Question on barrels????
 

I just got to thinking, on CF rifles there is a barrel breakin process that takes place. A lot of CF rifles never get to that 100 shot mark that is really considered a broke in barrel because for the most part the gun is bought and shot very little because of the hunting situations. Well, I got to thinking, on a muzzle loader barrel, is there really a number when a barrel starts to really get to that "break in" stage? All I know is that the more I shoot my Mountaineer the better it seems to be getting. I have a few shots though it now and a couple of kills. I went out to the range just to shoot a little this morning getting ready to head to Texas and the gun just seems to be shooting better groups than it did in early November, and I have probably 25 more shots through it. Just curious what some of you think about muzzleloader "break in" on these barrels. This is more to the inlines I guess than the smoothbores.

With the Mountaineer there really is what I would call a break-in period... Since the Dyna Tek has been applied in the bore they say it takes at least 30 just to cure out the Dyna Tec. Plus you will probably still removing some metal spurs that may be left in the the barrel from production.

The only ML barrels that might come from the factory ready to now are the top line Bergara barrels as they polish the bore in the factory.

I normally run JB's bore paste through every new barrel CF or ML before really trying to shoot it for accuracy.

With the Mountaineer I hesitated doing that because of the applied Dyna Tek.

I think my experiance yesterday with this new Mountaineer I had kind of showed that same thing. I was fighting it @ 100 yards to get it to be consistent, then somewhere after the 24 shot the lights went on and the gun settled right in.

Yet I would not believe the barrel is 'broke-in' yet. It will still take more shooting. If I would do the JB thing it would be ready much faster.

But, all if this leads to the fact if it is that accurate out of the box, what might it be like with 100 rounds through it...

My thoughts exactly. It shot lights out at a 100 when I got it and it is only getting better. Me being the deciding factor to a poor shot of course. I also, like you, polish my CF barrels and like to do the same thing with the Muzzy barrel but was heistant to do that because of the coating. I really am liking this gun the more I shoot it. The 300 gr Lehighs and 120 gr of BH seem to be the ticket with it as well. I will give it a very good cleaning today and probably put it away for a couple of weeks before I head out the end of the month, but it will be hard because it is a joy to shoot and see what it will continue to do.