How many rounds to find your load...new barrel

Just curious as to how many rounds it normally takes before you settle on a long range load from a new barrel. I'd love to hear the process from break in to final development, since I have just got my first custom back from the gunsmith and would like to hear your experiences. Thanks

Some guys say don't worry about load development until you get past break in of 100 rounds. Some guys start load development immediately after 10-15 rounds.

In my opinion, it just depends on the barrel and all of them are different.

I'm working on one right now that became much easier to clean after about 50 rounds. Could have stopped at anytime with 1/2"to 1" MOA loads but just looking something a little more consistently under 1/2" MOA.

The last couple of years, I've gone to fireforming 100 pieces of brass just to get the round count up to where the barrel settles down.

25 will usually take care of barrel break-in. Then I do pressure tests on a couple of powder/ bullet combos over the chronograph, just to get an idea of what might work. Pretty quick, my barrel is ready to start work-up. Usually, a ladder at 400. When I'm closing in, I'll do some seating depth testing and finally some 10 shot groups to verify how consistent my load is. Plot all my come-ups and I'm through.

80-100... 20 to break in barrel a bit, 30 doing OBT testing and another 30 doing seating depth\Jump testing.

Sounds good, a lot of good info. Thanks for the help. It's a rem 700 with a proof carbon 1/10 twist in a 270 Winchester. I hope to get the 145 eldx or 140 game changer over 3000 with reloder 26, should make a nice combo to 600 yds

My last 6.5x47 lapua, I used the same reamer I had used on another. Using the same load the first rig liked, the first 5 went .3". That has held up over the last 400 rounds with one cleaning tossed in for good measure. Sounds like you have a nice barrel, should be easy to find a load for.

If its a good barrel and a good smith, it should be a really easy process.

I've come to think that it also depends how you keep your barrel. I haven't been pursauded otherwise to keep a clean bore vs a fouled bore. That being said, after break in, it could be around 100 rounds to bring equilibrium to a factory barrel. Custom barrels, for me, have been less than that. I'll clean just prevent build up, I'll get out copper if theres a accuracy run off. However I usually just wait till mv hits a plateau and it's good until copper builds up to much.

My last work-up was for my 6.5-284 and inclusive of break in, I think I had found a lower and a medium node at about 54 rounds. I'm told that my barrel may speed up somewhere around the 125 round count but I'm not too concerned about it. "Long Range" for me is only out to about 425, and my 2 kills this year were in the 350 yard range. Right now, I can get 5 shot groups @ 300 yds into 1/2 MOA with less than 1.5" vertical dispersion. I figure I'm OK out to 400 but I'll check with the Magneto Speed to see if things start creeping up and adjust accordingly.

That's cool I hunt in the mountains of WV, most shots are less than 100. I occasionally hunt elk in Colorado with my farthest shot being 485. My limit is 600 for game, so hopefully I can find a good load quick and have some fun shooting steel this summer

All 3 of my Proof barrels have settled in between 40 and 60 rounds but I typically dont start load development until I have fire formed 100 rounds of brass. I then do a ladder and seating depth test.

Highvoltage said:

Just curious as to how many rounds it normally takes before you settle on a long range load from a new barrel. I'd love to hear the process from break in to final development, since I have just got my first custom back from the gunsmith and would like to hear your experiences. Thanks

Click to expand...

I would wait until your barrel is no longer new. That takes at least 100 rounds. I worked up an awesome load for my 28 Noz in the first 30 rounds. First round hits at 1k no problem. At about the 100 round mark I couldn't hit a 3 foot plate at 1k. Turned out I was shooting over it, by a lot. I didn't re-crono my load, but it was originally 3050fps. I kept plugging in higher numbers until my shooter app dope matched my observed impact data and arrived at 3130. But my accuracy node is clearly in the 3000-3075 range because groups also widened up. So back to the drawing board...

No need to go back to the Drawing board just drop your charge until you hit 3050 and I will bet you will be back in your node,

I start load development immediately after break-in and my break-in is usually about a 10 shot one and clean process give or take. After break-in I find my max load and then start at the top and work down to find my accurate load. This all with new brass, you should not see much difference between new and used brass, especially with good brass.

A well built rifle will shoot almost anything well. My first Long Range rifle was a used stock Rem 700 Sendero 300 RUM. Nothing special, no truing, no bedding, no nothing. It shot factory and handloads 1/2 MOA or better. It had a good aluminum bedded HS Precision stock and a heavy Sendero contour barrel. Later I had a semi custom 300 RUM built on a HS Precision stock, trued 700 action in which I replaced all the components, bolt, mag box, recoil lug and trigger and put a light Sendero contour Boughton barrel on it. I spent about 10 rounds for break-in, found my max load which turned out to be an excellent accuracy load. Here are the groups at 100, 2121, 326 and 427 yards. The 427 yard group was shot the morning after the first three groups and includes the cold bore shot.