So the reading I have been doing on break in is basically right according to you. Break in is a joke and the barrel in more accurate on the first shot.
the only purpose of a break in is to reduce fouling throughout the life of the barrel. If you do not have a hand lapped barrel its pretty much a waste of time and ammo.
RR
the only purpose of a break in is to reduce fouling throughout the life of the barrel. If you do not have a hand lapped barrel its pretty much a waste of time and ammo.
RR
actually I believe your lapping the barrel through break in.
Any imperfections will stay in the barrell without proper break in.
Remove the copper and shoot again, your basically lapping the barrel by doing that, if you dont remover the copper, your not lapping. Plus it reduces fouling.
Thats the way i undertand break in.
believe whatever you wish, but the reports I've read about breaking in production rifle barrels lean towards, it doesn't make any difference. they are just too rough and you do not lap with soft gliding alloys unless there is abrasive of some kind involvedwhich is harder than the steel.
It may work if your prepared to shoot and clean for 100-150 rounds, a hand lapped barrel is smooth, all your doing with those 20-30 break-in rounds is ironing the molecules so they pick up less fouling, with a production barrel you'd have to remove all the tool marks so the barrel is smooth, then iron it out.
Production barrels also have a varying bore diameter, they pick up way more copper in the places where the bore diameter goes to a smaller size, and you will not make the bore diameter consistant like an air guaged barrel no matter how much you shoot.
My final word is, way more barrels on average hunters rifles have been ruined with a cleaning rod, than has been shot out.
RR
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Last edited by Ridge Runner; 11-08-2009 at 02:33 AM.
I am not here to argue cause I really dont know the truth on this, but yes everything I have read is 100 or so rounds through a barrell before its broken in, but you have to get the copper out for it to work. or handlap it right off the bat.
It seems that if a cleaning rod can ruin a barrel that easy, 100 bullets down it would lap it.
What cleaning rods do you reccomend, a brass or coated one, seems brass wouldnt harm a barrell.
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. For the most part RR is correct. A badly machined barrel will never break in and will foul worse than normal barrel forever.
The procedure proscribed with a new gun is a waste of time. The procedure is like knife sharpening. Every knife is different and every edge is different. Going thru the same procedure for every knife without understanding what is happening will leave you disappointed. But if you stop and realize what is happening and go to the next stage of honing when appropiate, then you come out with a sharp knife. But like knife sharpening, you can make a turd barrel into a match barrel by shooting and cleaning.
These results are based off of dozens of rifles broke in. And use of a hawkeye bore scope.
I like breakin to a point. During the first 100 or so rounds of a barrel, I notice velocity std dev. are huge. Sometimes break in settles a barrel down. You are doing the same thing shooting and cleaning over your several shooting sessions without breakin.
If you clean and shoot one round, and clean and shoot, and you always get copper fouling, and it never lessens, chances are, it never will. Waste of time. Breakin can only do minor smoothing.
But if say you shoot and clean and copper goes down to nothing after 5 cycles of clean and shoot, then something is working. Move to 3-5 shots then clean. If you see fouling go down considerable each cycle, move to 10 shots.
I agree you can accomplish same thing by shooting 10-30 rounds, whatever you ususally shoot at a session. And in the first 200 rounds, its the same thing and good as its going to get.
Last edited by bigcountry; 11-08-2009 at 09:58 AM.
My final word is, way more barrels on average hunters rifles have been ruined with a cleaning rod, than has been shot out.
RR
On a hunting rifle barrel break in is a waste of time.
Without a proper rod guide ridge runner is correct, perhaps correct even with a rod guide in some cases
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Buy the gun, clean the gun before shooting and then shoot a couple of rounds through it and clean again. Break in is then about as done as it's going to get. That's how I have always done it anyways.
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Proper way to break in a barrel?
