kyotekiller25
Well-known member
I tend to break in new factory barreled rifles if I am the original buyer. Most factory barrels are junk, plain and simple. Look at Dan Liljas video on his barrel vs a rem 700 factory barrel or something or another, dont matter, sold me...Factory barrels need it, they will clean up much faster. I recently broke in my new winchester 264 WM for the simple fact that it will give me that "warm fuzzy feeling" that I gave it the best potential to show me what it can do, even if that means sending 40-50 rounds downrange and cleaning and scrubbing for half the day. You can use the 3 and 5 shot groups inbewteen cleaning for load development though, so its not a total waste IMO, depends on how you look at it. Anyways, it rewarded me with under 1/2 MOA groups with 140g AMAX on the 3rd load out of the rifle...Thing is, you'll never know if it woulda done that without breaking in the barrel, as you cant take it back and reverse it, and no 2 barrels are the same. But I think it has been almost clinically proven that they will clean up much easier, which is the real reason why I did it, and since the bigger 6.5s love to copper foul, I figured it was a "smart" thing to do...
I've only owned 2 custom barreled rifles and both are/were shooters, and neither were broken in "properly". I bought a 700 shilen barreled 25-06 at a pawn shop that was ridiculously accurate (consistent 1/2 MOA) with the only 3 bullets I tried in it 100 and 115g NBT, and 115g VLDs, who knows how many rounds or how it was taken care of before I got it? I can tell you that when I brought it home I scrubbed the hel out of it with a nylon brush and sweets though. The other is my 700 HART barreled 338 EDGE. I didn't do the whole break in procedure on this rifle. I shot it a few times, cleaned it, shot it a few more times and cleaned it and that was it, per Shawn Carlock. Rifle drills a 15" plate at 1K w/300g SMKS at 2825fps.
Factory do it, custom barrel dont really worry about it, thats my take anyways.
My break in procedure is shoot 1 shot and clean/scrub after each shot for the first 10 shots. After those 10, I shoot 3 shots and clean/scrub inbetween for the next 20 shots, then I shoot 5 and clean for the last 20. You can load test with the 5 and clean, shots 30-50 anyways. Disreguard the 1st shot due to oil/clean barrel and count the next 4, clean scrub, repeat. So all in all, I'm cleaning/brushing that barrel 20 times out of the first 50 rounds, with the first 10 being the most important brushing after each shot.
Thats how I do it anyways and I've been rewarded with some ridiculously super accurate factory sporter barreled rifles over the years...
I've only owned 2 custom barreled rifles and both are/were shooters, and neither were broken in "properly". I bought a 700 shilen barreled 25-06 at a pawn shop that was ridiculously accurate (consistent 1/2 MOA) with the only 3 bullets I tried in it 100 and 115g NBT, and 115g VLDs, who knows how many rounds or how it was taken care of before I got it? I can tell you that when I brought it home I scrubbed the hel out of it with a nylon brush and sweets though. The other is my 700 HART barreled 338 EDGE. I didn't do the whole break in procedure on this rifle. I shot it a few times, cleaned it, shot it a few more times and cleaned it and that was it, per Shawn Carlock. Rifle drills a 15" plate at 1K w/300g SMKS at 2825fps.
Factory do it, custom barrel dont really worry about it, thats my take anyways.
My break in procedure is shoot 1 shot and clean/scrub after each shot for the first 10 shots. After those 10, I shoot 3 shots and clean/scrub inbetween for the next 20 shots, then I shoot 5 and clean for the last 20. You can load test with the 5 and clean, shots 30-50 anyways. Disreguard the 1st shot due to oil/clean barrel and count the next 4, clean scrub, repeat. So all in all, I'm cleaning/brushing that barrel 20 times out of the first 50 rounds, with the first 10 being the most important brushing after each shot.
Thats how I do it anyways and I've been rewarded with some ridiculously super accurate factory sporter barreled rifles over the years...
