HuntingNet.com Forums - breaking in a rifle?

HuntingNet.com Forums (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/)

- Guns (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/guns-10/)

- - breaking in a rifle? (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/guns/184311-breaking-rifle.html)

breaking in a rifle?

I've heard people say you need to break in a rifle, but I don't know what that means. What do I need to do when I get this rifle? Do I need to wear it around the house before I wear it to work or what?

[/align]

RE: breaking in a rifle?

They are talking breaking in the barrel. All barrels have microscopic burrs and ragged edges from machining,boring,rifling. Breaking in the barrel polishes and burmishes the interior bore impections instead of embedding bullet jacket material and creating jacket fouling buildup that happens when just shooting it.
Everybody has different ideas on how to break a barrel in,so here's mine-For the first box of shells,clean GOOD after every round. Second box.after every 5 rounds. Then you are done.

RE: breaking in a rifle?

[/align]A box of how many shells. 20? Or bigger? This is my first centerfire rifle.

RE: breaking in a rifle?

A standard box of centerfire rifle shells(deer size) is 20

RE: breaking in a rifle?

What is the rifle?
Breaking in makes a difference with a target rifle and much less difference for a hunting rifle.
The factory test fires the rifle first, do you think they clean between shots?

RE: breaking in a rifle?

This is from the Savage website. http://www.savagearms.com/cs_barrel.htm
I personally do not like to push the brush in both directions because you end up with residues near the magazine which is really hard to clean.
I also think this procedure might be a little bit overkill. My gunsmith told me I can skip the copper solvent.

RE: breaking in a rifle?

Unless the bore is really crude, this "breaking in" idea is basically crap. Especially if you are talking about a rifle that is to be used for hunting large game rather than crows, ground squirrels,and prairie dogs!

This TYPICAL 5-shot group was fired with a 6mm/284 at 100 yards, with a Douglas Premium-grade barrel. NOT BROKEN IN!!

RE: breaking in a rifle?

You're just wrong. Listen folks having as accurate a weapon as possible is just plain smart. If a Factory gun is all you can afford, then you should do everything in your power to make it as accurate as you can. Take the time to break in a barrel and at the very least you will have a barrel that is easier to clean.

I thoroughly clean a weapon to begin. Then I clean the bore after every shot for the first five rounds. then I clean after every two rounds for another 10 rounds. then I clean after every 5 rounds for the next 50-100 rounds. After that I rarely shoot more than 10 rounds between cleanings. Somewhere around the 50th round down the bore things start to come together. The bore is easy to clean, it doesn't foul with copper nearly as bad, accuracy seems to become more consistant, and Flyers become less prevalent.

RE: breaking in a rifle?

Quote:

ORIGINAL: ShatoDavis

You're just wrong. Listen folks having as accurate a weapon as possible is just plain smart. If a Factory gun is all you can afford, then you should do everything in your power to make it as accurate as you can. Take the time to break in a barrel and at the very least you will have a barrel that is easier to clean.

I thoroughly clean a weapon to begin. Then I clean the bore after every shot for the first five rounds. then I clean after every two rounds for another 10 rounds. then I clean after every 5 rounds for the next 50-100 rounds. After that I rarely shoot more than 10 rounds between cleanings. Somewhere around the 50th round down the bore things start to come together. The bore is easy to clean, it doesn't foul with copper nearly as bad, accuracy seems to become more consistant, and Flyers become less prevalent.

I agree with your take andhave a similar process. Think about it, a scenerio for you. Say that many productions rifles that you can buy will likely not really need a break-in and shoot just fine for hunting, but some are particular and require a proper break-in to achieve best accuracy and lack of doing an appropriate break-in will affect accuracy down the road.How would you know if your rifle did or did not need the break-in? You don't, so why not do the work up front, eliminate the variable and just treat all new rifles as needing an appropriate break-in. Just my opinion.

RE: breaking in a rifle?

A good, properly broken-in barrel will become lapped, smoothing over the bulk of the microscopic imperfections in the tube.

As a result, you'll have a cleaner barrel - one that doesn't get fouled-out as quickly, and it will be more consistent.

A box of shells costs what? $15-$40 depending on the rifle. If you can spend just a few dollars and ensure that your rifle will be as accurate and consistent as possible, why not?

Chances are, sighting in the rifle alone will take 6-12 shots, so while you're at the range, just take your cleaning supplies and run some solvent down the tube between shots, brush it out, and do it right. You have nothing to lose except a couple hours.

I break in every rifle I buy, and it pays off. Sure, it's a pain, but it's comforting to know that you went the extra mile while you had the chance.