Barrel break in
 

Just ordered a Knight Bighorn from Cabelas. While I have never owned a new rifle, I know that it is important to break in or cure the barrel properly for the first few shots. Does this also apply to muzzleloaders? If so, how do you break in your barrel?

RE: Barrel break in
 

ya you need to.
T/C says to use the new bore butter on a new gun and it seasons it like an iron skillet.
It helps to season and prevent rust as much.just wipe it in the barrell and shoot it is what they say.


I am not a hunter I am a whitetail population reduction specialest

remember keep your back to the sun, your knife sharp, and your powder dry.

RE: Barrel break in
 

Just watch the videoo that comes with the rifle.

RE: Barrel break in
 

I also just bought a Knight. I called customer service and they said "breaking in" the barrell was not necessary. To just follow the step by step instructions in the video.

As far as bore butter is concerned,they do not recommend it for their rifles. Instead they recommend, of course, their own Knight Oil, or any other light gun oil that displaces water. Which is what they say on the video and in the Owners Manual.

Good Luck.

RE: Barrel break in
 

gobuffs,

I absolutely recommend "breaking in" the barrel. I have just under 200 rounds (my best estimate) on my Knight USAK. Today, this gun will do anything I ask of it, but when it was new - I had a hard time hitting a 3'X 3' target at 50yds.

The biggest improvement made by this gun was after spending a day shooting nothing but patched round balls.

For your new gun, here is my advice:
1) Get yourself a box of .490 lead balls and some .15mil prelubed shooting patches. Hornady & CCI/Speer make ther balls in boxes of 100 and Oxyoke, T/C, & others make the patches in bags of 100.
2) Go to the range, set up a target at a max of 25 yds - and go to town. I'd load 80 to 100gr of powder (I prefer Cleanshot), wrap a ball in the patch, & push down the barrel tightly (patch toward the powder). Cap & fire. Run a spit-soaked cleaning patch through the bore and repeat the whole process. I would shoot the whole box (or at the very least, 50 rounds) before worrying about a good sight in or a good load. The balls will shoot about 2" low at this range - compared to a good accurate sabot load. This may take 2 or 3 outings to get all these shots in - that's ok, it'll give you good practice at cleaning the gun.
3) When you do clean the gun at the end of the day, make sure you remove any petroleum based cleaner from the bore - I use a patch of de-natured alcohol through the bore as a final measure. Then run a Bore Buttered patch through the bore before putting it up. (make sure that all petro. products are removed before applying the Butter - otherwise rust might occur under the butter)

This may be a bit of a pain - but the procedure works! <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> A blindman can shoot 10's with my gun now.

Another thought - shooting sabot rounds will do nothing for breaking the barrel in, as there is no metal-to-metal contact. Use of round ball, conicals, or the CVA Power Belts are the only way to get the metal-to-metal wear that will &quot;season&quot; the bore.

RE: Barrel break in
 

Mark,

I read both of your posts. Seems like you are talking from experience which works for me. Why do you think Knight dosen't recommend either the natural lube or the metal to metal breaking in period you are discussing. I am not disagreeing with you just wanting to know if you have any idea why they are recommending pelletes, saboted bullets, and oil in their guns, when I lot of expericence shooters prefer loose powder, conicals, and bore butter?

I know they want to sell their own products, but it seems they could sell whatever they wanted. Do you know what they are basing their recommendation on?

RE: Barrel break in
 

irish,

I think alot of this boils down to personnal preference. Many old time 'Loaders (pre-in line days) I've talked to, swear by the natural products like the Bore Butter & round ball break-in. Probably partly because that is all they had to work with early on and paerly because it worked!

I started off, going with everything the Knight video said to use & do. And it is not like doing so was a bad thing. I just wasn't happy with what I saw out of the 1st 30 or so rounds I fired. Part of that was due to a mismatched set of scope rings, which I finally worked out with some homemade shims. But even then, 3 - 4&quot; groups did not meet my expected standard.

I didn't know if it was me or the gun, so I hit up some of these forums for info as well as a lot of Internet surfing. I tried the natural way on some things and the groups stared getting smaller. That may have just been a coincidence as the gun was probably getting &quot;broke in&quot; in that same time frame.

I can't &quot;prove&quot; that my precedure is best or even necessary - all I know is that it worked wonders for my gun and corresponded with similar results from a lot of other people - though obviously not all.

These guns, even the modern type, tend to develop their own personalities and we just have to keep our eyes & ears open to what THEY want out of us. :)

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RE: Barrel break in
 

Everyone has a different approach. I am new to this, thanks for all the good ideas.

Personal experiences are hard to beat.

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