barrel break in advice

[McDewbie]

i just got my first rifle (savage model 11 in the long range hunter variant chambered in .308 winchester) and am planning on going to shoot it saturday and am wondering what i need to break this in and how to do it. sorry about the noobish questions, but ive gotten great advice from this site before and am hoping this trend will keep going.
Thanks, Evan

 

[BuckSnort]

Don't waste you're time or ammo/$$ on break in...Just shoot

 

[bearpaw]

+1 on that

 

[270winshort]

I would have to disagree with the 2 previous posts, just my opnion but I would get a tubbs break in kit and shoot the number 3's ten rounds, then clean then the #4's then clean then the #5's and then clean, there are ten rounds per # make sure to let your barrel cool between rounds you should be able to shoot about 3 or so before you need to let it cool, be sure to clean before you shoot the first rounds. make sure to load a slow load and make sure to jump them about 15 to 20 thousands, I am sure that you will notice a difference in how well it cleans as you work through the loads. just my opnion good luck

 

[Broz]

I break in all my barrels and many others for people I help with builds. You can actually see the difference in cleaning and amount of copper coming out between shots. This indicates the smoothing of the burrs or imperfections from chambering. If you don't clean and break in you risk the chance of copper build up and once these areas are copper covered how will you ever get them smoothed? The idea is to keep the barrel clean of copper so the next bullet can help smooth and season the barrel all the way through. I clean every shot until I see the ammount of copper fouling reduce. This is usually bewteen 6 and 10 shots. Once I see it reduce I go to 3 shot groups between cleanings. After about 3 to 5 of these 3 shot groups I then go to 5 shot groups betwen cleanings. Usually after a couple 5 shot groups the barrel is noticably easier to clean and I then clean after 20 to 30 shots. From here I let the rifle tell me when it wants to be cleaned. After a barrel is broken in properly and has a couple hundred rounds down it cleaning may only be needed at 50 to 100 rounds. The barrel will tell you by when groups open up.

I waste very little ammo doing this. By the time I have a barrel broken in I have usually found the most accurate powder charge for this rifle / bullet combination. When I go into the group shooting stages I then am working on seating depths. By the time I am done I have a rifle that shoots well and I have treated like it should be treated.

All this said, it is greatly dependent on what you expect from the rifle. If it is a 5 shot a year hunting rifle that will only be used to 300 yards, then one may not notice the difference. But since this is a Long Range Hunting forum, I would expect most shooters here are looking for accuracy to way out there. Long Range accuracy comes at a price and is a true comitment.

The difference in the level of your long range success will mirror the level of your commitment. Precision shooting is not like drive through food. Unless you treat it as such.

Good Luck and enjoy that new rifle.

Jeff gun)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[youngbuck]

I guess I follow both schools of thought. My most recent rifle, a factory tubed Savage, I did pretty much exactly what Broz said. I have to do load development anyways, and the break in procedure he mentioned prevents me from getting stuff too hot.

 

[270winshort]

Just to clarify my earlier post, I would agree 100 % with Broz as this is what I would do with a new custom barrel the break in that I mentioned earlier would be for a factory rifle

 

[kc0pph]

I agree with Broz, which is how Darryl Holland said to do it, and how ive done several of my barrels (even before i became a fan of Darryl.) With my .270 Win if i clean it every 100 rounds with a wet patch nothing comes out. I tried waiting til 200 rounds and the patch was actually dirty. But with my AR i can shoot 1 round and have nasty patches coming out. I also do not use steel or copper brushes on my rifles, only nylon when it really needs it. I find that a 50/50 mix of Peroxide and vinegar works great. If it does not get eveything clean i go for good ol hoppies #9. Sometimes in my pistols it gets really rough (i shoot cast bullets), so i use a bore scrubber solvent, and in pistols ONLY metal brushes.