I'll be off to the range this weekend with my first custom barrel, a Virgin Valley 13" Encore chambered by Mike to his 30 Bellm. I'm going to follow VV procedure on the barrel breakin. My question:
I'm bringing along a Contender with a 14" Armour Alloy barrel I just received from Ed's Contenders. It is brand new and I'll be shooting cast bullets in it the majority of the time. Will it benefit from the same breakin procedure? Can you break a barrel in using cast bullets or must you use jacketed?
Greg

Mr. Gary Thibodeaux, who casts bullets for Jerry Mickulk, hope I didn't butcher that too bad, the competition shooter for S&W told me to break in my barrel with jacketed bullets first. I shoot lead through my VV 45-70 and found that if you decide to go with a lead bullet break in it takes a lot more shoots to get everything ironed out properly.

Thanks for the reply outlaw. I was thinking lead bullets would not be as effective as jacketed in breaking in a barrel.
I'm about half way through the breakin process on the 30 Bellm. I got to the range about 7:30 AM and quit just before 10, just getting to damn hot!
Heat indices have been well over a 100 here for the past month.
Greg