Proper barrel break in or not? That is the question

[ohiohunter]

Lets see how the LRH crowd feels about breaking in barrels.

 

[Barrelnut]

It might help and it certainly ain't gona hurt. So why not? I do it while getting to know the rifle/scope setup.

 

[bill123]

I agree w above comment. However, the 2 Bartlein barrels that I broke in both took 2-6 shots each to break in.

 

[lee31]

Had a very competent gunsmith that has built some national winning f class rifles to just shoot . The rifle he built me seems to be very accurate. I just clean it every 25-30 rounds and it shoots great

 

[406precision]

Run it like you stole it and clean it when you see accuracy fall off or your gonna store it for extended time periods..lol

Jordan@406

 

[Broz]

I do a break in. I have ALWAYS seen things change during break in as far as the amount of copper being cleaned out and the number of patches needed to get there. Some are taking less cleaning in 6 to 10 shots, some 20 to 30 shots. After that I set up a regular regimen to clean, I do not wait for accuracy to fall off. Loss of accuracy is my biggest fear, I would rather clean and have the confidence that I get from it.

Jeff

 

[406precision]

For the record my post was kinda tongue in cheek, didn't come across the way I intended as the exclamation point didn't take..as my phone currently hates me and the forums.

I don't do a barrel break in regiment however I do run a dry boresnake through my rifle after a trip to the range and clean them every 100 to 150 rounds unless it's a match gun then the sometimes go 300 before a real cleaning.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Run it like you stole it and clean it when you see accuracy fall off or your gonna store it for extended time periods..lol

Jordan@406

+1

Usually with a factory pipe I just get the top end on her and let her buck. Also, with a factory barrel I'll usually take it out with enough ammo to get the barrel hotter than heck once early in its life. I never let the barrel heat up nearly that hot again. It seems to take a lot of the heat poi shift out of a factory barrel.

When I put my new 7stw together this week I'll likely shoot and clean the first few shots to smooth everything out a bit, but with a 140 ab doing 3400-3500 fps out of a 27" 8" twist barrel, break in time should be pretty short. I'll figure out a load with a 168-200 grain pill after I confirm that it is a shooter. I'm not wasting half the price of the rifle again trying to polish a gilded turd.

 

[huntoregon]

Question from a rookie, how do you guys know when a barrel is broken in?

 

[Greyfox]

For several years I do a thorough clean each shot, 10 rounds, every 3 shots for 3 cycled, every 5 shots for 2 cycles., done. I then clean every 100-200 rounds, end of season, or storage unless exposed to heavy moisture. If the rifle doesn't hold accuracy for this amount either the barrel or the rifle goes. This has been rare but when it occurs other problems like zero or accuracy changes seem to exist and the barrel is inconsistent. Ease of carbon and copper removal is almost always noticeable during the break in so I believe the process is valid with the possible exception of some custom barrels which are lapped. I double up on sight in.....and scope alignment testing if the rifle is grouping well early on.

 

[MMERSS]

Question from a rookie, how do you guys know when a barrel is broken in?

How smooth and copper clean the patches run through the barrel. On a new factory barrel initilly shoot one or two shots and increase up to five over a period of time. Clean the rifle and notice the "stickyness" as the rod is pushed through during cleaning and also the amount of "blue" copper on the patches if using a good copper remover. After a period of time, the rod should glide smoothly down the bore and the "blue" copper should almost or completely disappear, hopefully anyway. With a custom barrel it may only take a few rounds before the bore becomes relatively free of copper. A factory barrel may take from around 30 to an infinite amount of rounds. There comes a time when after about 30 to 40 rounds I will give up and just start shooting.

 

[MontanaMarine]

I'll usually load up 10 rounds with 600 grit firelapping compound to polish up a factory barrel, then give it a good cleaning.

After that I'm firing moly coated, with very limited cleaning.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Custom barrels get a couple wet patches followed by a few dry patches. Then a couple rounds to sight in. Break-in is done when the scope is zero at 200.

Factory barrels get fire-lapped. Have done this to 4 Remington tubes now. Thanks to Remington's slow twist rates, 2 shoot lighter pills to 3/4 to 1/2 MOA. The third, a .223 shoots tighter groups yet. But the 4th barrel saw no change. It has been replaced with a custom barrel. In all fairness, there were other issues with this gun that prompted not just a barrel but other work too.

Pete

 

[PPR]

On a custom barrel just load and shoot. If there is anything to break in it would be where the reamer stopped cutting. Couple of shots and it's gone.

Regards, Paul