Many a thread I have seen where people say to clean your barrel with silicone, pieces of paper towels, and leaving the barrel inside the gun. In this guide I hope to spread some light on what you should really do to get the best accuracy and life of your parts.
What cleanser you should use:
The first and most common mistake I see people do is clean their barrels with some sort of lubricant, normally silicone. Silicone is great for lubricating things that need lubricating. You should never lubricate the barrel, and should keep it as dry as possible.
Some reasons as to why this is:
1) Silicone can drip into the bucking. The whole purpose of the bucking is to give the BB a backspin, but if it is lubricated, it will not grab the BB enough and will skew accuracy and hopup effect.
2) Any excess silicone firing with the BB with get in the way of the BB and will screw up it's flight path. This means less accuracy.
3) Dirt will actually stick to the silicone and you will never truly clean the barrel.
What you should be cleaning it with:
1) Rubbing alcohol. Most people will not think of this, but especially if you have been using silicone, it is great at removing any lubes and dirt. It is also completely safe for the plastic and even the bucking as it will dry quickly and does not damage the rubber or plastic.
2) Water. Obviously, this can't damage anything on the gun, like the rubbing alcohol, and will dry eventually.
I like rubbing alcohol better because it dries faster, does not leave any residue (there might be some minerals in the water when it dries), and it will remove lubricants unlike the water that will just try to rinse it or move it around.
What you should use to clean it with:
Many people use paper towel, tissue, and toilet paper. These will all scratch your barrel, which will reduce accuracy. While these materials may seem soft like they couldn't scratch anything, they are actually rough, as microscopic as it may be.
What you should be using:
1) Cut-up cotton tee-shirt. This will not scratch the barrel by itself, but it will occasionally have lint which will. They are also washable, so you can reuse them.
2) Gun cleaning patches. .22 caliber is best, but i use a little larger (.27 cal) because it's all they had at dicks sporting goods.
3) Microfiber eyeglass cleaning cloth. These are specifically designed to not scratch delicate lenses, which means it will also not scratch the barrel. Like the tee-shirt, they are washable and reusable.
Obviously you need a cleaning rod, which will come with most higher quality guns. A lot of the guns will come with an "un-jamming rod" that is basically a long plastic stick. It servers no purpose other than to unstick BBs that got stuck in the barrel, which will never happen with the correct BBs. This is what my MB-10 came with. So i had to sand down the end to make about 2-3 inches of a smaller diameter (about half of original). Then i had to use a thin dremel cutting bit to cut a slit in the sanded down end. It's not the prettiest thing but I didn't really try all that hard.
Why you should remove the barrel from your gun:
When you are cleaning with the barrel in your gun and you put the cleaning rod into the barrel, you can't see how far you are going. even if you could, you wouldn't be able to get the last inch because you would be touching the bucking. If you touch the bucking with the cleaning rod, over time, you will destroy it, especially if you are jamming it in there. The rubber bucking is sure to be damaged if you jam a stick inside of it.
I'm sure you can find tutorials online about how to disassemble your gun. Follow these and take the barrel out of your gun. Then you can clean it without fear of damaging the bucking.
And that's how you clean your barrel. Please tell me if I forgot anything.
What cleanser you should use:
The first and most common mistake I see people do is clean their barrels with some sort of lubricant, normally silicone. Silicone is great for lubricating things that need lubricating. You should never lubricate the barrel, and should keep it as dry as possible.
Some reasons as to why this is:
1) Silicone can drip into the bucking. The whole purpose of the bucking is to give the BB a backspin, but if it is lubricated, it will not grab the BB enough and will skew accuracy and hopup effect.
2) Any excess silicone firing with the BB with get in the way of the BB and will screw up it's flight path. This means less accuracy.
3) Dirt will actually stick to the silicone and you will never truly clean the barrel.
What you should be cleaning it with:
1) Rubbing alcohol. Most people will not think of this, but especially if you have been using silicone, it is great at removing any lubes and dirt. It is also completely safe for the plastic and even the bucking as it will dry quickly and does not damage the rubber or plastic.
2) Water. Obviously, this can't damage anything on the gun, like the rubbing alcohol, and will dry eventually.
I like rubbing alcohol better because it dries faster, does not leave any residue (there might be some minerals in the water when it dries), and it will remove lubricants unlike the water that will just try to rinse it or move it around.
What you should use to clean it with:
Many people use paper towel, tissue, and toilet paper. These will all scratch your barrel, which will reduce accuracy. While these materials may seem soft like they couldn't scratch anything, they are actually rough, as microscopic as it may be.
What you should be using:
1) Cut-up cotton tee-shirt. This will not scratch the barrel by itself, but it will occasionally have lint which will. They are also washable, so you can reuse them.
2) Gun cleaning patches. .22 caliber is best, but i use a little larger (.27 cal) because it's all they had at dicks sporting goods.
3) Microfiber eyeglass cleaning cloth. These are specifically designed to not scratch delicate lenses, which means it will also not scratch the barrel. Like the tee-shirt, they are washable and reusable.
Obviously you need a cleaning rod, which will come with most higher quality guns. A lot of the guns will come with an "un-jamming rod" that is basically a long plastic stick. It servers no purpose other than to unstick BBs that got stuck in the barrel, which will never happen with the correct BBs. This is what my MB-10 came with. So i had to sand down the end to make about 2-3 inches of a smaller diameter (about half of original). Then i had to use a thin dremel cutting bit to cut a slit in the sanded down end. It's not the prettiest thing but I didn't really try all that hard.
Why you should remove the barrel from your gun:
When you are cleaning with the barrel in your gun and you put the cleaning rod into the barrel, you can't see how far you are going. even if you could, you wouldn't be able to get the last inch because you would be touching the bucking. If you touch the bucking with the cleaning rod, over time, you will destroy it, especially if you are jamming it in there. The rubber bucking is sure to be damaged if you jam a stick inside of it.
I'm sure you can find tutorials online about how to disassemble your gun. Follow these and take the barrel out of your gun. Then you can clean it without fear of damaging the bucking.
And that's how you clean your barrel. Please tell me if I forgot anything.