wool and rub the breech - it will turn completely black.
I suppose you now have an idea of how much lead remains in the barrel of an air rifle.
Visher
Some kits may include the "correct" visher. With the help of this device, you can really clean the barrel really well, but not all kits are equipped with it.
Correct visher
As a rule, the highest quality goods can be found at arms exhibitions. Alternatively, some online stores sell a set of "patches" with holes for the holder, which can also be purchased. All this is not a cheap pleasure, and cleaning with a visher in the form of a corkscrew will come out just as well.
Suppose that we have a cleaning rod with a visher, now we can go directly to the cleaning procedure.
Rifle barrel cleaning
Take the brass ruff and screw it onto the ramrod. Next, spray the oil on the ruff. The best option is Ballistol oil. It peels off the lead coating very well from the rifle barrel. I do not recommend using VD-40 and other oils.
Cleaning kit
Having passed a couple of times along the barrel, the brush will remove the large lead, while the barrel should not be damaged, of course, if it is not brass or with a brass liner. In this case, you should not use a ruff.
After a few minutes, screw in our correct cherry and take a piece of pressed cotton wool. It peels off easily in small pieces and winds well on the cherry. Wind it so that the visher fits very tightly into the trunk. If desired, cotton wool can also be sprinkled with Ballistol oil.Next, you need to clean the barrel, periodically changing the cotton wool until it comes out clean. If you haven't done cleaning for a long time, this process can take a long time, so be patient.
The best way to clean the barrel of an air rifle is from the breech side. However, if, due to the design of the rifle, this is problematic, then it is possible from the muzzle side. If the cleaning rod is in a braid, then with careful cleaning it will not harm the cut.
After you have finished cleaning the barrel, and the appearance of a clean fleece makes you delighted, for the work done, it is worth firing several shots, preferably not aiming, but exclusively for "burning" the barrel. By the way, you should do the same if during the shooting you suddenly decide to change the bullets to others. This is due to the fact that the composition of all bullets is different and each brand leads the barrel "individually", and the first shot usually fails.
Bullet preparation
The bullets should also be rinsed, as due to the nature of the production they contain microscopic dust. You may have noticed how some stamps grease your fingers more than others.
Bullets should be washed in 3 stages:
1. Put the bullets in a jar, completely fill with white spirit, swirl a little and leave for a while (15-20 minutes). After the specified manipulations, drain the white spirit.
2. Pour hot water over the bullets, then add some dishwashing liquid. Shake slightly and pour into a sieve for rinsing with water.
3. Pour bullets onto the newspaper so that it absorbs the remaining water. Then dry them with a hair dryer so that the bullets do not have time to become coated with lead oxide, which is very harmful to the barrel.
Perhaps the main points were not missed. Have a good hunting!
