RE: Is it really important to break-in a new barrel?
Both me and my son took the advice of a local smitty that builds rifles for 1000 yd competition back here in Williamsport. He said take your cleaning kit to the range and clean the gun after each shot for the first three shots and then shoot at will. Now that 's worked for us on a couple of rifles that were made by him, and some off the shelf rifles. Now if you don't clean it and you start to get poor accuracy you can always blame it on the break-in, and maybe that's a good enough excuse to get another gun-that also worked when I was younger with my wife.
Polack