Felt cleaning pellets

[Ken O]

Do they work? Do you use them?

[Fred Mannis]

Do they work? Do you use them?

Yes. Yes

[Richard H]

Its basically all I use in my air pistol every 500 or thousand shoot four or 5 through, put them in clean they come out with dirt on them, so I guess they work. The fourth or fifth is clean so thats when I stop.

[Eurastus]

Do you fellows shoot them dry or use lube/cleaner of some sort?

[RobStubbs]

Do a search on them on this site and you see some cons as well as pros. In brief the fibres of the felt pads can get into the air port of your gun and cause it to fail. I very rarely use them now, for that very reason.

Rob.

[peepsight]

Many airgun manufacturers recommend using the cleaning felts in their guns, surely if there was a problem they wouldn't recommend them?
I have never seen any advice to use them wet from the manufacturers.
My Walther came with a small pack of felts when i bought it.
Peeps

[Richard H]

In my AP I use them dry there I really no need to use solvents and such in a match AP. In my 22 and 32 I use them both wet and dry with a cleaning rod (can't shoot them thru).

This little bit of felt issue seems to have reached urban legend status. I once seen one person in one thread say this. Since that time It been refered to almost everytime on the subject. Personally it makes no sense to me for the following reasons;

1. The airport in most match pistols, my LP 10 for one is a fair distance from any of the real important mechanics namely the regulator. The probability of fibers getting in the port making a turn then traveling several cms to the regulator are slim.

2. If they did they are felt fibers and wouldn't do any harm and certainly no permanent damage.

3. If fibers are deposited during the insertion of the felt pellet. The act of firing high pressure air through it would most likely remove them.

4. They use them in the factory.

5. Many of the top manufactured recommend them and some even supply them.

6. No reputable source that I know has ever said that when used correctly they can damage your AP.

Maybe Scott can chime in on this issue as I consider him both a reputable and respected source in regard to air arms and he has close dealings with some if the top air gunsmiths in the world.

[Fred Mannis]

Totally agree with Richard.

I have experimented with wetting a felt pellet with TSI301, followed by several dry pellets. I could see no benefit in doing this and it was a bit of a bother.

[LesJ]

Few years ago Don Nygord was looking at my air pistol and ask me if I was cleaning my barrel. I said I shot few felt pellets till they came out clean. He then showed to me how to make cleaning device for air pistols out of heavy monofilament fishing line and ran few patches saturated with, I believe it is called T301 or something like that.
Patches that came out were black, and he stated that pellets are usless.
Warren Potter mentioned that black stuff is a graphite which is used as lubricant on the pellets and not a indication of lead.
Is graphite good or bad in the barrel and how much of it is to much?
I do not know.
Those test targets at the factory are shot thru clean barrels.





i

[Richard H]

I too have a pull through and I have personally found that after shooting 3 to 5 felt pellets when the last one comes out clean, I've then ran the pull through through an it too was clean. The first pellet was dirtiest and they became cleaner as I progressed. If when you shoot them they come out dirty, they really can't be useless as their purpose is to remove dirt, are there other ways to clean, yes, are they as convenient, probably not. I don't think anyone has said that a pull through with a patch won't clean the barrel because of course it will, but it is not as convenient and the other important fact is that the felt pellets do not cause damage, where it is far easier to damage the airgun with a pull through and solvent if the person doesn't know what they are doing than with little felt cleaning pellets.

The dirt in MATCH airgun is basically the lubrication from the pellets. Shooting under or around 600 ft/sec is not going to deposit lead in your barrel, again in a MATCH airgun.

Hunting and field target airguns pushing 900 + ft/sec are a different issue and can have leading.

[Fred Mannis]

Few years ago Don Nygord was looking at my air pistol and ask me if I was cleaning my barrel. I said I shot few felt pellets till they came out clean. He then showed to me how to make cleaning device for air pistols out of heavy monofilament fishing line and ran few patches saturated with, I believe it is called T301 or something like that.
Patches that came out were black, and he stated that pellets are usless.
Warren Potter mentioned that black stuff is a graphite which is used as lubricant on the pellets and not a indication of lead.
Is graphite good or bad in the barrel and how much of it is to much?
I do not know.
Those test targets at the factory are shot thru clean barrels.

That's the point of using dry felt pellets - you want to remove the excess graphite, not scrub the bore back to bare metal. It's similar to the situation with a quality .22 barrel - there is little, if any, lead build up. So running a patch through to remove debris and excess lubricant does the job. If you do manage to take the bore back to bare metal without damaging it, then you will have to then recondition it to reestablish your group and zero. Rarely worth it with a 22 or with an AP. The FT rifles run at higher velocity - 1000 fps or so - and those guys often lubricate their pellets with a synthetic lube to minimize any lead build up

[Rover]

I use a whole or half Q-tip because I'm cheap and because they cause a lot more resistance in an FWB 65 or spring powered air rifle.

I would not use a solvent in a spring gun for fear of dieseling.

[robf]

Graphite?

Anyway... accuracy seems to only be of benefit when they are the type used with a rod and bore solvent. The shoot through ones seem to do nothing to solve build up or slivers.

As for them getting into the transfer port... against 85 bar that's a hell of a feat, and more to stay there. Then they have to get into the knockopen valve assembly and then into the reg reservoir, then into the reg. That's a hell of a feat for a micro fibre against 85 bar in the opposite direction. Even more so if you don't use a gun where the pellet even passes the port... as some guns the port is behind the pellet to start with, so can't even fall in.

[LesJ]

[quote="robf"]Graphite?

There was more information about graphite, but at this time that is all I can find on the subjuct:
http://www.pilkguns.com/arch/arch222.htm
Target pellets are coted with graphite as a lube.
I know that other pellets shot at higher velocitis are coted with some other type.

[LesJ]

And to complicate things even more: http://www.nygord-precision.com/cleaning.html

[Spencer]

In my AP I use them dry there I really no need to use solvents and such in a match AP. In my 22 and 32 I use them both wet and dry with a cleaning rod (can't shoot them thru).

This little bit of felt issue seems to have reached urban legend status. I once seen one person in one thread say this. Since that time It been refered to almost everytime on the subject. Personally it makes no sense to me for the following reasons;

1. The airport in most match pistols, my LP 10 for one is a fair distance from any of the real important mechanics namely the regulator. The probability of fibers getting in the port making a turn then traveling several cms to the regulator are slim.

2. If they did they are felt fibers and wouldn't do any harm and certainly no permanent damage.

3. If fibers are deposited during the insertion of the felt pellet. The act of firing high pressure air through it would most likely remove them.

4. They use them in the factory.

5. Many of the top manufactured recommend them and some even supply them.

6. No reputable source that I know has ever said that when used correctly they can damage your AP.

Maybe Scott can chime in on this issue as I consider him both a reputable and respected source in regard to air arms and he has close dealings with some if the top air gunsmiths in the world.

Richard has expressed my doubts about the reported 'problem' with felt fibres getting into the works.

Has anybody ever experienced the problem (not heard of somebody else)?

Spencer

[RobStubbs]

<snip.
Has anybody ever experienced the problem (not heard of somebody else)?

Spencer

My source is, if I recall correctly, one of my fellow UK posters here. The information has come from our UK Steyr service agent who has serviced numerous guns and found said fibres inside the guns. I'll see if I can find any more info on here (in previos threads), but I won't name names in case I'm misquoting people.

Rob.

[robf]

It would be strange, because Harry sells the things :D

[Richard H]

One of the oldest posts that I can find on here regarding damage from cleaning pellets is from you about using them in an LP5 and them getting in the mechanism.

Now that I could see, if a bunch of crud gets into the magazine feeding mechanism that could screw up the feeding.

I wonder if this is where the genesis of this urban legend sprang.

[Fred Mannis]

One of the oldest posts that I can find on here regarding damage from cleaning pellets is from you about using them in an LP5 and them getting in the mechanism.

Now that I could see, if a bunch of crud gets into the magazine feeding mechanism that could screw up the feeding.

I wonder if this is where the genesis of this urban legend sprang.

Makes sense.

However, there's no other way to clean an LP5/50. Perhaps it's best not to clean these guns at all?