Shooting Q-Tips

[taxonomy]

Lot's of boring journal reading today.   Trapped on the second floor of my house I discovered that if you chop the ends off a q-tip it fits perfectly into the chamber of a .177 (another point in favor of this caliber  :p ).  Two observations: 1. it comes out dirty, it cleaned the bore, 2. it sort of bursts into a cloud of fluff upon leaving the muzzle.

[ribbonstone]

Have done that with multi-stoke pneumatics with 2 or 3 strokes and with single stroke pneumatics, but not with the springers.  IF it harms the pneumatics, can't detect it.

Roach hunt?

[taxonomy]

I was doing this with a daisy 717 and suspect I'll check it in my Daisy 953.  I can't imagine it would do any harm.  It wont hurt the inside of my ear and that's not made from steel. Nothing appears to be left in the chamber.  

I find it amusing far beyond what it should be.

[ribbonstone]

Figured...and yes, it can have some uses.  Do not think it does any harm.

Over time the 717/722/747/777's tend to one problem.  There is a foam material washer on the piston head..an oil washer.   That foam washer disintergrates with age...the flakes tend to get sucked into the compression cahmber...and they foul the release valve, making it leak or not hold compression.  So far, dissassembly and cleaning has brought the release valve back to life without replacement.

[taxonomy]

Do you know how long this usually takes to happen? For the whiper to fail?

Thanks

Adam

[ribbonstone]

Looked at a friend's old 717 today....used when he bought it 16 yers ago.  The oil whiper is starting to go, can see that it's getting ragged and shedding bits, but so far it's not clogged the valving.

Have an old 777 that is proably about as old...call it 22 years...a couple of years ago, the oil whipe just fell apart and the gun would "hissss" from the muzzle as you pumped it.  Took it apart, cleaned it, but didn't have a replacement oil whipe.  A cut length of new tennis shoe string, over lapped twice, fit the recess fine...didn't bind...holds ans spreads oil....and has been working great for the last couple of years.

So...from two of mine and a look at a couple of others, looks like something between 15 and 20years.

The only other things seen often are (1) ham-handed people over tighten the screws and strip them  (2) teh grips tend to crack when the grip screw s over tightened and (3) broken plastic sights from being dropped or miss handled. Figure these don't count as the owner had to do soemthing worng for a problem to arise.

[shadow]

Been using Q-tips to clean my Shadow sport for awhile too. They do the job, no problems.

[vinceb]

A few years ago I was using bits of balled-up paper towel to do the same thing.

I think it was a .177 B4-2 - I loaded one up and shot at a cardboard box a couple of inches away from the muzzle. The paper towl actually penetrated and embedded itself into the cardboard... I'm glad I didn't try to catch it with my hand!

In any event, I wouldn't do this with a springer unless the manufacturer gives their official okey-dokey to dry firing. I believe that Gamo and Daisy (for the Powerline 1000) do.