Barrel break in

[AmericanBob]

So, I have a new rifle on the way from Remington. I've never had a rifle that I was really worried about how to break the barrel in before, but this one I do. So I'm looking for a few tips on how to "properly" break in a barrel. I do have one more question. How many people use grease instead of oil? I clean my K31 the way the Swiss do using grease instead of solvent and oil and am happy with the results. Anyone use this method on their regular rifles?

 

[sofrosune]

Here's a good article I read on The Firearm Blog you may find helpful... Breaking In A Rifle Barrel - The Firearm Blog

 

[rosejm]

******* intrawebz videos... I remember when journalism actually involved writing a coherent story. You know with words and sentences and stuff.

Anyone want to post Cliff's Notes for those of us who can't watch?
Seriously, I had no idea that this was a thing. I thought you just put cartridges in one end and the bullets came out the other.

 

[junk]

******* intrawebz videos... I remember when journalism actually involved writing a coherent story. You know with words and sentences and stuff.

Anyone want to post Cliff's Notes for those of us who can't watch?
Seriously, I had no idea that this was a thing. I thought you just put cartridges in one end and the bullets came out the other.

pointy end forward . run a patch or two through . what I thought was funny was 1 guy said probably 150 rounds . I checked the ads and no one ever shoots more than 50 then sells it .

 

[buckwacker]

I think complicated break-in procedures are unnecessary. Shooting without all the cleaning will eventually accomplish the same as break-in, maybe not as quickly. Plus it's more enjoyable to shoot than clean.

 

[Woobie]

Krieger has a good article on their site about break-in. Bear in mind that those are hand-lapped, single point cut rifled barrels, and that Remmy has a hammer forged barrel. Not close to the same animal. Sinclair also put out some good info on break-in in one of their books. Those two are fairly similar methods. Another one I saw was basically shoot, clean, shoot, clean and so forth until you can shoot 10 rounds or so and not get any copper fouling.

 

[sloughfoot]

Krieger has a good article on their site about break-in. Bear in mind that those are hand-lapped, single point cut rifled barrels, and that Remmy has a hammer forged barrel. Not close to the same animal. Sinclair also put out some good info on break-in in one of their books. Those two are fairly similar methods. Another one I saw was basically shoot, clean, shoot, clean and so forth until you can shoot 10 rounds or so and not get any copper fouling.

I agree with all this and highly recommend you go to Kreiger.com for education. However, in my experience with factory barrels, when you stop getting copper fouling, the barrel throat is gone. Damn things are so rough, they strip some jacket every time unless they are lapped. A factory barrel still provides useable accuracy, and they are certainly better than what we grew up with. They still cannot match the quality of a custom barrel.

Do what makes you feel good and gives you confidence.

 

[Woobie]

I agree with all this and highly recommend you go to Kreiger.com for education. However, in my experience with factory barrels, when you stop getting copper fouling, the barrel throat is gone. Damn things are so rough, they strip some jacket every time unless they are lapped. A factory barrel still provides useable accuracy, and they are certainly better than what we grew up with. They still cannot match the quality of a custom barrel.

Do what makes you feel good and gives you confidence.

Thats true. And thinking back, when I read about that method, it was circulated among people who were going to have a custom barrel anyway.

 

[phylodog]

Meh. I've done an objective test with high end rifles/barrels (HS Precision) as well as with factory Remington rifles and I won't waste my time with any sort of break in. For a factory Remington I'd clean it when I got it, shoot ten rounds or so while getting a reasonable zero with your scope but without getting your hopes up as far as accuracy. Things should start to improve from there and once they stop improving, clean it. I would expect to get an honest idea of what the rifle/ammo combination is capable of once you get a few hundred rounds through it.

 

[Leo]

There is a building at Purdue dedicated to materials science. It is pretty quick in the course to find out stability and wear factor in metals is directly related to the initial heat and cooling cycles. That concerns me more than the stray whiskers of metal left from the manufacturing process. For better than 20 years I have only bought match barrels or barrel blanks from top manufacturers. I believe the biggest benefit of the "shoot/clean, shoot/clean" style of break in is that it actually is a heat/cool system that avoids extremes in heat while the internal stresses are being naturally relieved. All but one of those barrels were extremely accurate right from the start and kept that accuracy for many rounds until they fell on their face at the end of barrel life.

The one exception just never shot well and I gave it to a match rifle gun smith and never got accuracy out of it either. It was just a bad barrel.

 

[Robert Richardson]

******* intrawebz videos... I remember when journalism actually involved writing a coherent story. You know with words and sentences and stuff.

Anyone want to post Cliff's Notes for those of us who can't watch?
Seriously, I had no idea that this was a thing. I thought you just put cartridges in one end and the bullets came out the other.

Real nice language you use

 

[Hookeye]

I thought the BR guys did such things to extend the length between cleanings.

You know, a dirty bore opening groups by .05"

 

[LarryC]

Don't know if it helped or not yet But I followed the recommendations of Dpms and the barrel manufacturer for my LR-.308 Stainless Steel Bull barrel. The recommendation included cleaning between each shot for the first 25 rounds then between every 10 rounds until 100 rounds were fired. The provider of the barrel had somewhat less requirements but similar. Way I look at it is that it sure can't hurt, and if it helps even a little in accuracy it will be worth the trouble.

When I did some research on the web, the reason given for the break in was that some roughness exists in all barrels after manufacture. When you fire a copper clad projectile the copper will fill the small "pits" and prevent smoothing or polishing from later projectiles so the barrel will never "break in" properly.If you remove the deposit from the projectiles the barrel will "wear" smooth providing better accuracy. True or false? I don't know, but as I said above ~ can't hurt!

 

[phylodog]

There have been many barrels damaged or even destroyed by improper cleaning so technically it can hurt the barrel (if not done properly). There are usually imperfections in the bore and it is true that those imperfections get filled with copper when you fire a bullet down the barrel. When those imperfections fill in with copper and you shoot another round, copper stops being removed from the bullet, you get a burnished surface to the bore and your shot to shot consistency improves. When you strip that copper out of there, the first round you fire is going to begin filling those imperfections in again and your consistency goes out the window while your bullets work to reach the burnished surface you had before.

This is why I never cleaned my rifle unless I could immediately go out and shoot ten rounds as soon as I finished. The first six rounds would slowly walk from 1.5"-2" high left back to my POA. I'd fire ten just to be safe.

 

[Hookeye]

Wonder how many who do the barrel break in are reloaders?
Are they running bulk general components on a Lee press or are they buying boutique stuff and spending their kids inheritance at Sinclair?

 

[VUPDblue]

I have an unfired 18" SPR barrel that's needing shot/broken-in. What to do......

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I have an unfired 18" SPR barrel that's needing shot/broken-in. What to do......

 

[AmericanBob]

So, pretty much clean it and shoot it and repeat but not too often or vigorously. Got it.

 

[VUPDblue]

So, pretty much clean it and shoot it and repeat but not too often or vigorously. Got it.

we're still talking about firearms here, right?