Like some of my other post I just got my new .308 Steyr Scout Rifle. I just started getting into shooting and I was wondering what your thoughts on breaking a new rifle in was? The guy I ask to help me has a 20 to 30 shot break in period. shoot once clean it, for 5 times. Then shoot 3 times and clean it. Then 5 times and so on depends on the gun I guess.

Chris;
I shoot once and clean for the first 5 shots, and then shoot 5 and clean, IF the barrel cleans "easy" I then will shoot 10 and clean, If it takes no more effort to clean after 10 than it did after 5 the barrel is ready to go. You will find that with any barrel when it starts to clean "easy" it is ready for normal shooting. If you run into the other situation where you shoot the 5 and it takes 5 times the patches and work that it did on the 1 and clean, I would do the one and clean until it takes less patches than the time before. You will feel the barrel become less "sticky" to the patch as it breaks in.


www.duanesguns.com

First off, make sure you have a proper bore guide and a good vinyl coated rod, like a Dewey. And use only a brass jag. Do not stick anything in the bore that is aluminum or in my opinion steel.

With out having the proper tools there is no reason to break-in a barrel because it will be ruined before it ever gets broken in. Plan on spending around $100 for the proper stuff.

As for breaking in. The number of rounds required to break-in a rifle depends on how rough the finish on the throat is. This is what you are mainly breaking in. Being a factory rifle it is probably pretty rough. I would shoot and clean every round for 20 rounds. And maybe every 5 for the next 25 rounds.

The easiest way to do this is take the gun out in your back yard and fire one round into the ground. Run a few patchs of a mild solvent like Shooters Choice, Hoppes #9, etc. alternating with a dry on in between. This gets the powder fouling out so the other solvent can focus on the copper. Then foam the bore with Wipe-Out (the best thing since sliced bread) and let it sit overnight. The next day push out the blue foam and run a patch of Kroil through it followed by a dry patch. Repeat the process over again for the next 3 weeks. This will save you days at the range greaking in your rifle. I hate nothing more than cleaning. You could do it the old fashion way by spending a couple of days at the range doing nothing but cleaning. I like to minimize the number of times I have to run that cleaning rod through the bore. Every time I do, I am taking a chance at ruining it.

You could work in a little bit of JB's bore paste alternating with Kroil to speed things up. With the JB bore paste use short strokes concentrating on the throat area.

When you push the jag out the muzzle. Be sure that you only stick it out as far as it needs to go to remove the patch. Do not let it bang into the crown of the muzzle. I don't know how many people that have brought me guns that wouldn't shoot because of improper cleaning.

If you are having a hard time and not seeing any improvement try some of JB's Bore Bright. This is a mild abrasive that will polish the bore so use sparingly. Just a few short strokes in the throat area is all that is needed. This works good on factory rifles.

A gun that is completely broken in should only need a couple of patches of a mild solvent, like Shooters Choice, to clean every 50 rounds or so. Some factory rifles may never get to this point because of their rough barrels.

thanks guys it is always nice to get a few opinions. Right now i will take any advice i can get. thanks agin Chris

Chris
This is how I did my Shilen.

http://www.shilen.com/faq.html#question10