barrel break in procedure

S

skinz0021

New member
i have tried to search the forum but comes up with too many posts that do not apply.

i would like to know how to break in my sps tactical .308 i have some spare ammo in differant weights & would like to break in right & take advantage of this spare ammo.

just want to make sure it doesnt matter what you break in with?

thanks in advance
 
Just shoot & clean. The cleaning after every shot is a waste of time effort money & barrel life. I'll get reamed by somebody for this but I really don't care. I have better things to do than practice myths.
 
Quote:
"... I'll get reamed by somebody for this but I really don't care. I have better things to do than practice myths.



But not from me!

It is a myth, and there is no science to it.

You will hear guys tell you that it works, "I broke in my barrel by cleaning after every shot, and it shoots great"...

But the converse is also true, you will hear guys say, "I didn't break in my barrel, and it shoots great".

... but there no is basis for comparison. It is as logical as saying, "I brushed my barrel with "Jack's cleaning brushes", and it shoots great"... Duh.

No one, and I mean NO ONE, has ever taken two top of the line Shilen select match barrels, and had them built and chambered with the same reamer, and then done a test.

Is a myth that some people hang on to.

Save your ammo - shoot it and clean it normally.

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sknz0021, My only advice is to contact the firearms or barrel maker and do what they advise...

This is a subject that generates opinions, and is like noses, everyone has one...

I have some that I've followed a strict break in regimen and others I've shot normally... Is there a world of difference, or has one not lasted as long as the other...?? Not that I can tell.. but I've almost always followed what the company instructed me to do, just in case there was a problem later...

I do suggest using good cleaning practices when you clean though.... bore guide, good rod, etc....
 
A comment I like to make when this subject comes up always seems to get over looked.

Its a new rifle, with a new scope on it, it needs sighted in right? so why not combine the two activites on your first trip to the range. It cannot be a waste of ammo when you have to shoot it anyways. It cannot be a waste of barrel life if you have to shoot it anyways, plus dont we always say not to shoot a hot barrel,so this would allow it to cool alittle. It cannot be a waste of time if you enjoy being out shooting. Taking all this into consideration, all we are talking about is cleaning it 3 or 4 times in the first 20 rounds or so right?

Now that I have said that, I dont shoot and clean every round, except for the first one. Then I will go 2 or 3 clean, then 5 and clean, and I am done. Most the time when I do it...its done in 15 rounds or less. I dont think it helps accuracy, I think it does help a new barrel clean easier by removing those first layers of copper fouling before they get heavy.

Its funny how they say they can sell more barrels because of the BBP. With that little difference in rounds down a tube, it would only take another match or less, maybe one week at the range, one trip to the range for a practice round, and they would need a new pipe anyways. Since no 2 barrels are or shoot the same, if neither were "broke in" what explains one lasting 200 optimum rounds longer than the other. Point is....barrel life changes from one to the next, who's to know how long it will go before you need a new one anyways.

Want to really know what cuts barrel life more than the BBP. Its all of us shooters that are never happy with how our rifles shoot with a certain bullet or powder. Then we shoot 100 or more rounds of ammo getting something we like. Then the next year somebody comes out with the latest and greatest cure all, kill everthing bullet, and we have to start all over again. If your a tinkering type of shooter that likes to try different stuff all the time, you will burn out a barrel just testing your own loads.

I think if it was called "Clean it a few times during your first 20 rounds" instead of "Barrel Break-in Procedure" it would go over alittle better. The word "Procedure" makes it sound like you HAVE to do it, I think thats what most people have a hard time with.

Wow! this got long, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
I cleaned my SUM with Sweet's every round for the first 5, and I was pulling some copper out for the first 3 shots. Whether that ended up in making my barrel shoot better or not is questionable, but it was my experience. I can run 40 rounds now and not get nearly as much copper out as I got from the first round I fired through it (and I'm assuming Mike Milli put a few rounds through it after he built it up). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
First and foremost, anything worth doing, is worth doing right. This process is time consuming. The rifle barrel is, the best it will ever be, the day you get it. How well it shoots and how long its useful life will be is direct related to how you treat it. A lot of damage to the bore is done using an ill fitting cleaning rod with an ill fitting jag. Make certain the brush you install on the rod is straight, this can easily be checked by turning the rod while watching the brush.



Do not shoot the rifle before doing this part of the barrel prep.

Before you start working on your new rifled barrel you will need to round up the correct supplies.
I like Dewey coated cleaning rods with a well fitting bore guide. Butches Bore Shine and Shooters Choice solvent, however any good solvent will suffice. Never stick anything in the muzzle end of the barrel and be very careful when bringing the brush or the jag back into the barrel from the muzzle, do it very slowly. All rifles are test fired by the factory, including mine. They probably were not cleaned and were fired with who knows what in the barrel, metal chips, oil, etc. When they fire them the contaminates are then imbedded in the barrel surface.

I use a Dewey rod and a Dewey jag wrapped with a 2" wide by 3" (223 barrel) long strip of paper towel to put the compound on, it makes a longer surface for the compound. Mark the rod or use a rod stop so that the patch only comes out of the muzzle half of its length before pulling it back.


The barrel must be clean before you start a breakin regiment. Start by running a patch dampened with Butches bore shine or shooters choice. Run the wet patch's thru bore until one comes thru clean. Then run a wet bronze brush of the appropriate size thru the barrel 5 strokes. Then, 1 patch wet with alcohol followed by 3 dry patches, the 2-3rd should come out clean, If not the barrel is not clean. Repeat with the brush treatment and try again. Clean barrel with alcohol or disc brake cleaner after cleaning the barrel and before starting a breakin regiment

Use Rem Clean or JB bore cleaner and then JB Bore polish, for the final polish. Push a wet patch thru the barrel to remove all the left over compound before using new compound.
Solvents are being reinvented everyday, so at present this is what I use. Butches Bore Shine, Shooters Choice mixed with 20% kroll oil to remove carbon, for copper fouling I like Sweets. There are a lot of other products in the market place that I’m sure will work as well.



I use the patches with JB cleaner compound for about 50 to 75 strokes changing patches after 5 strokes, that's about 10-15 new patches with compound.

Shooting in the barrel. Never shoot the barrel dry during this process. Run a wet patch with solvent thru the barrel and 1 dry patch thru the barrel, that will leave a very small amount of solvent in the barrel so the jacket material and carbon from the powder has less chance to adhere to the barrel for the first few shots. Shoot 1 shot and clean for 5 shots then 3 shots and clean for the next 20 or so rounds you fire thru the rifle. At 20 rounds you can start cleaning after 5 shots until you have reached 100 rounds.

Once the process is complete you will need to completely strip the rifle and clean and oil the moving parts.
 
I "broke" in many benchrest barrels when I was shooting competition...jeez, it sure is no fun, boring as killing ants on your front steps with a hammer.

On these very high quality benchrest barrels here is what I would see:

*fire one shot, brush and apply Sweet's 7.62 Copper remove
it is very important to notice the amount of blue'
on the patch when you patch out the Sweets
*fire second shot, repeat procedure above, paying particular
attention to the amount of blue on the patch
when you patch out the Sweets
*fire third shot, and clean
fire forth shot and clean, Blue on patches at this point
should be much less than the first shot and second shot
*fire fifth shot, and clean...watch blue

fire three shots and clean, watch blue, save first patch
fire three shots, clean and inspect for blue
fire three shots, clean
fire three shots, clean,
fire three shots, clean, compare blue patch on first 3 shot

fire 5 three shot group and clean, watch blue,save patch
fire 4 more 5 shot groups, clean and watch first blue patch

during the 3 and 5 shot groups, I am usually working on a load.

The most important shots are the first 10 shots and more importantly the first 3 shots...you can really see the amounts of blue decrease on the patches after the first few shots.

I would suggest a rod guide from either Lucas or Neil Jones that has a bushing that fits on the rod to keep the rod centered in the bore, if you do not have that bushing, then you are adding wear to your throat area with the friction of the cleaning rod. Plastic on steel has more friction than steel on steel...check it out in a Machinist's manual.

Your 308 should really surprise you with tuned handloads. It is very difficult to "break" in a factory barrel, however some of the Stainless barrels on Rem, Sako, and Rugers are quite impressive, compared to their blued counter parts.

I have developed two different lapping & polishing solutions for my own barrels, I do not sell them. You can achieve a very good polish in your barrel by polishing your barrel with JB saturated on 10 patches on a very tight punch type of Jag, short stroking the patches back and forth in your barrel, paying particular attention to the area just in front of the throat.

Never, never use Rem Clean in the yellow tube or Flitz in your barrel, they will lap the lands round on the corners.

I might add, that when I quit shooting Benchrest, I also quit breaking in barrels with the fire and clean method.

Good luck and best wishes with your new barrel.
 
I asked this exact question about a week or two ago for my new 22-250. I got alot of responses, and here is what I did, and Im happy with my results.

First, clean it real good before shooting it.

Then, go out and shoot as your sighting it in. I cleaned after the first ten rounds and then after every 20 until it found the load it liked. Now I clean after every time at the range or in the field, or after every 20-25 rounds (whichever comes first)

I shoot factory ammo, and realized it does take about 75 rounds before you can start to get a group that is satisfactory (atleast to me). I have put 95 rounds through it now and with factory loads, and just yesterday finally got it to shoot sub 1" at 100. I think it will get even more accurate after another 50 loads or so, but I am very happy.

So as far as the break in process, you will find an equal number of guys who follow a strict program, and those that say just shoot and clean when your done. I think both groups of folks can probably get about the same group at the range, and as long as it is a clean barrel, and you don't allow copper build up. Basically if your looking for a certain response to justify a pattern you want to follow, you will find it here. Congrats on a new toy and have fun with it.
 
This subject has always been interesting whenever it comes up. I see alot of different ideas as to how each person feels about the way he breaks the Gun in, I did kinda similar, cleaned, sighted the scope, cleaned sighted the scope... etc,, I didnt go to the lengths that some of you competition shooters did, but after all, it was just a $500 Coyote gun.. Its great to read all the different styles of break in..
 
From everything I've read on the net, I quit breaking in any barrel. I shoot and stay on top of the cleaning with Patch Out and the Accelerator, shooting and repeating the procedure. The shooting part is working up a load, not breaking it in. When you're done for the session, you should have a clean barrel and no fouling and a load you've decided on.
 
Quote:
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I use the patches with JB cleaner compound for about 50 to 75 strokes changing patches after 5 strokes, that's about 10-15 new patches with compound.




I was just reading about JB compound on this thread http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/Barrel_BreakIn.asp

Now I have used this stuff before, knowing it was abrasive. But As Gail Of MCM points out its nasty. He wrote this on the 13 post on this thread.

"Look at it this way, A barrel starts out with nice sharp areas of the corners of the rifling . Along the way you build a big fire in it a few thousand times and it burns the corners off. Now take a barrel that to break in you put an abrasive on a patch and run it in and out. The result is that you take the corners off the rifling so that all that fire which would have started with sharp rifling is now starting with rifling that is thousands of rounds old. Which means that a lot of the life is gone. A lap always cuts more on each end where the compound reverses direction as it starts back through the barrel which means that it is enlarging the bore at each ends of the barrel. And last picture a patch riding along the barrel with abrasive on it. It is removing material at a given rate. It comes to a place where there is copper fouling and it rides over it cutting the same amount that it was cutting before it came to the copper. You continue until all the fouling is gone and what have you done? You have put the came contour in the barrel steel that was in it when it was metal fouled. It would not be as bad if it were used on a lead lap but I ask why would you want to abuse the barrel when you can accomplish the same thing without the bad side effects. There is Sweats, Otters foul out or just a good daily cleaning with a good bore cleaner till the fouling is gone. To top this off I will relate a true happening. I built a bench rest rifle for a customer and as usual I fired 5 groups of 5 shots and calculated the aggregate. It was good enough to see that the rifle was capable of winning the Nationals so I shipped it. I got a call from the new owner saying how happy he was with it the way it shot. About 4 weeks later the rifle showed up with a note saying it wouldn't shoot. Sure enough when I tested it it was shooting groups three times the size if the ones I had shot before I shipped it. When I bore scoped it the barrel looked like a mirror and the rifling wasn't square it was half round. From that time on I put a flyer in each gun saying if any abrasive was use in it voided the Warrantee. Now I am not trying to stop you from doing what you want but just inform you what is happening when you use JB. Brass brushes are softer than barrel steel and does no harm. S/S brushes are harder than barrel steel is definetly a no no. Nylon may surprise you to know is very abrasive If you doubt this look at the carbide eye on yout fishing rod where nylon line has worn groves into it." MCM
 
You can rub JB bore paste between your fingers for days before you would have worn down your finger prints, which are a lot softer than steel.

I was good friends with Gale and shared a lot of thoughts with him including barrel break in. I was around when Gale made his first fiberglass stock.
 
Sir, Well you've obviously been there and done that.

I just was shocked to read these statements, and how much damage it was causing my bore. Whether it has, I have no idea because I don't own a borescope.

Thanks for sharing your opinion and expertise on the subject.
 


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