'Breaking in' a barrel

[Lawyer Daggit]

I was recently told by a fellow whose judgement I trust, about the importance of 'breaking in' a new barrel. In 30 years of hunting I have never heard of this.

Does anyone here have a routine they go through to 'break in' a new barrel before subjecting it to normal shooting, and if so, what is this routine? and why do you do it?

[madman4570]

http://www.6mmbr.com/GailMcMbreakin.html
http://www.kriegerbarrels.com/Break_In_ ... wp2558.htm

Myself, I will be truthful, look down the barrel/run a clean patch down it(take the new gun to the range and "shoot er"
say, I am using jacketed bullets---------shoot a box! no cleaning.
My big thing has always been don't overheat the barrel,and sure when I brought that new gun home from the range clean it while being very careful of the crown.
Somthing better that some of you guys have done thats proven(might try it)

[fordwannabe]

I am in the process of breaking in 3 new guns/barrels at this time. My procedure is(learned from savage shooters) clean out of the box. 1 shot clean,1 shot clean, for 5 rounds then 2shots clean for 10 rounds, then 5shots, clean until it shoots smoothly. Is this necassary, I don't know but some of the guys on SS swear by it, and every gun I have used this method on has been a tack driver. The one savage barrel I didn't do this too was nowhere near the accuracy of the others, so if it ain't broke don't fix it. besides it gives me more range time. Each of the guns/barrels I have done this too at some point between 50 and 80 rounds the groups just magically shrink to about half what they were, using the same ammo. Then you start the handloading process. Thats what I do but others may think I'm nuts so...Tom

[Griff]

I would have to say, that there are reasons for "breakin' in a barrel." If the barrel needs it. Breaking in really conists of removing small irregularities in the barrel. If they're there. If your barrel is new, and shooting fine groups, then I see no need... simple use will "break it in" over time. Hopefully, such shooting will not negatively impact the barrel's integrity.

I've heard that one type of rifiling method often resulted in barrels that needed breaking in more than the other. I ain't sure whether it was cut-rifling or button-rifling.

I've only had one barrel that needed breaking in. It was the Numrich bull barrel I have on my custom Winchester 94. Both the chamber and the rifling were very rough. The chamber was fairly generous so it's been left alone, but the rifling was fairly rough and fouled badly. Although fearful of destroying the edges of lands and grooves, I lapped the bore before I ever shot it. I did this with machine type valve lapping compound on a brass jap covered by cotton patches pulled thru the bore from the chamber on a rod that allowed the jag to rotate with the rifling. (Automotive lapping compounds come in both hand and machine versions... with the machine type being milder... its lapping ability being the speed of the machine... hand lapping compounds are coarse, and cut faster). I only pulled the lapping jag from the chamber end, never reversed and pushed it thru the bore. How many times... I couldn't say... but several nights were spent in this indeavor over a week or so. I then fired about a thousand round of jacketed ammo with frequent de-fouling before I ever attempted any lead boolits.

It now shoots great. I seldom even have any lead fouling; but, it only gets fed gas-checked boolits, except when hunting. I will still get a little copper in the grooves if I shoot a bunch of jacketed rounds between cleanings.

There is a shooting "break-in" method. However, I've never used it... can't say exactly how it's done.

[FWiedner]

All new barrels have tool marks and some slight imperfections in them.

I believe that it is shooting and lapping that resolves those bore slights by wearing them down or filling them in.

Not sure that shooting and cleaning, shooting and cleaning does anything more than would occur by just shooting.

Heck, I wonder if the cleaning might not even slow down the "break-in" process. Might clean out crud leftover from the lapping or drifting of metal.

[fordwannabe]

supposedly the crud gets in the tooling marks and starts the fouling process quicker(hence the cleaning) and the shooting burnishes the metal...true or not...dunno. Tom

[Pisgah]

I know folks who swear that if you take a butter bean, cut in half, rub it on a wart, and bury it by a stump during the new moon, the wart will go away. I believe them, but I still doubt the whole "bean-rub-stump-moon" procedure has an darned thing to do with the wart disappearing.

I know abusing a barrel is not a good thing, and I suspect that some "break-in procedures" border on barrel abuse. so I don't follow them. I do, however, take good care of my rifle barrels, and they all shoot better than I do.

[KCSO]

I can only quote Harry Pope here... If it needs lapping after I made it it wasn't made right in the first place, go shoot it. A properly made barrle shouldn't need anything but shooting and cleaning imho.

[86er]

I had an extensive meeting with various barrel makers at the SHOT show. They prescribed what they feel is the right way to break in a barrel. I wrote about it in detail in my book (www.huntingtheintroducedspecies.com). If someone has the book I don't mind them PM'ing you the recipe. I cannot post it in public format or disseminate it due to copyright, and proprietary restrictions by the publisher. It's ok for someone that purchased the book to relate it to you privately. It is pretty interesting and I've tried it now on 3 rifle and it seems to work, as I've gotten less than 1MOA accuracy at 100 yards without monkeying around with different ammo.

[Hobie]

ummmmm.... Where/when I get a new barrel I shoot it. But, honestly, most of my guns are old, may have been shot "some" (where "some" is that indefinite number between zero and enough to wear out the barrel) and so I just don't care. It is my humble opinion that break in and the "supplies" to do it "properly" are a marketing gimmick.

[TedH]

I don't know if it's all gimmick or not, but I've followed a procedure on a few new barrels. I purchased an aftermarket heavy barrel for a Mauser action, and it came with instructions on how to break it in properly. It only consisted of shooting one shot and cleaning for the first five shots. Then shoot five and clean for 20 more shots. I did as directed, and after trying only a few handloads I have three loads that are less than 1/2 moa shooters with minimal effort at the loading bench.

So, weather or not it helps, I don't know. In my mind it sure can't hurt and only costs ya a few extra patches, some solvent and a little time.

[jdad]

I kind of agree with Hobie. Somewhere between Mythical Lore and Common Sense should work.

Rimfire barrels need 1 shot per inch of barrel, after a good cleaning, to re-season them. In fact, I only clean my rimfire match rifles at the end of the competition season.

[Rusty]

When I first got my latest Handi Rifle I took a patch with some Flitz polish on it and ran it through the bore about 75 times. Then shot it. If I had experienced any problems with it I have the needed paste to fire lap it. Thus far it hasn't proved necessary.

I think the quote by Harry Pope is pretty right on, but who has a barrel of the quality Harry made? I think his barrels were pretty much the highest quality available at the time.

[Old Savage]

Some barrels will benefit and some don't need it.

Shooting and cleaning definitely speeds the process. You can even do it with guns that have been shot quite a bit and benefit.

The Krieger link from madman was very informative.

[firefuzz]

I've read several different opinions on the correct way to "break in" a barrel, all have been mentioned above and several more. I've also read several opinons by what I consider knowledgeable people that excessive cleaning, even done properly, causes more wear on barrels than shooting them. The late Gale McMillian, a world class shooter and barrel maker was one of these, in fact he stated that he got to replace good barrels with low round counts due to excessive cleaning during "break in" procedures. He recommended to the shoot it 50rds then clean it, then clean it when the groups started opening up.

The one thing I've read lately compared breaking in the throat of the barrel to seasoning a cast iron skillet. the recommendation was to not shoot a new barrel faster than 1 round every 2 minutes to allow "raw" metal in the throat to "season" or cure. For some reason this made a lot of sense to me.

Rob

[gimdandy]

I've broken in lots and lots of barrels over the years and used every method that was ever told to me , from the bench rest crowd to the occasional shooter their methods varied lots and I now have a system that has evolved from all of the testing and time that I feel is the best. "I break in every barrel that I get 1 shot at a time, as I now feel that it way more important to wear the barrel out than it is to break it in."

[Paul105]

Gale McMillan on barrel "break-in" and cleaning:

http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/B ... reakIn.asp

Paul

[CowboyTutt]

I think that Gale has the right idea myself.

-Tutt

[Lawyer Daggit]

I was in the army reserve while at uni, and the army then had a policy of use it or loose it- if you did not use your ammo quota in a given year less ammo would be forthcoming in future.

I therefore had to go to the range and shoot off copious quantities of ammo in M60's and SLR's (FN-FAL) and some in M16's.

A fun day was had, resulting in a bad headache and some shot out barrels.

I have often wondered how hot a barrel needs to get to do damage or whether it was just the volume of firing.

[firefuzz]

I was in the army reserve while at uni, and the army then had a policy of use it or loose it- if you did not use your ammo quota in a given year less ammo would be forthcoming in future.

I therefore had to go to the range and shoot off copious quantities of ammo in M60's and SLR's (FN-FAL) and some in M16's.

A fun day was had, resulting in a bad headache and some shot out barrels.

I have often wondered how hot a barrel needs to get to do damage or whether it was just the volume of firing.

I've had to do the same thing in the same situation and like you the results were several ruined barrels. The volume of fire, rounds down the tube, is assuredly a factor, but the hotter a barrel gets the faster the wear occurrs is MHO.

Rob

[Paul105]

My son ruined a 6mm Rem factory barrel shooting prarie dogs one hot spring day. That was one of the most accurate factory guns I’ve ever owned. It now wears a Shilen barrel and is used mostly for spot and stalk ground squirrel hunting where the new barrel seldom heats up much. Cost of new barrel about $400 (about 15 yrs ago), memories of prarie dog hunting with son, priceless!

Paul