Barrel Break In
 

What is your routine for breaking in a new barrel? Also, is breaking ina barrel extremely important? The reason I ask that is how do you know if you buy a used gun if the barrel was broken in at all or properly?

RE: Barrel Break In
 

If the gun copper fouls badly, try to break it in. If it can't be broke in, try to hand lap it with aid of borescope.

Try a search on here, believe me, you will get alot of results.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

lol a ton of results! i didn't know how to answer his questin and was curious myself and one search brought up plenty of information. i got bored reading all of the arguments. LOL

RE: Barrel Break In
 

Papa, I always break in a new barrel. But its a personal preference. My routine is to clean after every shot for the first 10 rounds. Then after every third shot for the next 30. I figure that by then the minute burrs from the manufacturing are gone.
As for a used rifle, you can't be sure. But you can lap the bore with J-B Compound per the instructions on the jar to remove any embedded fouling.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

My advice is to just shoot the thing and thoroughly clean it after every 25 or so rounds. It is absolutely not necessary to go through a tedious break in procedure, although it probably won't hurtanything either. I've done it in the past to 3 or 4 rifles and there's nothing I can do with them that I can't do with my others in terms of shooting decent groups and killing animals.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

I would suggest that you break-in the barrel of every new rifle you get. I suggest this, as it has the "potential" to be very beneficial to some rifles. It also may not matter for other rifles. The thing is that you can not tell with a new rifle if its a rifle that needs it versus one that does not, so treating everyone as needing it just makes sense to me.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

When I had my .338-06 made, I followed the break-in procedures recommended by the barrel manufacturer - Krieger. Here is their procedure: http://www.kriegerbarrels.com/RapidC...CompanyId=1246

RE: Barrel Break In
 

The 'One Box' method that I have used (for hunting rifles) with good luck is:

Shoot one shot. Clean.
Shoot two shots. Clean. Check for fouling.
Shoot three shots. Clean. Check for fouling.
Shoot four shots. Clean. If minimal fouling...
Shoot five shots. Clean.
Shoot five shots. Clean.

By the time you get to the first 'five shots' step. Start looking at your groups. You should be seeing them tighten up a bit. I keep the cost down by doing break-in with a box of CoreLocks or PowerPoints. Sometimes, you'll find that the cheap, over the counterstuff shoots well in your rifle. Always good to know if you don't reload.

After breaking one in, I usually give the barrel a good cleaning about every 20 rds. or so.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

Everyone has their opionion, but I no longer worry about barrel break-in unless I have a barrel with fouling problems. I've used various methods over the years, but don't see where it helps any with quailty barrels.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

Explain to me the minute barrel chracteristics when compinga barrel that was "brokenin"and a rifle someone just bought and shot.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

Here's the reason I break in. I rarely if ever see it do miracles as far as fouling. But I am in a hurry. I have accomplished the same thing shooting like 200 rounds. Some guns after 200 rounds, they chronograph alot better with alot lower spreads, and they seem to throw less flyers. Also a gun is dynamic. You can make a load for a gun when it was new, and all the sudden, you see accuracy changing. So I cut to the chase. If I shoot, decopper, shoot, decopper, for 20 rounds, for me its like going to the range with 10 box's of shells, 10 times, with 10 cleanings in between. I then can get to some serious load development. If the gun still fouls badly or has a tendency to throw flyers, probably just a rough bore.

If a gun shoots awesome out of the box, I hesitate on whether or not mess with it.

For instance, I got a 460 pistol a few months ago from the performance center is just awesome in accuracy. It doesn't foul badly, so I didn't bother with break in.

You know break in is working if lets say, you shoot one shot and clean out the copper, and do that until the point, where you see little to no copper come out, and then move to 3 shots and clean, you do that until you see little to no copper come out, and then move to 5 shots, and then 10 shots. If you see 10 shots with little to no copper, then you got one smooth barrel, no need to go further. I got a sako 75 a few years ago that this worked great. But its a rarity.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

Why is it a waste of time? I had a Vanguard that went from a 1.3" group down to a .78 grouping within the 50 rds. using the described method. To me, a 1/2" better isn't a waste of time.
Just because something isn't custom, doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential for fine accuracy if given the chance. Just MHO...

RE: Barrel Break In
 

I based that on using the same ammo factory used according to the included marked and signed 3-shot target which showed the rifle barely got passed. (Vanguard's 1.5" accuracy guarntee) Granted, it wasn't ammo from the same lot #, but did match brand, bulletand grainage. So perhaps I should have included those initial 3 factory fired rounds.
I just don't see where it would hurt to do the process, other than ammo cost, which you still have to buy eventually anyway. Whether button rifled or hammer forged or whatever, all will have various degrees of marks in them and it helps remove them.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

There is no possible way physicallythat I know of to prove that a particularbarrel that was "broken in" shoots better or worse than if it had not been "broken in". That's because the barrel simply cannot be taken back to its pre "broken in" state and testedthe other way.So, any talk of a barrel being more accurate (or less accurate or the same)because of a tedious break-in routine is just talk.

RE: Barrel Break In
 

There's nothing in particular wrong with breaking in a barrel according to the barrel maker's recommendations. This is particularly true if you paid a lot of money for a premium make and had it installed on a varmint or benchrest rifle.

However, that fancy, arcane procedure for breaking in barrels is totally unnecessary for a hunting rifle, and only succeeds in costing you alot of ammo and cleaning time.

My barrel break-in procedure is to take the rifle to a range, shoot it as much as I want for zeroing and practice, then clean it wellwhen I get it home - and clean it well every time I shoot it!

The barrel that shot this group, and a lot of comparable ones, is a Douglas Premium grade (6mm/284), and it was NOT treated any differently than my other barrels.....