How to:Clean an air rifle barrel

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to clean an air rifle barrel correctly assuming you have a cleaning kit, cleaning pellets will also come in handy but aren’t necessary. You can buy kits and cleaning pellets on eBay or most shops that sell air rifles. Hunting stores for example.

Now get your rifle and attach all the pieces of your cleaning rod together, once this is done attach the soft brush end onto the end of the cleaning rod.

Next you will need to open your barrel, if you have a scope you should remove it first to give easy access to the barrel, some people fully break the barrel first but this can make the spring weaker in future uses.

If you have a cleaning pellet put it in the barrel first. Once you’ve done this carefully start to push your brush into the barrel, all the way until it comes out of the other end, then pull it back. If you’ve used a cleaning pellet you’ll see some dirt on it, this is a good sign. If you don’t have any cleaning pellets it will still be being cleaned.

Using the soft attachment will of made the barrel ready to have one of the more rough attachments used to thoroughly clean the barrel. For an air rifle with rifling, I would suggest not using any metal inside the barrel as it could wear away from the inside, if you do decide to do this take extreme care not to scratch the barrel. So stick to the softer bristly attachment if you can.

If you have cleaning pellets, again use another one in this step. Once you’ve attached the bristles to the cleaning rod place it in the barrel again and twist as you push through to preserve your rifling. If you’ve used a cleaning pellet again, you should notice that it is cleaner than the last one, this is again a good sign, when you come to pull it back through again be very careful and twist at the same time so you don’t damage your barrel.

This whole process can be repeated over and over until either your cleaning pellet is completely clean when it comes out of the other end, or when you are satisfied you have cleaned enough. Once you’re happy that you’re done, wash your bristly attachment and dry it, take apart your cleaning rod and put it all back in a safe place for when you next feel like you need it. You should only have to clean your rifle barrel every 600-1000 shots or when you notice accuracy dropping.

Congratulations! You’ve just given your air rifle barrel a perfect clean.

WARNING: Some things described on this site are potentially dangerous/illegal. The writers of this site assume no responsibility for the consequences that may result from attempting the activities described here.

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