Stuck pellets in airgun barrel

[Ola]

Just finished opening the barrel of a air gun. I have done it before but this time was different. I probably ruined the barrel.

The gun is not mine. It was given to me by my neighbor because the barrel has been stuck for 2 years. I had no idea what was in the barrel. I measured and the stuck part was 3 inches long.

I soaked the barrel for couple of days with different kind of chemicals that usually make it easier but nothing happened. I tried light tapping, then hammering and eventually I used some serious force to get the stuff out. There was something metallic (rust), then some wood and about 1,5 inches of pellets...

The question is: how the rust, wood and soft lead can be so stubborn to get out? Is it the 2 years that did it?

[GhostHawk]

wood swells with humidity, add rust and hey presto you have stuck.

[dtknowles]

if you can strip the barrel out of the gun, you could heat it to the melting point of lead without damage if it is all steel.

Tim

[Wally]

I had this happen to a FWB-124 that I own. The Pistol seal was leaking (and failed) so not enough air to push the pellet out. I shot a few before I realized they were not exiting the barrel--each pellet wedged the others in tighter.. I had an Outers brass cleaning rod (.177 caliber) --a 3 pc brass deal. From the breach end I inserted the rod with the threaded end first and twisted/screwed it into the first pellet base, then pulled it out to extract...then I did the next one in turn. Hammering a rod into the barrel will not work (I won't say how I know). Good luck!

[bangerjim]

Rust - the chemical action that takes place with Fe-based metals, water, and anything else in contact with - makes an amazing bond! Wood, being hygroscopic, sucks all the water and FeO2 up in the cells and really makes a good bond.

That soft lead they use for pellets can really get in the barrel, especially if the gun has set in a humid climate (Finland?) for years without any oil in there.


bangerjim

[Bent Ramrod]

Wally has it. After pellet # 4 or 5, the earlier ones are wedged in so they can't be pushed out.

The only thing I've found that works is a piece of drill rod that is a slip fit in the barrel, with a short piece of a smaller drill bit soldered on the end. I chuck the rod into a tailstock chuck and turn the drill by hand, slowly getting the centers of the pellets drilled out and cleaning out the collapsed rims.

i have two Sheridan junkers that I'm trying to cannibalize into one working air gun. Unfortunately, both of them belonged to people who thought it was possible to shoot stuck pellets out with other pellets. Both had over 3" of blockage in the barrels. I've gotten one down to 1-1/2" or so, but the end is not yet in sight. Don't know who gets the prize for grim determination here, me or the guys who thought that just one more pellet would do the trick as they stacked them up in there.

[sixshootertexan]

I was trying to slug my barrel I had purchased for my .308 air rifle and got one stuck. I drilled the center out and managed to tap out the rest with a rod and hammer.

[lmcollins]

I had a table at a gun show once next to a fella who did air gun repair. He told me that plugged barrels was a large part of his business.

He stated that he disassembled the guns so that he could get them (barrel only) under a press of some type with the breech well supported. He then filled the bore with short sections of near bore sized metal rod. In this manner he could apply straight pressure onto the obstruction without any side torque. By using the short sections he never had but an inch or so unsupported by the barrel.

It all makes sense. Oil it up, and inch it out. You could use a long section to get almost to the obstruction, and then use short pieces.

[Ola]

if you can strip the barrel out of the gun, you could heat it to the melting point of lead without damage if it is all steel. Tim

Yes. I definitely would have done that, BUT, the barrel is covered with plastic... It's one of these "junior"-class air rifles from Gamo.

[Multigunner]

Gunsmiths in black powder days would drill out the center of a stuck bullet then plug each end of the bore after pouring in a bit of liquid mercury. Mercury dissolves lead. After awhile they just poured out the lead/mercury amagram. No damage to bore or rifling lands that way.

[w5pv]

I have never stuck a pellet but it can happen.I use a tiny bit of bullet lube on my pellets and just tumble lube them.My air rifle is an crossman single shot break barrel that I use to kill starlins,sparrows and other pest.The barrel has that carnuba wax shine in it after several hundred rounds shot through it.Just sumthing I did for the heck of it.

[gloob]

I didn't even know sticking a pellet in an airgun was a thing. When I read about the warnings and what to do in case of a stuck pellet in the instruction manual of my air rifle, I thought it was corporate dummy-proofing (BTW, the instructions said to use a cleaning rod to remove the pellets). I have only ever "stuck" a Crosman Heavy in my bore one or twice using 1 pump. A couple more pumps behind it sufficed to remove/shoot it.

Just sumthing I did for the heck of it.

I do this with Daisy pellets, because they're coated with powdered graphite to prevent oxidation. I wax them up then tumble them on a paper towel while they're hot. The excess wax comes off with most of the graphite.

Lubed pellets are supposed to lose velocity in high powered PCP's due to the viscosity and surface tension, but it's necessary to lube an antimony alloy pellet at those velocities to avoid lead fouling. In low powered guns, there's no need to lube, but there has been some testing that shows increased velocity and lowered ESD. But since I started lubing, I noticed I have to clean the bore after every tin or three. There's a point where graphite and wax build up and the accuracy drops off.

[Ola]

Sticking a pellet in air gun is not a thing. But sticking something else seems to be. I have seen pieces of wood, a nail and once a bunch of small shot (!). After something like that sticks, the normal pellets, maybe 10 of them stacked up behind the obstruction, cause some serious trouble.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I think a spring airgun is likely to be adequately lubed by oil mist, provided that you use oil sold for that purpose. Other oils may "diesel", showing a little smoke in the bore under the heat of compression. So may some of the constituents of improvised lubricants, and leave a residue which increases friction. It might seem that lubes which work in ordinary firearms would be fine in this less demanding application. But the bore of a firearm is an oxygen-starved environment, and this is in compressed air.


In a .22 airgun 7/32in. brass tubing is likely to fit the bore, and a 3/16in drill bit would epoxy into the end of the K&S tubing that can be bought in 12in. lengths in model-making shops or on eBay. But heat, gently applied but enough to melt lead or char wood, is probably the best solution in barrels which aren't plastic coated or lacquered. It won't take enough to damage conventional bluing.