Barrel cleaning and the hop up.

[emilianoksa]

Some people say when using the cleaning rod not to continue to the end of the barrel but stop before the hop up.

How then can the barrel be said to be clean if you are leaving the important couple of centimetres at the breech dirty?

Why do you need to avoid going past the cut out if the hop up has been disabled?

Others say disable the hop up and very gently push the rod down the full length of the barrel until you meet resistance from the air nozzle and stop.

Which method do you use?

I use isopropyl alcohol to remove grease and dirt. It evaporates quickly and doesn't appear to harm plastic or rubber (I could be wrong), so why should it matter if a tiny bit of it splashes onto the hop up bucking? It will be gone in seconds. 

 

[Rogerborg]

Wind the hop off and ream it out.  Contrast thousands of hard BBs ploughing through it against tension, versus a piece of soft cloth gently swishing though once in a while.

 

[Sacarathe]

Perhaps this will help. I put silicone lube in the barrel stopping just short of the hop.

 

[Wo1f]

I use isopropyl alcohol. I try to avoid the hop up for a couple of reasons. I spent so long fine tuning it I’m not wanting to wind it off, and while I’m sure isopropyl is safe for it, unless the bucking is visibly dirty, I tend to leave it well alone. I don’t think there’s anything overly wrong with winding it off and doing it if you don’t mind having to set it up again, it’s just not what I do. 

I would never in a million years put silicone oil down the barrel. The primary reason is it does effect the hop, but also isopropyl evaporates leaving nothing sticky/skippy behind. If the friction in the barrel is inconsistent, it will mess with the flight and the backspin. (It’s debated that the B.B. never touches the barrel and rides on a magical cushion of air, but I’d argue even the tiniest film of silicone oil will take up the space between a 5.95mm BB and a 6.01mm barrel. 

I just run a patch that’s damp Isopropyl alcohol though it and repeat until it comes out clean. Then do one dry pass.

 

[emilianoksa]

Yes, interesting though the video was, I just can't get my head around the idea of putting oil down a barrel.

Silicone oil is just about the hardest lubricant to completely get rid of. 

He used biodegradable bbs and said that normal ones would not be much different. Not sure I agree with that. Bios will shatter against a mesh mask much more easily than regular bbs.

The amount of plastic he rubbed off seemed excessive to me. I doubt it replicated the amount that would be lost through normal use. Pressing on hard and rubbing backwards and forwards does not mimic the action of a bb moving down a barrel.

I will also be sticking with the alcohol.

 

[Wo1f]

Bio’s are a nightmare. They swell and have been known to leave excessive residue in the barrel. I actually have a white mark on my speedloader from using airsoft surgeon .3 bio’s. If they can rub away being loaded into a mag, I don’t want them anywhere near my gun. 

 

[Arwen]

I've taken to simply removing the barrel and hop from the aeg, turning the ho off and cleaning it entirely, from hop to exit. It's a 10min job, it your barrel is not stupidly annoying like mine currently is ? 

I clean it using little alcohol wipes.

 

[Monkman]

Bio’s are a nightmare. They swell and have been known to leave excessive residue in the barrel. I actually have a white mark on my speedloader from using airsoft surgeon .3 bio’s. If they can rub away being loaded into a mag, I don’t want them anywhere near my gun. 

Click to shrink...

I lent someone my speedloader, it had a full load of .25 normal BB's...  At the end of the day he returned the speedloader and filled it with his .25 Bio BB's.  Anyway..next game day I go to load my pistol mags and there was so much plastic flaking off the bb's when trying to load the mag, I just dumped the lot in the bin.

**I also use alcohol wipes...and if the barrel still is a little funky...I have a cloth barrel pull through I use to polish up the barrel. (Home made pull through)

 

[proffrink]

I believe the silicone is to - as has been said - allow for residue to be removed more easily and to stop it sticking in the first place. Just don't get it near your bucking.

That said, I've not been adding it for a while and have had similar results, but this could be down to the finish on PDI barrels which makes cleaning pretty easy regardless as nothing sticks to them for very long.

 

[emilianoksa]

I've taken to simply removing the barrel and hop from the aeg, turning the ho off and cleaning it entirely, from hop to exit. It's a 10min job, it your barrel is not stupidly annoying like mine currently is ? 

I clean it using little alcohol wipes.

Click to shrink...

That was my intention with my LCT AKs.

The inner barrels on the full size ones are fairly easy to get at: just remove two allen headed screws and knock out a pin and the front of the gun separates.

Not so easy with the sub carbine AKs though. The allen screws are harder to get at as the battery cover is hinged and doesn't come off, and the screws are pretty small anyway. Instead of a bolt there are two more small and not very accessible grub screws to remove. You have to use a very thin allen key and it is a bugger getting them out. Repeatedly removing and re-attaching them will soon create problems I feel.

So I won't be doing that again.

For my second gun I simply placed the cleaning rod along the side of the gun from the beginning of the hop up unit to the end of the outer barrel and marked the rod with tape. From now on I will be cleaning the inner barrel without disassembly. Of course I won't be getting to the end of the barrel, but the alcohol on the patch will at least squeeze through to the breech end. And anyway, it isn't a target rifle after all.

And I will continue using alcohol. I love cleaners that evaporate.

 

[proffrink]

Perhaps I'm reading your last sentence incorrectly (apologies if I am), but just to be clear: The implication of Hunter Seeker Armouries is that you should clean with alcohol and use the silicone as a preventative measure after to make cleaning easier/less regular as it stops residue sticking. I did find this to be the case on brass barrels (especially older ones) but just didn't see a difference on any kind of quality steel (and I expect on many properly finished brass ones too). Anecdotal as anything though so your results may be different.

If you're cleaning with isopropyl alcohol you're doing it right anyway so what does it matter. As you say it's great to have something that evaporates fully after about 5 minutes too.

 

[emilianoksa]

Thanks for making that clear.

At some stage I will try putting some silicone down and wiping it out, to see if it works. I'm just a bit wary of getting any on the hop up rubber.

It will be easier to try on my M4 which disassembles easily. The I will be able to remove the rubber.

 

[Rogerborg]

I'd have thought that if your BBs are scraping along your barrel, you've got problems that won't be solved by a spurt of silicone oil.

 

[proffrink]

Every barrel just serves as a channel for the BB to roll along the roof of and all leave residue (some more than others). The thinking with the oil is that the residue has a harder job sticking and can be blown out the end more readily by the next BB and/or doesn't create enough friction to actually damage the finish of the barrel itself.

 

[gasman]

I just use the same cleaning rod I used for small bore rifle shooting with the aluminum ferule that takes barrel shaped felt cleaning pads. The tighter you screw the felts on the wider they get great for cleaning and polishing barrels.