barrell break in
 

been thru this before but thought i would bring it up again to see what others are doing on this topic. just got my new 300wm and want to make it as accurate as possible so i plan to go thru the shoot and clean break in proceedure. what i have done in the past is one shot and clean with solvent and dry patches for the first 5 shots then clean after 3 shots for 2 or 3 groups and then after every 5 shots to complete the first box of ammo. then drop back to clean after each box. at this point i would be looking at removing any copper fouling. for this i have been use Bore Scrubber. let me know what you do if anything.

Factory barrel...5 shots clean, 5 shots clean, go hunting.

Custom tube...1 shot clean, 2 shots clean, 3 shots clean, 5 shots clean, 10 shots clean, go hunting.

"Breaking in" a barrel won't necessarily make a rifle more accurate, but it will make it clean easier.

I don't break in custom barrels at all. A hand lapped barrel will not be "polished" by my cleaning rod. Most bench rest folks and custom barrel makers will tell you that break-in procedures just eat up your shot count of barrel life, so it's not worth the time. (say you break in for 100rnds, on a 2000rnd accuracy life, you wasted 5% of your barrel life, plus your ammo cost. Do that over 10 barrels and you've wasted $250 (half an installed, chambered, and crowned barrel cost).

For factory barrels, I've been in and out of break in procedures. I can say with certainty that I don't believe it has any benefit to accuracy, but I have believed at one point that it did help with cleaning. A few years ago, all of my barrels got a break in. A few barrels later trying without breaking in and I'm not seeing any difference in cleaning.

But sometimes the voodoo that you think works is the voodoo that does work. The only downside is ammo cost and increased barrel wear (use), so if it makes you feel better, might as well do it.

Odd to hear that, in the interest of easier cleaning, you only break in with two cleanings and 10 shots for a rough factory tube but then run 5 cleanings and 21 shots for a higher quality (likely hand lapped) custom barrel?

Could you elaborate as to why you've chosen these two methods?

the more often you remove a lil copper from handlapped barrels, it becomes seasoned, ok, I clean after every shot for 5 shots, after each shot I remove the fouling from the microscopic tooling marks left after lapping, one shot those tooling marks are full, the more you clean it and oil it the more seasoned it becomes, so it doesn't pick up as much fouling, and it lets go of it easier for lack of a better word.
I cleaned my 7mm AM Lilja barrel, every shot for 10 shots, then every 3 shots for 10 groups, with 480 rounds downrange I have never picked up a hint of blue on the patch if I use a nylon brush.
breaking in aproduction barrel is a waste of time IMO
RR

I kinda let the barrel tell me whats going on. I will shoot one shot, clean, and do that a few more times, if alot of copper comes out and nothing changes, I will decide to go further or quit. Then go to 5 shots, and see if anything has changed. I won't just go thru a procedure. Some barrels never will smooth out. At max, I will go thru 20 shots. A quality barrel, you should see it fouling much less after 3 rounds, and so on.

I really don't think its needed, but helpful. I think you can get the same result by shooting alot and cleaning after every session. I mean its copper on steel. But what I do like is my extreme spreads and std deviation on velocity seems to settle in after breaking in at 20 rounds instead of 100 rounds, just shooting and cleaning. Then I can get to some quality load workups.

RR,

"....remove the fouling from the microscopic tooling marks left after lapping."


That is the crux of the matter IMO.


It's your gun, do what you will with it......................

http://www.twincityrodandgun.com/PDF...%20Lapping.pdf

Have always thought barrel break in was hype.

For the typical, mass produced deer rifle that's going to be owned and shot by a typical 1 box of ammo per year hunter YES it IS hype! :s2:

Todays mass produced barrels are built with technology that wasn't even possible 20-30yrs ago and to tolerances most custom makers WISH they could've produced several decades ago. Now sure, the bench rest boys will always have their own "pet recipe" and even finicky, precise custom builders might have their own recommendations. But they are talking in terms of .000 inches. For "minute of deer" with commerical ammo, I honestly think there is NO need for such bother, unless the shooter just WANTS to fool himself into going through the motions and call himself "breakin it in"!

The last 10 or so new big game rifles I've bought I simply bought a cheap box of "big green" ammo and then fired each round at a rate slow enough NOT to heat the barrel up and ran a BoreSnake through the bore after each round. But honestly that's just "polishin things up" more than anything.

I've shot Barnes in 95% of my big game rifles for over 2 decades now and I've NEVER "stripped the copper out of them". I simply keep things clean with a bore snake during season and I MIGHT run a patch of copper solvent through it after a rainy hunt and perhaps after season when I'm wiping everything down to be stored for the off season. I want those guns to shoot correctly with the first, cold shot when fired in November at a wall hanger. I don't want to have to worry about "fouling shots" and such.

As they say, "We aint dealin with rocket surgery here!" :D
HL

RR pretty much answered it.

I'm still not too sure on any of it, my Broughton I did the "break-in" and yes it cleans very easy, but most Broughtons do. My Pac-Nor my smith shot 19 times after he built it before I got it, it still cleans easily and shoots great. The last Shilen I shot about 10 times before the first cleaning. I have another Shilen and a Kreiger being built, once I get those I'll do another "break-in" and see how it goes.

I know it certainly doesn't hurt anything or waste more barrel life because you can be doing load work ups during break in.

I think they will either clean easy or they won't, a factory tube is usually much rougher then a custom anyway so breaking in won't help much unless you do some sort of Tubbs fire lapping stuff or something like that.