Firer lapping vs. standard barrel break in?

[Boss Hoss]

BH speaks the truth here--read his post carefully because it is the Gospel! Get a bore scope and see what you need to polish out first. All of my barrels are from Broughton and Krieger and built by SG&Y so fire lapping would do nothing but introduce premature wear which is a bad thing!

[srhaggerty]

I think my question fits here.

I just bought a Ruger No.1 and it is used. Has less than 50 rounds through it. The guy I bought it from said he did a rendition of a break in, but I am not real sure what he did.

So my question is should I run it through a small bit of Tubb's Final Finish?

[royinidaho]

I'd shoot the #1 a bit first. Watch for copper build up. Depending on the cartridge you may have other issues to take care of before accuracy of the bore/chamber become the limiting condition.

[Mikecr]

I'll say that Fire lapping 'polishes' out tooling marks & little thingys from CHAMBERING as well on a custom as factory. And it WILL NOT hurt a custom barrel one bit.
I know barrel makers say that break in isn't needed on their barrels. Some appease the crowd with a lame breakin procedure(which does nothing). Your custom barrels will shoot well without fire lapping I'm sure.
Mine shoot fine with it, and I have yet to see ANY loss of leade with my procedure. Absolutely zero movement.

Just use the finest grit(for custom), 10shots, and I clean between each shot(even though not per procedure).
TRUE BREAK-IN COMPLETE.
Later the leade gets ugly again, so followup to prolong accurate life.

I think it's a MUST for factory barrels. Just do it, don't worry.

[srhaggerty]

It is chambered in 300 Win Mag.

[drewman]

Well I was thinking about it in a factory barrel. I wanted to lap out the machine marks. I've use it in one other barrel but it did move the throat more than I thought it would.
But I think your right when you say that you should use the course grit sparingly!

[goodgrouper]

[ QUOTE ]
I am always amazed at how many people will advise someone ELSE to do something harmful to a gun.



[/ QUOTE ]

<font color="red">I'm always amazed at how many people will advise against something they've never tried themselves. </font>

As a firm believer and practicer of FF breakins, I think I have somewhere to stand in this matter and I can say this:

ALL barrels have burrs and machine marks in them whether custom or factory. All barrels need them removed. Custom's burrs are removed by hand lappers before they are sent out. Factory barrels recieve no such treatment. So they need breakin. FF speeds up the process and smooths them out above what normal shooting can do.

I have even revived "shot out" custom barrels with FF and had great results. FINAL FINISH WORKS!