bigcountry

Exactly NOT!! There is alot of gun experts with more experience than you or I that has alot of those pretty pictures you show, that disagree, including myself.

alsaqr

In my humble opinion all this "break in ritual"has much credibility asvoo-doo and conspiracy theories. So long as the gun is initially cleaned and cleaned again after the first 10-30 rounds there should not be a problem. Do not let the barrel get hot.Light weight rifle barrels heat up very quickly.

i do not use abrasive cleaners in my gun barrels. It is really easy to get the copper fouling out with a good copper solvent if you clean the gun on a regular basis.

DANTHEHUNTER

I have never seen much difference in my barrels. Just good cleaning after each range session and never had much trouble.I have tried everone's theory and I personaly never saw any thing change.I guess if it makes you have more confidince in your rifle then getter done.

eldeguello

I've got about 20 years MORE EXPERIENCE than most "experts" alive today. This applies in particular to the ones writing in the gun rags these days.

And I have proven to my own satisfaction, with probably over 250 or so different rifles of different calibers since1952, that this break-in stuff is B.S.! Now, if you want to use up your ammo, barrels, and cleaning supplies that way, have a balland do it!

But just remember Harry Pope's statement - (I assume you know who Harry Pope was) - "More barrels are ruined with a cleaning rod than any other way."

alsaqr

""More barrels are ruined with a cleaning rod than any other way.""

Folks get theirshorts in a knot over "rough barrels." For years i could not afford a decent rifle. Nearly everything i owned for years had "rough" barrels. But they all shot ok. Look at Savage barrels: Through a borescope they look awful. But they sure do shoot well.

Pope's statement is just as current today as it was in his time. Over the years i have seen many barrels ruined by "cleaning."

ShatoDavis

IMHO you are just plain wrong!

If you aren't willing to spend 50 rounds down a barreland do a little cleaning then don't.But I've seen enought to know that it works.


Copper easy to remove? I think not. It can be quite time consuming to remove properly.

This argument is pointless folks. Some people are meticulous about their rifles, some aren't. To each their own!

eldeguello

If you'd bothered to note the groups I've posted, you might figure out that I get quite good results without all that fuss. IF this board would accept more than one picture per frame, I could show you alot more-I'm talking about RESULTS, not theory!

However, I DO clean my rifles - only after each shooting session, not after every shot!

About the only part of your post that I agree with is your statement that this discussion has become pointless, since people of both positions are not going to change their opinions based on anything anyone says here.

savage3006

There is a way to scientificaly settle this argument. It is hard to know how a given rifle would shoot if someone had been doing something different. The only way to solve the problem is to do a double blind test. Take to sets of random rifles for a given make / manufacturer, do the break in on one set and nothing on the other set. After few hundred rounds see how they shoot and compute the statistics.

If someone or a manufactuer want to sponsor me, I would be happy to do the math and some shooting as well

eldeguello

I basically agree with your idea - it sure makes a lot more sense than, say, GUN TESTS Magazine, which tests ONE SAMPLE of a given item, then makes a sweeping pronouncement about ALL such items!

And you have probably hit on a problem with the beliefs of those who insist that the "break-in" stuff is essential, in that most of them have no idea how that rifle would have performed if it HAD NOT been broken in before they started testing it for accuracy. I regard this in the same light as I do the guys who proclaim, for instance, that the "Nosler Partition bullet they used didn't expand at all, "all it did was zip right through", even though the bullet is long-gone, over into the next county, so they can't examine it to see what it did do......

bigcountry

I have hundreds of those little groups too eld. Does that qualify me to be an expert like you? I would agree with Harry's statement. Majority of shooters still to this day use three piece steel rods. I myself ruined a bore with them, so I can attest what he says. But alot of things have changed in the past 20 years.

My gunsmith has built more rifles than you, and is older. Does that mean he is a bigger expert than you?

Brian Pearce did a wonderful article on this, documenting using a borescope flaws in a new barrel and going thru the process showing them being smoothed out. Man, these people do this for a living, ok.

Your a very knowlegable gun guy, I rarely if ever disagree with what you say, usually we are always on the same page reloading ammo.

And I agree, break in can be a bad thing with a novice doing it wants a set bunch of rules.