Canadian Airgun Forum

Question:I lube my pellets very lightly just by picking them up and rolling them around for a second or two before insertion.I use a very light film of oil on my fingers which transfers nicely to the pellet without overdoing it.What I am wondering is if the very light dieseling I am getting from doing this will hurt my piston seal in a Crosman Optimus PAL rated, or ANY springer for that matter. FPS boost is a consistent 15 to 20 fps more than with dry pellets.

The washing & lubing of pellets is a popular discussion amongst airgun enthusiasts.

Is there any smoke wisping from the barrel after a shot?
Exactly what pellets are you shooting?

Some pellets already have a little lube on them, either an oil or graphite, to aid their removal from the molds.
Adding more will likely cause dieseling, higher fps and possible damage to your airgun.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

_________________

No smoke, no cracking sound, and sometimes a very faint smell of burning oil but like I mentioned its only a very small increase in fps.Using cheapo Daisy Hollowpint .22 for now.

According to Weihrauch and Umarex....very minor dieseling....as you describe... is normal and " a good thing " as written by Weihrauch. http://blog.umarexusa.com/dieseling-air-rifles/

_________________
The cave you fear to enter....holds the treasure you seek

Haven't tested them yet, but I sprayed the .25 cal NOE bullets with moly. I used MS moly spray (same thing I spray my bullet and ball moulds with), but Lyman's Moly bullet spray (easier to find) will also work.

Nice thing about this stuff, is it is dry, does not easily wipe off, so your fingers do not get black and it does not diesel.

There should be a minor FPS increase as well due to the reduction in friction.

_________________
Best Wishes
Daryl

Thanks MC, good enough for Weihrauch engineers, good enough for me
Thanks Daryl, I'll try to find that stuff and give it a try.

I use mixed gas from my two stroke after the gas evaporates you are left with a thin coat of synthetic oil.But please be safe don't use when wet leave them to dry

15-20 is a lot in .22, so maybe some of the power is coming from the burning of the oil. The amount of oil you're using and where it's applied is not going to cause any problems other than making a mess. I'd rather do some work to the gun to get the power boost, like the main seal is likely damaged during install at the factory, the breech seal likely leaks, the transfer port is rough and impeding flow, the spring is no doubt weaker than it was, and the barrel is no doubt rough and inconsistent. If all is well the gun should be making 18ftlbs power, so that's what you can expect if you correct all the flaws and do a few little mods. Daisy pellets suck as a general rule, at least in my experience. Testing different pellets several years ago in a Crosman coil spring gun just like yours lost over 10% power with Daisy pellets in 22, and ~8% in 177. Weird but that and matching poor accuracy is why I don't use them.
You can check the bore by pushing a pellet thru it with a dowel, then inspect the pellet to see how badly the bore tears it up. The barrel also likely has tight and/or loose spots which also screw up power and accuracy. Frustrating but it's made in china on the cheap and that's what you get for your $, but it can be improved by sanding the bore. You have to be careful to sand it correctly and not screw it up, but I can explain if interested, and if all fails replacement barrels are rather cheap. A new Optimus barrel should be ~$33CA? You also have the option of getting a different barrel like one with a muzzle brake or different caliber. The new barrel will be the same quality so it's a roll of the dice. If yours is accurate I'd consider light sanding only, if not accurate I'd sand it more and see what happens since you've got nothing to loose.
Once sanded I use dry lube on the bore and everything else on the gun, then oil or grease over that. I use tungsten disulfide which is ~$10/oz in the US plus maybe 3 shipping? http://tinyurl.com/TungstenWS2 I don't know the cost or hassle to ship to CA. It's excellent for all the guns parts and just about anything else you own that needs lube. I use it on just about everything and an oz will do tons of stuff so it's $ well spent. Details on how to sand it is a bit much to post, and especially all the other tuning info which is where the real power is, so if interested you can email me at chevota at hotmail and I'll send the info. Lots of pix so it should be easy to understand, plus lots of different mods and most are specifically for a coil spring Crosman.
Ideally the pellets should be dry lubed as well, but this goes back to the hassle vs gains, and imo it's not worth it but you can try. Dry lubed pellets will no doubt help keep the barrel coated. I don't like oil on my fingers, and things like tungsten, moly and graphite are almost black so not great either, but motor mica is white so it isn't going to stain clothes etc and is about as annoying as flour, so not a big deal.