I've got a new rifle. Sako 30.06 Stainless. I've only fired 6 rounds through it.

After thoroughly cleaning it I can still see some copper on both the lands and grooves of the rifling (near the muzzle).

Does this indicate any imperfection - other than with my cleaning?

Some of your tips on cleaning and breaking in the rifle would also be appreciated.

Unlike a lot of folks, I have never seemed to be able to get all the copper color off the lands in my rifles. However, several of them will shoot under 1" @ 100 yards, so I guess they are OK. A lot of rifle/barrel makers will tell you that more barrels are ruined by too much/improper scrubbing than by shooting! It is possible to overdo the cleaning business!

Keep yore powder dry!!

Quick break in = Fire 2 or 3 ,clean,2 or 3,clean,with a 20 round minimum.
As to the copper,use a good strong solvent,Sweets or something like it. Patch and wait. Patch and wait,ect. Until you can't see any fouling. It is well worth the work,in the long run.

Mounting Man/in PA.

If you use sweets or cr-10 copper can be removed without a lot of scrubbing.I find that for the first 100 rounds or so copper fouling decreases prgressively with the number of rounds through the barrel.

Congratulations on your new aquisition. I don't have anything to add regarding the cleaning, just wanted to chime in. I bought the same rifle, 30-06 stainless synthetic, a few weeks ago, mounted a Leupold VX-II 3x9 using the Sako mounts. Unfortunately I've been pretty busy these last few weekends and haven't been able to get to the range yet. Hopefully that'll change this weekend.

http://www.snipercountry.com/Article...el_BreakIn.htm
These guys have a very interesting take on barrel break-in.