Breaking in New Barrel

I've never done anything special to "break-in" a barrel.

Many custom barrel makers say just shoot and clean as you normally would, and I tend to agree with that

Much of the wear and tear that can hurt accuracy comes from the cleaning rods, and not the bullets
 
OK well first it's not exactly necessary, and you will have people claim it does 'nothing.'

That I disagree with. With a factory rifle there are usually imperfections in the bore which can strip jacket material off the bullets passing through the barrels, thereby depositing more copper in the barrel and potentially hurting accuracy. Having a broken in barrel can reduce the rate at which fouling accumulates, and can also make cleaning the bore easier.


How do you do it? Shoot and clean. And really make sure to take care of the copper fouling.

Some call this a 'waste of ammo' if it's a new rifle it doesn't have to be.

Clean the bore, and then fire some test rounds just to make sure the rifle goes 'bang' Clean for carbon and copper.

Then begin your sighting process, walk the rounds in while adjusting the scope, and clean every few rounds.

Then you can test for basic groups, just to get a general idea of how the rifle performs. Shoot 3 shot groups and clean.

From there, just don't let it go too many rounds between cleanings for a while.

Just to clarify 'breaking in' a bore will almost never 'make or break' a rifle. The difference is not going to be incredibly noticeable to some people, but it will vary from person to person as well as rifle to rifle. It's not going to turn a 3 MOA rifle into a sub MOA shooter, so don't expect that either. As long as you clean properly, you're not really hurting anything.

PVL has some good pics of two rifle bores in this post.
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5440135&postcount=32

As you can see even though the rougher (button rifled) barrel is more accurate in this instance (oh and remember how I said break-in wont really directly affect accuracy) it does show how rough some factory barrels can be.

If you've got a custom high end barrel it likely wont and shouldn't need break in as it likely has already been lapped. A process which essentially accomplishes the same thing you're trying to do with 'break in'
 
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I keep hearing this-- (Cleaning a barrel to much will damage it). Yes I can go with that if you are a Idiot and don't know how to properly clean a barrel and do it right. Use a bore guide,Nylon brushes and not a steel rod- You can clean that thing 100 times a day and you are not going to hurt the barrel at all. This wifes tales of over cleaning thing goes hand in hand with spending twice as much on your scope as your rifle. It's all hog wash. Shoot,clean,shoot,clean after 15 to 20 rounds, shoot 3 or 4 clean for the next 20 rounds. All done. Mostly it helps with cleaning barrel from there on out. You will find your barrel cleans up faster and easier.
 
Breaking in a barrel is in my opinion a myth. At the very least, it is a waste of cleaning supplies.
4runnerman, you can damage a barrel cleaning it. Anyone who does not believe you can obviously does not have access to a bore scope. Anyone who does not believe in quality optics obviously has not shot a Night Force 25 to 30 minutes after sunset.
 
Reynolds- I have a 223 with over 17,000 rounds down it. Still play tic tac toe with 9mm cases at 100 yards with it. Gun has been cleaned well over 1000 times. As for scopes- I also shoot F Class out to 1200 yards. For that I need a good scope. My 223 sports a $178.00 UTC scope Mill dot. I hunt yotes in the dark with no issues at all in the moon light. In the summer I am at the range way before light. I have no issues shooting in dark conditions with it.
I am not saying you are wrong or that I am right. I tell it as I play it. I have another post going right now on sighting in a 270 for a friend. This time of the year ( deer season) I have another task I love to do. I sight in peoples deer rifles for them. Up to about 30 plus a year now as my name gets out there. Been doing it for about 4 years now. I see everything from Tasco to redfield to Barska and more. These guys all hunt deer with their cheap $125.00 scopes in same conditions as you. never a problem,never a issue. If you feel you need a $1000.00 scope to shoot a deer at 200 yards then more power to you.
 
The Late Great Gale McMillan does not believe in any barrel "Break-in". He also thinks that the whole "Barrel break-in" idea was invented by barrel manufacturers to sell more barrels as the break-in takes away from the barrels life by as much as 10% if certain methods are used.

Don't waste your time "breaking it in".
 
I think that "break in" was a concept that began back in the days when machining techniques weren't as precise.
That said...
I bought a 30-06 with new barrel. I shot a 20-round box of conditioning ammo through it. There was some extra cleaning every 5 shots or so.

My rifle was spot on at 200 yards afterwards. That said, it might have been spot on at 200 before the 'conditioning' ammo, but I didn't test that.

I think that you should take it out and shoot it before you do anything special. After all, it's not going to hurt the barrel...
 
4Runnerman, I have used cheap optics in the past. Most of my optics are in the $700 range, but I do have some high end Bench rest and hunting scopes. I actually like Weaver T series better than Night Force or Leupold for bench rest. I have seen cheap optics fail over and over again in field conditions. About the cheapest scope I actually trust is Redfield Revolution. Do you notice a difference in how hard the cheap scopes are to zero as compared to high quality scopes? Most of the cheap ones I have zeroed took 10 rounds or more to Zero. You move it three inches right and it eventually moves all the way in three or four shots. When I zeroed hunting rifles for other people, I actually took a rubber hammer to the range with me to "settle in" the cheap scopes to keep from wasting ammo. Good scopes take 1 round to zero.
 
I have heard at least a dozen different formulas for barrel break in. That tells me they are probably all useless and unnecessary.
 
Shoot it 1x
Clean it 1x (including decopper)

Shoot it 2x
Clean it 1x (including decopper)

Shoot it 2x
Clean it (including decopper)

Shoot it 5x
Clean it 1x (including decopper)

Shoot/Clean it normally for the rest of your life.
(What have you lost for that investing that first 90 minutes? :rolleyes: )
Cheap.
546qo9.jpg
 
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I do not believe breaking a barrel in is required. I clean a barrel before I shoot it the first time. I clean the barrel after a trip to the range. 22lr barrels, including my Annie are almost never touched.
 
I don't personally buy in to all the different break-in methods, and I've tried a couple, but if you do experience excess copper fouling and maybe less than expected accuracy from a new rifle, Tubb's Final Finish Bore Lapping Bullets might help.

I've got a .308 I'm about to try these out on. It shoots great groups but fouls rather quickly, losing accuracy after about 40-50 rounds. But then again it's a hunting rifle so it's doesn't really matter. This stuff makes more sense to me than just putting normal bullets down the bore. You would probably get the same results eventually but the Tubb's is supposed to work in 50 rounds.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/513887/tubb-final-finish-bore-lapping-system-308-caliber-and-762mm
 
This debate belongs in the Rifle & Ammo Care & Shooting book's "Whatever" chapter along with sections titled Neck vs. Full Length Sizing, Shot Count in Accuracy Test Groups, Rifling Method for Best Accuracy, Bullet Jump to Rifling Distance and several others. Depending on the test objectives to evaluate different ways, the conditions under how the test is done and the standards of performance are established, there will be different conclusions reached across everyone measuring stuff all based on one beliefs on how the component parts interact with each other.
 
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I have heard at least a dozen different formulas for barrel break in. That tells me they are probably all useless and unnecessary.
Click to expand...
So, since I have heard about a dozen different ways to wash a car they must all be useless and unnecessary. :rolleyes:

If 'break in' was 'useless' on every barrel, then why do barrel makers lap their barrels from the factory? Same basic idea behind both processes, lapping is just considerably faster due to the use of a mild abrasive in the process. Some barrels will benefit more than others, so you can't really claim that it will be useless on any barrel, just like I can't claim that the process will help any barrel.
 
Lapping is a whole different ball game than "breaking in." I honestly cant say "breaking in" will not help junk barrels, but I can tell you it is a pure waste of time and barrel life on good barrel. I have successfully fire lapped some pretty bad barrels. This was after I tried "breaking them in" with no success. Fire lapping would not have been necessary had they been properly lapped in the barrel factory.
 
I can only suggest that you pick which camp you wish to join and then defend your beliefs with all due vigor and conviction. Long live the barrel!
 
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