Squirreldog

I break mine in using a similar procedure to the ones above, and I will say that Ive never seen it hurt one, even though you could if you somehow damaged the crown, so when ever possible always clean from the breach end.

I can also tell you like oldelkhunter says it will clean easier down the road, I have learned this from two rifles same caliber one blue one stainless one I followed a break in proceedure one I did not but I did keep it clean, that one because I did not have a proceedure to follow I just cleaned ever so many rounds because out of the boxI got a ton of crud out of it,before I ever fired it, and I know it cant be good to shoot it with machine cuttings and other crud in it. I dont think all that junk combined with the heat and friction would be good on it. I know that there are different proceedures for making barrels and some might not have maching cuttings in them, I quess QualityControll has a lot to do with the barrel when it leaves thefactory, any way to each his own!!!! IMHO