Pellets stuck in air rilfe bore?

[Curator]

I recently purchased a dozen Daisy 853 .177 caliber air rifles for our Scout Camp from the CMP. The guns were "factory-refurbished." The first time they were used by a local JROTC group four of the guns ended up with pellets stuck in the bore. A couple of them ended up with two or three pellets stuck in them. No way would a cleaning rod drive these out. I ended up using a propane torch to melt them out. Afterward, they shot just fine. My first thought was they were not getting sufficient pressure to push the pellet to full velocity so I shot them over my Chrony: 475-490 fps--right on the money. I have now shot them each a couple of dozen times with no repeat of stuck pellets.

My question is: How did the pellets get stuck? In backwards? Half pumped? Bad pellets? If someone here has some experience with these guns and can advise me as to what to watch out for that would be helpful. Since I wasn't there when it happened I can't figure what they were doing wrong. I want to get these guns into service in our camp's shooting program without problems.

 

[sansone]

I would use some fine polishing compound on a bore brush to smooth-out the bore

 

[WNTFW]

Bores may have been dry. Double loading would be more likely.

Check bores - You can use a weedeater line to pull a patch trough. Work up to the size of patch needed. The line just needs to be bent back on itself 2-3 inches. Or get a .17 cleaning rod. No need to clean an air rifle often.

Pellets vary in diameter. I have seen some drop through the bore on a .177

Some guys will re-lube their pellets with One Shot. What you don't want is lube that will destroy the rubber seals. No need to add a variable if you don't have to.

 

[Mike1234567]

Pellets vary in diameter. I have seen some drop through the bore on a .177.

Speaking of pellet diameter inconsistencies; Perhaps the brand of pellet is the problem?

 

[WNTFW]

Mike1234567,
Probably brand played a role, maybe not. It was not me, my gun etc. & I don't know for sure what brand. IIRC it was Crosman. Some of the skirts were failrly deformed. Might have been the one batch. I know they were not the high end pellets.
It was my shooting buddy. He had a break barrel. After getting some no hits & flyers he noticed some pellet just dropped through - Dry fire.