Does anyone "break in" their new barrels

B

bucksnort06

New member
I've been shooting my new barrel and trying to "break it in" according to some posts on the internet. After every shot I'll run the brush/borecleaner/copper solvent thru the barrel numerous times. Its taking me forever to get this gun dialed in while going through this process. Anyone have any thoughts on this. Am I overcleaning my barrel? Thanks
 
Instead of starting a new thread on this one - do a "search" for "break in", and read the thousands of comments on this.

Some people believe in it like a religion, and others scoff at it as being pure silliness.

But before doing that, here's some comments made by Gale McMillan, who was one of the most famous barrel makers of all time, and who was responsible for training most of the current barrel makers.

Gale McMillan is one of the famous "McMillan" family, who have been leading figures in the shooting world, since the match lock /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Go here:

http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/Barrel_BreakIn.asp

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I agree with all thats been said but I do Flitz the barrel b4 ever shooting it. I run a patch with some Flitz on it 200 strokes total, 50 at a time and clean between each 50. it dose make barrel cleaning easier from then on.
 
howler,..all you did was break the barrel in by another method. Flitz is slightly abrasive,..just as is firing and cleaning. You accomplish the same thing either way,..smoothing of the horizontle tooling marks and chatter marks.

Those who find it foolish, think it has to do with accuracy gains rather than the true purpose, reducing fouling.

Also, Keep in mind, the majority of damaged barrels were owned by folks with improper tools for the task as well as not enough understanding. By firing rather than using a lapping compound, you KEEP the sharp edges of the rifling intact rather than polish them away. Also, without bore guides and exiting the muzzle and throat on each stroke, you wallow out the barrel ends. You have to do it correctly or damage will be the result.

It is a labor of love, but one I use in all match grade barrels. With the factory lapping of a match grade blank, it should only take maybe 10rnds to reduce fouling to almost NILL. Mine all break-in rather quickly,..however they have been button rifled and are not quite as hard as cut rifled so cut barrels may take a number more rounds. One shooter told me he didn't see a fouling reduction in his Kreiger until some 60+ rnds.

I just use ring lapping compound in factory barrels cause lets face it,..they ain't no match grade barrel. Just enough to reduce the fouling and go work up a load.
 
Good post CatDaddy, Gale is right of course, but some still can't get it thru their heads. Shoot your rifle, and clean it at the end of the day, and it will last several lifetimes for the average hunter.
If you have a rifle with a bad barrel; thats exactly what you have, a bad barrel. No amount of paste,or "breaking in", or scrutinizing the barrel with a bore scope is going to do a damned thing, other than reveal......a bad barrel:)
 
As the late Roger Johnston (the {co?}patent holder for moly coating, and fire lapping) told me, if you shoot a couple rounds, and have to scrub all day, you don't need a borescope to tell you what that barrel looks like. Its just another bad barrel. Having said that, a borescope is invaluable to see how effective your cleaning regimen is, and if a section of a barrel needs special attention.
 
All I can say is this. Many years ago we talked about this problem. Two identical rifles were set up for testing. One had the one shot and clean method done to the T. The other one was cleaned out of the box and shot like a rifle was suppose to be shot. At the end, both rifles were checked for accuracy and to be truthful the one not broke in was slightly better. After this we all agreed to the thought that this type of barrel excerise was more in line with the thought of a barrel company using the break-in method as a crutch for barrels that did not shoot well. They would refer back to the, "Did you follow our proper break-in method?" Of course, no one does so they can say it is not their barrels fault.

I have never broke in a barrel as mentioned in those methods. My rifles will shoot as well as any. I am not saying that doing this process may not work. Some folks live by it. I am saying from my experience I will not be wasting bullets, powder, and time doing it. Can't see any difference in my use. However, if it makes you feel better by all means stroke your heart out.

I clean them out of the box and shoot them. When done, clean the barrels and shoot them again. If I run 2 or 3 hundred rounds through it I will clean it after shooting. If hunting where only a few round are shot, I may not clean it for months.
 
I recently broke in a new Oly SUM barrel. I did the "shoot one and clean" routine for the first 5 rounds, but I limited it to running a wet patch of Sweet's 7.62 copper solvent, wait 5 minutes, 10 strokes with a nylon brush and then patched it till it came out clean. After the first 5 rounds, it wasn't showing any copper accemulation and I went to a 5 round string and clean (no copper), then 10 rounds (no copper).
I consider that barrel as smooth now, I'll clean it with powder solvent and use Sweets or CR10 once a year to clean it down to bare metal.
I wouldn't ever use any type of abrasive in my barrels.
So, I cleaned my barrel 7 times, nothing was used that would cause an excessive amount of barrel wear, and it's not grabbing copper.
I'm happy with that procedure, and it was accomplised in about 3 hours of shooting, during which I also zeroed my EOTech and BUIS.

Quote:
Am I overcleaning my barrel?



I don't know, is it still showing copper when you patch it? Make sure you're not using a bronze brush, or the copper solvent will dissolve the brush and make you think it's from the barrel.
 
Quote:
Quote:
Am I over cleaning my barrel?



I don't know, is it still showing copper when you patch it? Make sure you're not using a bronze brush, or the copper solvent will dissolve the brush and make you think it's from the barrel.



I have been running a test on cleaning for another website, and so far, what I do know is this.

If you use a bronze brush, you will NEVER get the barrel "clean", because the brush deposits copper along the barrel each time it passes through it.

The solvent does not dissolve the brush... the brush leaves a thin layer of bronze on the barrel steel, like chalk on a black board.

I had heard this in the past, and didn't believe it was enough to make a difference... but it does. If you brush a barrel with bronze, and then patch it, you will get a load of green... so you brush it again to get the copper out, and the next patch is loaded with green... so you chase your tail until you get tired of it.

If you take a truly clean barrel, and brush it it, the next patch will come out dark green.

Use nylon brushes to loosen powder residue.

However... using a bronze Jag for patches does not make patches green.

I am now getting my barrels fully clean (to the bare steel) in 1/5th the time, with less wear and tear on the barrels (and myself).


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The term "break in" is euphemistic. You need to be specific about what you want to accomplish by "breaking in" a barrel. Then you'll address those specifics and handle them, without all of the BS associated with "breaking in" a barrel.

Martyn
 
Here are the instructions I was sent with my rifles. Mike




Complete Barrel Break-in Instructions
Proper barrel break-in and cleaning habits have more than a lot to do with the ultimate accuracy the gun is capable of.
Make certain the barrel is clean and free of oil by pushing a clean patch through. Then head out to the range with the new gun, some quality
Ammo, the cleaning rod, plenty of patches, and a bottle of bore solvent. I happen to like Barnes CR-10; it works quickly and does a great job.
A cleaning rag is will come in handy, as will a gun rack like the one MTM makes.
Don’t use junk ammo. Use the good stuff because you can immediately begin developing loads, or find the best factory ammo for the gun.
All barrels are different, and only by trying different loads will you learn which your barrel likes best.
Shoot one round through and one round only. Then clean the barrel. My favorite procedure is to run the rod through the barrel from the
Breech and let the jag just stick out from the muzzle.
I like the Dewey stainless steel rods and the wrap around type Parker Hale brass jags. Dewey and Pro-Shot both make good rods. The Dewey
Plastic coated rods are nice too. I don’t recommend the brass or aluminum rods for other than occasional cleaning. This is heavy duty
Cleaning, so use a heat-treated stainless steel rod, with a swivel handle. If you really want to be professional, use a bore guide to keep the rod
Completely, away from the rifling just ahead of the chamber.
Wrap a patch around the jag sticking out of the muzzle, saturate with solvent, and PULL it back through, but don’t let it come completely out
The chamber. Then stroke it back and fourth several times. The purpose here is to merely wet the bore with the solvent and remove some of
The powder fouling that is covering up the copper fouling.
Then push the jag back out the muzzle and you will likely see that it is black with powder fouling. Now change patches, and saturate the new
One with fresh bore solvent. Now stroke this new patch several times and your new inspection will probably find that the patch is blue
Showing that it has chemically melted the copper fouling present from only one bullet.
Next, repeat this step with a fresh patch and solvent, and keep repeating this routine until the patch doesn’t show any blue or black color.
Then run one more, dry patch through to prepare the bore for the second shot. Fire a second shot and repeat the cleaning procedure. This cycle
Should be repeated for ten rounds. That’s right. Fire only one shot and clean, and do this ten times.
WE HAVE ALREADY FIRED THE FIRST 10 ROUNDS FOR YOU DURING OUR ROUTINE TEST FIRING AND
INSPECTION.
The next step is to fire three rounds and clean again, and repeat this cycle five times until you have used up fifteen rounds. Total rounds fired
Is now twenty-five? MANY BARRELS ARE READY TO GO AT THIS POINT. Exercise care, and clean after every five rounds for the next
25 rounds or so, but this can be done during the life of the gun. NO NEED TO SHOOT ALL THESE THE FIRST DAY - JUST CLEAN
FREQUENTLY, UNTIL THE BARREL HAS AT LEAST 50 ROUNDS THROUGH IT.
BLUE BARRELS WILL RUST IF LEFT UNPROTECTED. PROTECT THE BORE WITH A LIGHT FILM OF HOPPES 9
SOLVENT OR LIGHT OIL PRIOR TO STORAGE.
About bronze brushes. Most high performance copper removing solvents will quickly eat up bronze brushes too. One could use nylon brushes
to eliminate this problem, but I don’t use brushes at all, preferring instead to stick to patches and chemically remove the copper fouling.
About solvents. My personal favorite is Barnes CR-10 because it’s so fast. I also use Hoppe’s Bench Rest and Hoppe’s 9 for storage.
NEVER MIX SOLVENTS! You can get into real trouble here. For instance, a mixture of Barnes CR10 and Shooters Choice Copper
Remover could etch a bore in less than ten minutes! Either one used by it is safe for all bores, but mixed together, they can ruin a barrel.
Any high performance copper remover will destroy the rust preventative qualities of any oil you might have in the bore. Always follow up a
Cleaning procedure with oil prior to gun storage. I even oil my stainless steel barrels. For storage, I use Hoppe’s 9. It contains kerosene, so
Protects against rust like oil. Another bonus, it will slowly eat away copper, leaving a green residue which will be apparent the next time you
Run a clean patch through the bore.
Don’t worry about barrel life. A quality barrel well cared for will deliver top accuracy for several thousand rounds if chambered for a mild
Cartridge like a 308 or 30/06. Of course very hot cartridges like the 7mm STW will show throat erosion in as little as 250 rounds, but the gun
Will still provide more than adequate hunting accuracy.
I have found that in well cared for barrels, the accuracy keeps getting better up to 100 to 200 rounds or more. Then it will stay for a
Considerable number of rounds in the milder calibers, and then very slowly degrade with throat erosion. This happens much sooner with the
Very large capacity cartridges. The exact number of rounds is impossible to predict with all the variables present. Obviously, the more powder
One burns in a barrel, and the hotter it gets, the sooner it will erode. Keep your barrels clean and cool for longest life.
 
OR instead of wasting the ammo you could Flitz the barrel and accomplish the same thing. OR do nothing and problably do alright too
 
I don't waste my time, Even on my custom's. I have always used either Mike Rock, or Broughton tubes. I am trying to broaden my horizon's a little and ordered a Bartlein for my next project. I won't break that one in either. Life is short, barrles are cheap, I just go out and shoot.....LOL
 
Quote:
Life is short, barrels are cheap, I just go out and shoot.....LOL



Amen-Brother.jpg
 
Another vote for don't waste your time or ammo....a good barrel doesn't need a "break in" and a bad barrel won't benefit from it......
 
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