Cleaning air rifle

[Jaguilar1]

We’re new to air rifles so this may seem like a dumb question. What’s the best way to clean a fwb 800?

Thanks in advance

[Rover]

Don't.

If you feel you MUST do something, shoot a couple of Q-tips down the bore.

[PeeWeeDaddy]

X1

[spektr]

The way I clean my FWB800x is to send it in for service every 4 or 5 years. otherwise, I wipe down the outside and put it away. Once every so often, I wipe off the threads on the cylinder and use a tiny dot of grease on it and put a drop of oil in the gun before I screw the tank back on....

[Richard144]

From the previous posts you are getting the message that you need not clean air rifles much at all. If the accuracy does drop off or you feel the urge to clean it do what I do. Get a piece of string and tie a loop in one end to slip a small cleaning patch in. Then use a vacuum cleaner at the muzzle to suck the string thru the barrel from the breach end. Then pull the string thru with a patch attached. Repeat as desired. it's tedious but you will get some dirt out of the barrel. You could very lightly, I say VERY lightly oil the patch. Just to make sure you undersatnd, VERY lightly! Whether or not it helps accuracy is questionable, but it may make you happy!

Rick B.

[PeeWeeDaddy]

If not string, weed eater cord.

[Richard144]

Yea there is a commercial product (name escapes me at the moment) but it uses weed eater type cord and the patch fastens to one end. Works well and not real pricey but string is cheaper.
Rick B.

[PeeWeeDaddy]

I am not an Olympic shooter.
I have been shooting firearms and air arms since I was 8 years old (70 years).
Last year I bought a FWB601 to replace my 300S.
The manual for the 601 is very explicit about barrel maintenance.
I suspect other manufacturers of high grade air rifles echo their thoughts.

[KDZ]

My relevant experience is with benchrest air rifle competition (USARB / 25M). Benchrest competition is a combination of minimizing equipment-related inaccuracy and reading wind. A good barrel is paramount, as is the onerous task of finding the right (lot of) pellets that shoot with it. The other variable is what the best barrel cleaning regimen for your particular barrel and ideal pellets is.

Testing / evaluating is difficult, problematic and fundamentally scientific. You can't properly test pellets or cleaning outdoors because wind effects swamp the test variables. Testing indoors is better, but even indoors there are air currents and other variables not properly controlled. Most shooters are not aware of the confounding variables and come to facile incorrect conclusions. What pellets shoot best with this gun? What cleaning protocol should I use?*

My early benchrest protocol was to clean after every card (~40 shots including sighters), using WD40 soaked patch followed by 2 dry, then 4 sighter shots to lead-in the barrel. That protocol won many matches, but so did a subsequent protocol of cleaning with one dry patch after two cards.

I suggest that for hand-held guns (as opposed to benchrest), score has little to do with pellets or cleaning protocol. It is almost entirely due to shooter skill, and things like cleaning protocol have nothing to do with results. I left benchrest for this reason. I prefer competition that promotes learnable* skills, rather than esoteric quests for the best shooting ammo, barrels, cleaning, etc.

*though talent plays a huge role

[Azmodan]

i think "cleaning" can have 2 meanings: 1) clean to improve/maintain accuracy. 2) clean to keep the gun functioning
first one is related only to the barrel, but the second extends to the rest of the parts, especially to the trigger components.

so the question might be: how do you clean the rest of an airgun? how and how often can/must you clean/lubricate the trigger parts?

[spektr]

so the question might be: how do you clean the rest of an airgun? how and how often can/must you clean/lubricate the trigger parts?

I have never cleaned or lubed the trigger group. I let the service guys do it. My 800X gets a touch of grease sparingly applied to the tank threads, 1 drop of oil into the gun annually and i very lightly oil the articulating parts in the loading lever/bolt annually. I wipe the gun off with a gun cloth when Im done with the days shooting.