I purchased a new Rem 700 in 300 Win Mag a few months ago. I immediately went out and put thirteen rounds through it one afternoon at the range to sight it in. [My shoulder stopped further experimentation.] Since then I've bought new dies, shellholder, powder, bullets, etc. to work up a few loads for hunting. However, my question to the forum is: do I need to wait until I have my barrel broke in first? Should I have a minimum number of rounds through the barrell before I start trying to use my handloads? What if any accuracy changes should or would I see over a period of time? I'm concerned about spending time, money, and effort if the results will be less than desirable because I've gotten the cart before the horse? Thanks.

RenegadeRN

No

quote:

Originally posted by RenegadeRN:
However, my question to the forum is: do I need to wait until I have my barrel broke in first?

Yes. My experience tells me you can very well be wasting your time on a nonseasoned barrel. It's a 50/50 shot. I'm never willing to take that chance. I will do a break in, many others say it's a waste of time.

If a barrel never needed to be "seasoned" then a bore with 500 rounds through it should look identical to one with 13 rounds. I doubt that's the case. Plus, they should shoot the same no matter the number of rounds. I've never found that to be the case is some 35+ brand new factory rifles. (when you work at a gun store for 3 years you tend to go a little crazy).

quote:

Should I have a minimum number of rounds through the barrell before I start trying to use my handloads?

Yes. 20-30 minimum on a new factory barrel. My opinion based on my experience.

quote:

What if any accuracy changes should or would I see over a period of time?

Depends on how YOU shoot. If you like to shoot till the barrel gets hot enough to cook eggs, you'll see lots of changes throughout the life of the barrel because you are causing throat erosion among other heat damage.

If you treat your rifle well, and never let it get more than "warm" then you may never see drastic changes once your favorite loads are established. This is also dependent on elevation and temp changes.

Take a look at Dan Lilja's bore scope video found in the center of his webpage.

The barrel is a take off Remington factory barrel. Perhaps you've seen it before. You tell me, you think a rough barrel like that could use a little work before time and effort is put into handloading?

With a new gun I follow this procedure:

Break in with new brass and handload medium loads in a bullet I don't use much and are cheap (Ballistic Tips for example). I do this cleaning every shot for 5 shots, every 2nd shot for 5 more cleanings and then at the end of the 20 or 25 rounds (that is the number of cases I want for a good batch of brass that I will keep together and treat the same throughout it's life). I use handloads to do this cause you need to fit the brass to your chamber anyway and it is cheaper than factory.

I differ from Doc in that I start working on finding what the gun is going to prefer to shoot right after break in (the first 20 shots). True that the barrel is not seasoned but it will still exhibit tendencies toward bullet, bullet weight and powder preferences.

In any one caliber there are a number of good bullets and powders and now is when I start looking. For example in the 300 win mag I would try 200 gr Accubonds with RL22 & H1000, 180 gr Triple Shocks with RL22 & IMR4831 and 168 gr Triple Shocks with IMR4831 & IMR4350. Follow the manuals and start with medium loads and work up to maximums looking for pressure signs as you go. Some guns exhibit excessive pressure at lighter loads than other guns. By the time you have shot those combinations a few times you will be approaching 100 rounds or so through your gun.

It varies but I have found that most guns settle down and start being consistant between 100 to 200 rounds through them. By that time if you have handloaded all the loads that have gone through it, you have practiced & refined your reloading techniques, the brass will be ready to be PRLR'ed everytime and you will be ready to choose a load.

Don't want to short circuit all that fun for you but there is a 50/50 chance that it will wind up being:

200 gr Accubond, 72 gr RL22, Fed215M
180 gr TSX, 75.5 gr RL22, Fed215M
168 gr TSX, 74 gr IMR4831, Fed215M

Some real good advice so far I'd just like to ad another option.
Whether or not you believe in "barrel break in" it can't hurt and will help you develop good bench shooting habits by giving the gun and your shoulder a break and do some cleaning and cooling down at the same time. I won't go into details on barrel break in others have mentioned their methods and those should be adequate for your hunting rifle.
I recommend buying 3 to 5 boxes of factory ammo all with the same brand or headstamp and shoot those up at the bench using the above mentioned clean and shoot barrel break in procedures. Once you have burned up the 3 to 5 boxes of ammo you will have put 60 to 100 shots down your barrel then you can start loading your own with that brass. I would start with inexpensive bullets of the same weight you intend on hunting with like a Sierra, Speer or Hornady 180 to 200 grain bullet. Good advice was given about using middle of the road loads, I've found that accuracy and flawless functioning are far more important attributes for my game loads than screaming velocity. Once you have refined your loading technique by loading these once fired cases and shooting them again you'll have 120 to 200 rounds down your barrel and you should be broke in and ready to start seriously looking for good groups with your hunting bullets, thats not to say that you can't be persueing good groups through out this whole process you are now ready to refine your loads in earnest.
Just a thought. There is plenty of good info on this forum if you get stuck just ask.

I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for their input. I see the valid points.

Mike