Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
Articles
Latest reviews
Author list
Classifieds
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Hunting
The Basics, Starting Out
Rookie W/ First Rifle seeking advice.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MontanaRifleman" data-source="post: 370959" data-attributes="member: 11717"><p>Something you should know is that there is a whole world of difference in breaking in a factory barrel vs a custom barrel, i.e., a Lilja, etc. Dan recommends Butches Bore Shine for cleaning, but he makes and uses custom hand lapped barrels which clean and break-in much easier than factory barrels. With a good custom barrel you could be done in as little as 3 shots with minimal cleaning between each shot. With a factory barrel, it's going to take a whole lot more effort. Most of the copper solvents on the market simply do not get all the copper out of a factory barrel. I learned this from first hand experience, cleaning and breaking in several barrels. Just because you get a clean patch doesn't mean your bore is clean. I have seen many clean patches after a bore has soaked up to 30 min with Montana Xtreme 50 BMG, Butche's and most recently KG-12 which are all highly touted bore cleaners, and then follow up with BTE or Wipeout and find a whole lot more copper after getting clean patches with these other cleaners. They get the easy copper out, but not the stubborn copper. If you want to try an experiment, get one of these and some BTE, clean with Butche's or Sweets, or whatever, until you get clean patches, then follow up with a scrubbing and soaking of BTE. Or.... you can skip the experiment and just get the large bottle of BTE and use it like I described in my earlier post. If you have a really good factroy barrel you might get it clean in about an hour or so. If you have a bad one, it will take several hours and you may not be able to fully break it in. I've learned all this the hard way and just trying to pass that learning on to you and others.</p><p> </p><p>There is no set number of times to run a patch through the bore. You run it through until it starts showing pale color then you scrub and let soak and wet patch through again. With BTE, on your first couple of shots and cleaning you should let it soak the first time for about 20 min and repeat until you get a pale patch. Then soak again and let sit for an hour to see how stubborn the copper might be in your bore. It is something you need to get a feel for to do it right rather than follow some prescribed regiment.</p><p> </p><p>You have to weigh the possible benefits against the effort to get there. If you're a high volume shooter, it will be worth it because it will save you a lot of cleaning time in the long run (provided you take care of your barrel) and time between needed cleanings. If you only shoot a box or two a year like a lot of guys do with their hunting rifles then it's probably not worth the effort. But if you want to be a LR shooter, that will mean a lot of shooting, so I think a good break-in will be worth it. It will be very tedious and 10 or 12 rounds might not get the job done. For a factory barrel it will likely take at least 15 rounds and maybe 20 or more. The idea is to do it until you see a significant drop in fouling - read much less time to get all the copper out than when you first started. Also, your rifle was likely fired at the factory, so you will need to clean it before you get to the range.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MontanaRifleman, post: 370959, member: 11717"] Something you should know is that there is a whole world of difference in breaking in a factory barrel vs a custom barrel, i.e., a Lilja, etc. Dan recommends Butches Bore Shine for cleaning, but he makes and uses custom hand lapped barrels which clean and break-in much easier than factory barrels. With a good custom barrel you could be done in as little as 3 shots with minimal cleaning between each shot. With a factory barrel, it's going to take a whole lot more effort. Most of the copper solvents on the market simply do not get all the copper out of a factory barrel. I learned this from first hand experience, cleaning and breaking in several barrels. Just because you get a clean patch doesn't mean your bore is clean. I have seen many clean patches after a bore has soaked up to 30 min with Montana Xtreme 50 BMG, Butche's and most recently KG-12 which are all highly touted bore cleaners, and then follow up with BTE or Wipeout and find a whole lot more copper after getting clean patches with these other cleaners. They get the easy copper out, but not the stubborn copper. If you want to try an experiment, get one of these and some BTE, clean with Butche's or Sweets, or whatever, until you get clean patches, then follow up with a scrubbing and soaking of BTE. Or.... you can skip the experiment and just get the large bottle of BTE and use it like I described in my earlier post. If you have a really good factroy barrel you might get it clean in about an hour or so. If you have a bad one, it will take several hours and you may not be able to fully break it in. I've learned all this the hard way and just trying to pass that learning on to you and others. There is no set number of times to run a patch through the bore. You run it through until it starts showing pale color then you scrub and let soak and wet patch through again. With BTE, on your first couple of shots and cleaning you should let it soak the first time for about 20 min and repeat until you get a pale patch. Then soak again and let sit for an hour to see how stubborn the copper might be in your bore. It is something you need to get a feel for to do it right rather than follow some prescribed regiment. You have to weigh the possible benefits against the effort to get there. If you're a high volume shooter, it will be worth it because it will save you a lot of cleaning time in the long run (provided you take care of your barrel) and time between needed cleanings. If you only shoot a box or two a year like a lot of guys do with their hunting rifles then it's probably not worth the effort. But if you want to be a LR shooter, that will mean a lot of shooting, so I think a good break-in will be worth it. It will be very tedious and 10 or 12 rounds might not get the job done. For a factory barrel it will likely take at least 15 rounds and maybe 20 or more. The idea is to do it until you see a significant drop in fouling - read much less time to get all the copper out than when you first started. Also, your rifle was likely fired at the factory, so you will need to clean it before you get to the range. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Hunting
The Basics, Starting Out
Rookie W/ First Rifle seeking advice.
Top