CLEANING PELLETS - Maintenance made easy

I must admit that I have a blind spot when it comes to keeping my air rifle barrels clean, and by that, I mean internally. I am fastidious with cleanliness in my centrefire rifles’ barrels, so why neglect my air rifles? They are just as important and I probably use them more regularly.

We all get a bit lazy when it comes to airgun barrels and cleaning, but it is important to keep the bore clean of debris and build-up of lead and swarf, whilst also checking for ingress of rust and corrosion. But what’s the best and easiest way to keep your barrels spotless? Well, you can go the complete cleaning kit route with a rod, jag, patches etc. which is a very good idea, or if you are in the BoreSnake brigade, where a quick pull-through every now or then is good enough, then the use of cleaning pellets might be a better solution. These felt pellets can be literally shot down the barrel to remove dirt, grime, and lead. You can even soak them in a cleaning solution for thorough lead removal.

Spec

I bought three different types: the VFG Weapon Care pellets, as the name suggests, are a complete gun cleaning product that can be used with rods and special jags, but the .177 and .22 airgun cleaning pellets are designed to be shot through the barrel as is. Next, the Remington Cleansers again are felt pellets in both .177 and .22 calibre, designed to be shot through the barrel as is or with a cleaning solution. Finally, the Ballistol Felt Cleaning Classics are a blend of felt pellets to shoot through the barrel like a normal pellet. They all work in similar ways, as the pressure is built up behind each felt pellet, expanding their diameter, which means that every part of the rifling lands and grooves’ surfaces are thoroughly cleaned and polished.

The VFG felt pellets are made in Germany and come in Perspex cartons. For £4.86 you can get 100 pieces in .177 (4.5mm) or 80 in .22 (5.5mm). Obviously, they are calibre-specific, and are used differently to the standard VFG cleaning felts, as they are loaded into your air rifle as you would an air pellet and then fired down the barrel to achieve a clean bore (not using a cleaning rod). The .177 felts have a 5.25mm length and weigh in at 0.4-grains, whilst the .22 are 6.0mm long and weigh 1.0-grains.

Next up, the Remington Cleansers come in a traditional metal pellet tin holding 300 .177 (4.5mm) and 220 .22 (5.5mm) pellets, at £3.25. They have a different, harder texture to the other cleaning pellets, and are pure white in colour. They are also very uniform in size and weight, with the .177 measuring 5.0mm long and weighing 0.4-grains and the .22 6mm and 0.8-grains.

Finally, the Ballistol Felt Cleaner Classics in their pop-up lid-opening plastic containers hold 60 .177 or .22 felt pellets. The retail price is about £4.10. The .177 is longer than the other cleaning pellets at 10mm (1.0-grains), while the .22 measures 6mm (0.8-grains).

The cleaning procedure is identical for all; you can opt for a normal clean, shooting two to four clean pellets through the bore, or soak the felt pellets in a cleaning oil for a more thorough clean. Shoot two of these soaked pellets as normal, let the bore sit for 10 to 15 minutes to dislodge the fouling, and then shoot two clean felt pellets through, or as many as it takes until they come out clean.

Test

I selected several air rifles for testing and immediately noticed differences in their fit, as some were snug and very tight. Me being me, I had to chronograph the velocities and boy was I surprised. I shot these dry but will do a repeat test using solvent-soaked pellets.

First up were the VFG from Alan Rhone. These are very consistent and well-made felt pellets that were quite a tight fit but very uniform. In .177 we had 665 fps and a clean barrel in four felt pellets. In the .22 variant, we had five shots at 315 fps for a clean felt pellet and thus bore. Really good deep cleaning.

Next, the Ballistol. The .177 were much longer than the rest and moved at a stonking 807 fps! I only needed four pellets to completely clean the bore of the HW35 on test, which is very impressive. The Venom .22 HW80 bore was cleaned with five .22 cleaning pellets at 412 fps.

Finally, the Remington were a tight fit and quite short, but gave a good initial clean, with the .177 cleaning pellets acting more like a regular .177 lead pellet, as velocities were 1157 fps. Four were needed for a clean bore. With the .22 variety, we had again a tight and efficient clean within four pellets at a velocity of 414 fps.

Conclusions

Truthfully, I was a bit ashamed of how I’d neglected my air rifles’ bores! Judging by the results, these felt pellets are so easy to use and achieve a very good clean of the barrel, so it is well worth using them. I will try again using cleaning products with each felt pellet and assess a realistic cleaning regime in the future.

Any of these products will work for you, depending on the bore size and fit of each pellet, but what is obvious is that regardless of which product you use, just use one, as it will clean and offer a greater possibility of accuracy.