Could I please have some advice on barrel break-in?

Thanks.

Here the officval version:

1 shot --> clean with solvent & patch dry
repeat at least 5x or until no more than 3-4 patches are needed until patch remains nearly clean.

5 shots --> clean as above
repeat 5x

10 shots -- clean as above
repeat 3 to 4 times

--> done


Here is my version:

Take your new gun to the range and beware not to grin to obviously.

Sight in the gun with as many shots as needed. Shoot 1 or 2 groups.

If applicable (based on the group sizes) start grinning again.

When back home, clean it with solvent and bronze brush.

Next time at the range, normal use. But clean again when you come home.

There are plenty of threads on that matter and it look more like a religion than anything else to me. I would say search the forum for the previous discussions and take the procedure you feel more comfortable with.

BBB, I recommend going to the Krieger barrel web site and looking at what they have to say. They are without question one of the top barrel manufacturers regardless of whom you ask. What they say makes sense, provides some good technical data about what 'break in' can really mean.

It damn well matters to me and IME is worth a good deal of effort to do it, so I do! I'm not a benchrest guy, but I guess I'd say I'm an accuracy guy for a hunter!

Good Luck

Barrel break in is mostly voodoo IMO. Would someone please explain how firing one and cleaning 10x and then firing 2 and cleaning, etc, etc winds up "smoothing" out the throat (per Krieger) or the barrel with any better results than firing a reasonable amount of rounds and cleaning?

Shoot the gun and enjoy it. Clean it when you get home if you're going to put it away of if you've fired a significant number of rounds (this varies from gun to gun but personally I define "significant as 25-50 or more) not counting .22 LRs.

in a big game or deer rifle barrel break-in is not as important as in a prairie dog or high power match rifle. IME it does make a rifle copper foul much less which allows the shooter to fire more rounds before fouling makes groups open up. the difference is significant, but if any shooter doesn't want to believe it or doesn't want to do it, that's up to them.

Barrel break-in is something like voodoo since a lot depends on the internal finish and dimensions of your barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by McFox:
Here the official version:

1 shot --> clean with solvent & patch dry
repeat at least 5x or until no more than 3-4 patches are needed until patch remains nearly clean.

5 shots --> clean as above
repeat 5x

10 shots -- clean as above
repeat 3 to 4 times

--> done


Here is my version:

Take your new gun to the range and beware not to grin to obviously.

Sight in the gun with as many shots as needed. Shoot 1 or 2 groups.

If applicable (based on the group sizes) start grinning again.

When back home, clean it with solvent and bronze brush.

Next time at the range, normal use. But clean again when you come home.

Along the years, with my brother we bought consecutively numbered rifles and tested them since day one using on one the break in procedure.
The conclusion was, on a good quality rifle, there is not much need and the very small difference (with ammo made of high quality components for match or varmint use) did not worth the extra work.

Voodoo, indeed..

Voodoo or youdo, I saw a link to Sierra's Web site where they recomended doing it.

Well, if you do go through the break-in procedure, you will know in your heart you did all you could to help the throat though its first shots. If you don't and the gun shoots like clinton, you will wish you had. You will forever question whether the three or four hours it would have taken to fire and clean those ten or fifteen shots would have made the gun shoot into one MOA at 100 yards or not. But it will be too late-- you will have flunked it up from the get-go and there is no way back...

I fire-one-and-clean for ten cycles when I break-in a barrel. I did so when I got my new stainless Krieger and it shoots .25 MOA from a SAAMI chamber, garden-variety brass and Group A RCBS dies if I have my head screwed on straight...

A). It is all, repeat ALL, barrel wear.

B). Top barrel makers post on sites like benchrest.com where they give instructions. As said, .30/30 deer rifle? No real need. Although I would run a couple patches to make sure the barrel is clean and lightly lubed to prevent rust.) Match or varmint... every little bit helps.

C). The better remarks I have read focus, not on the "barrel proper" but "breaking in" the throat which has been cut into the barrel with a circular blade (reamer) motion and might be less than super smooth and benefit from frequent "crud" removal in the very beginning... Barrel proper, customs, are often lapped in manufacture, so what will more polishing do? Wear? Throat. Makes more sense, but my overall knowledge compares with none of the pros, small indeed. LUCK.

the barrel will reach its accuract peak at about 100 shots. the reason you fire those first 10 shots and clean inbetween is so you remove the tooling marks and bur caused by chambering. and any rough spots in the barrel (which there shouldnt be in a premium barrel anyway) will get 10 shots or however many you choose to fire overtop of that spot to smooth it. itll be the first place copper builds up and the last place youll cleaning will remove. and since most people dont clean to bare metal itll take alot to smooth that spot out when its covered in copper

You only need to break in a Cut rifled barrel.Does not make any difference on a Button Rifled or Hammer Forged,unless you are anal and like to waste time!!!

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
You only need to break in a Cut rifled barrel.Does not make any difference on a Button Rifled or Hammer Forged,unless you are anal and like to waste time!!!

That does not make any sense to me at all. Once the barrel is chambered, you now have sharp, cut edges from the reamer at the rifling. That new sharp edge of the lands in the throat is what is "broken-in." How the bore was rifled doesn't mean a thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
You only need to break in a Cut rifled barrel.Does not make any difference on a Button Rifled or Hammer Forged,unless you are anal and like to waste time!!!

That does not make any sense to me at all. Once the barrel is chambered, you now have sharp, cut edges from the reamer at the rifling. That new sharp edge of the lands in the throat is what is "broken-in." How the bore was rifled doesn't mean a thing.

No actually the bore on cut rifled barrels are generaly lapped because of chatter marks from the cutter.Final smoothing is done by breaking in.Why don`t you call up Kreiger and ask for your self????I will put a challange to you.We will buy two factory rifles and you break yours in.I wont.There will be no difference in accuracy or life other than the normal difference in that no two Rifles are exactly alike. I have shot over 20 Yrs in High Power and would do anything for an advantage,but will not waste my time.

I disagree about button rifled bbls not needing to be broken in.

My Hart bbl was the worst on fouling and was the most innaccurate until it was broken in. It is a button rifled bbl.

Fouling was horrible for a lot more than 10 shots.

Doc,There is always exceptions to anything.What I am saying is that most Barrels on Factory Rifles get broken in from Normal shooting and cleaning.Note I said factory Rifle barrels ,not Custom.Maybe I was too broad in saying all button rifled barrels.I have never broken in a Savage barrel and they all shoot.This is my opinion and that of a lot of Shooters and Gun Writers.If you like doing it,then do it.I would not recommend it to a casual shooter.Peace brother

For what it is worth read below and make up your own mind. Not everyone is a BR Shooter but my rifles are all built (by Speedy) to the same specs my competition one are. I also use a bore scope to verify everything so guessing is not part of the process:

S.G. & Y. PRECISION RIFLES, LLC
- BARREL BREAK-IN & CLEANING PROCEDURES -

Many of our customers upon taking delivery of their new gun or barrel are in a quandary as how to go about breaking-in that new barrel for maximum life and accuracy. With so much written in magazines these days stating use this, don’t use that, brush, don’t brush...what’s a person to do??
At S.G. &Y. Precision, we have a unique opportunity to inspect many barrels on a daily basis with our video borescope. Consequently, we see the results of a variety of break-in as well as cleaning procedures, and most of them leave the rifle owners with their mouth agape when they see the fruits of their misinformed labor on our bore scopes color monitor. We have seen practically new barrels ruined with less than a hundred rounds shot through them by some of the crazy and sometimes humorous break-in methods employed. Anyway here goes for what it’s worth.


SPEEDY’S RULES FOR PROPER RIFLE HYGENE & BREAK-IN

A. Bore guides:

1st Rule of Thumb:
If the brush will go through it, it’s to damn big!

2nd Rule of Thumb:
If you don’t have one, get one! Without a good bore guide, you are just wasting your time trying to break-in a barrel or cleaning it for that matter. More barrels are destroyed or severely damaged and life shortened by cleaning without a proper bore guide than by shooting. There are many types and brands of bore guides available on the market and range in price from $5.00 to $50.00. The only one we recommend is the Lucas two-piece bore guide (see picture below). They are the best insurance you can buy for that new barrel. All other bore guides in my opinion are only good for one thing, keeping the solvents out of the trigger and action (refer to rule #1].
A LUCAS bore guide id made up of two sections. One is a guide similar to most available on the market. What sets the Lucas apart from the rest is its smaller second guide which has a hole reamed just large enough to for the rod to pass through it. This section then slips into the main and keeps the cleaning rod centered in the bore no matter how you bend the rod up and down or side to side.

B. Solvents:
There are three solvents we recommend they are as follows:

1) SWEETS 7.62
Sweets is used in our in our cleaning procedures only as a bore lubricant prior to pushing the brush through the barrel. Sweets is composed of mostly large soap molecules similar to household dishwashing detergents. Because of the lubricity provided by the soap in the sweets it allows the brush to easily slide through the bore on its first pass. Not to mention removing all of the loose powder and carbon residue left in the barrel prior to cleaning.

NOTE: Sweets can also be used in extreme cases of copper fouling. The procedure in this worst case scenario is as follows.
A) Brush the barrel with Sweets (Kiss brush good-bye).
B) Let bore soak 5 to 10 minutes (No Longer on Chrome Molly Barrels. Sweets and CM don’t get along very well together for very long).
C) Now soak a patch with HYDROGEN PEROXCIDE and very, very slowly push it through the bore. A chemical reaction will take place between the Ammonia in the Sweets and the Hydrogen Peroxide causing all copper to go into suspension as the reaction takes place. The muzzle of your rifle will look as if it has rabies as the patch slowly nears the crown and you see all of the foaming reaction that is taking place. The blue green colors you see as the patch exits the barrel will amaze you.
D) Inspect the bore after you patch it out with Butches, by placing a Q-Tip just inside the crown. This will light up the bore and allow you to check for any remaining copper. If there are still traces of copper a second application will usually finish the job.
E) At this point you should clean the barrel a described below. If the barrels is chrome molly, we recommend that it be put up using SPEEDY’S FORMULA also described below. The black powder solvent portion of the formula will protect the bore from any rusting or pitting as it does black powder flintlocks or cap & ball long rifles.


2) BUTCHES BORE SHINE
Through out the years we have tried every type of solvent there is known to man and then some you don’t even want to hear about. But none have ever done as good a job as Butches Bore Shine. Used on a regular basis Butches will keep even the largest overbore barrel as clean as the day it was chambered.

3) SPEEDY’S FORMULA
The Speedy Formula is used for the protection of the bore when putting a firearm up for the season or prolonged storage. For those of you poor souls that do not have Butches Bore Shine available to them this solvent is a very good second choice. This was the best we had found up to the advent of Butches.

SPEEDY’S FORMULA is made up as follows:
Mix 2/3 rd.s . Hoppes No. 9 Plus Black Powder Solvent with 1/3rd. Regular Hoppes No. 9 Nitro Solvent. Let this mixture set overnight and it will form a sort of gel that adheres very well to the brush and cuts powder fouling to a minimum.


C. Procedure for “Break-inâ€:
Although we at S.G. & Y. Precision Rifles feel an extensive break-in procedure is not necessary for the custom barreled rifles we build, since that all have a lapped finish in them. The procedure probably has some merit when applied to a factory barreled rifle that has an as machined finish from the factory and no lapped bore surface at all.
Custom barrels are lapped to impart a finish to the bore that will produce as little copper fouling as possible through out the length of the barrel.

Before firing that first round through the barrel, we will clean the barrel as if it had been shot by following these simple steps.

Step 1)
Insert Lucas bore guide into receiver and chamber. If you don’t have one, STOP here and get one! If not, just shoot your gun and forget trying to take any care of your barrel at all. If you do have one, proceed, and give yourself one “At-A-Boy†for being astute enough to have purchased the proper tools for the job.

NOTE: One “Aw-Shit†wipes out all “At-A-Boysâ€.

Step 2)
Run one wet patch of Sweets through the bore and let soak for approximately 30 seconds. Do not patch this out. Remember this is going to serve as our lubricant for the brush as we push it down the bore for the first time. Try this dry and you will see why we apply the Sweets. The sound coming from your barrel as you run a dry brush through it resembles that on stepping on a cat’s tail while wearing your wife’s high heel shoes. Not a pretty picture (unless you’ve shaved your legs recently).

Step 3)
Next, run the brush through the lubricated barrel only enough to expose the entire brush as it exits the muzzle. Yes, I know that you still have 12 more inches of cleaning rod you could push out the end of your barrel but we want to protect that new crown. Also, if that rod hangs out that far, you will eventually start wearing down the rifling at the crown from about 4 to 7 o’clock. This is very bad “JU-JU†for accuracy. Plus we get to make an extra $40 when you need to re-crown the puppy. OK, back to our Step 3. Once the brush is exposed, saturate it well with our Butches Bore Shine or Speedy’s Formula and SLOWLY run the brush through the bore 10 complete back and forth passes while keeping the rod as straight as possible. This is where the Lucas bore guide really pays for itself! Remember, the key word is slowly. We are not trying to break any land speed records today. Let this sit a minute or two and proceed to the next step.

Step 4)
After you have let the barrel soak for a few moments, saturate a patch with the Butches Bore Shine or Speedy’s Formula and pass it through the bore. Follow this with 2 dry patches and then with a chamber mop or patch wrapped around a brush on a short cleaning rod, dry the “CHAMBER†of the barrel with Brake Kleen or lighter fluid.

NOTE: We wrote “DRY THE CHAMBER†not the bore of the barrel.

Next, gently wipe the crown off with a soft cloth or patch and lube your bolt (let’s not gall the lugs just yet). Now, you’re ready to shoot your first shot.

Then follow the schedule below to complete your barrel break-in.

1. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 1 shot.

2. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 5 shots.

3. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 10 shots.

4. Clean barrel / lube bolt / 10 to 15 shots and clean again.


D) Additional Cleaning Tips:

1. Each time you clean your rifle, you may wish follow the last dry patch through the bore with a patch soaked with LOCK-EEZ if the bore felt a bit too dry as you passed that last patch through it prior to drying the chamber. This is a graphite powder suspended in a quick evaporating carrier that coats the bore slightly before passing that first round through a completely dry bore. LOCK-EZZ is available at S.G. & Y. Precision Products and most NAPA stores around the country.

2. We are always asked about POWDER FOULING and how to remove it. The only product that we have seen that really does a good job on powder fouling, especially on the carbon ring that forms just ahead of where the neck ends in the chamber, is IOSSO Bore Paste. This is used with an IOSSO BLUE NYLON bristle brush and worked slowly in the neck and throat areas, then slowly down the entire bore. Follow this up with a few wet patches of IOSSO Gun Oil or Butches Bore Shine. Then patch out the bore as if you had brushed as usual, and you’re again ready to shoot.

E. Follow the outline above and make it your regular cleaning program and I promise that your barrels will deliver their greatest potential accuracy and extend their life without a lot of grief and hours of wondering if they are clean.


Good Shooting,

Speedy Gonzalez

I had my worn out family FN 30-06 bored to 35 and fired a sight in session right off the bat with Barns bullets. Dam fool --bore looked like a roughing plow was dragged thru a copper field. Used a gallon of barnes solvent. Still pissed about that one!

I've been told by barrel makers and by Barnes to never use Barnes bullets until a barrel has been broken in with regular bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by BBBruce:
Could I please have some advice on barrel break-in?

Thanks.

Take your new gun (or barrel) to the top of a tall tree.....throw it on the concrete below.....it's now broken it.....repeat if you think it needs it.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by BBBruce:
Could I please have some advice on barrel break-in?

Thanks.

Take your new gun (or barrel) to the top of a tall tree.....throw it on the concrete below.....it's now broken it.....repeat if you think it needs it.

Anyone notice that the original poster hasn't been back to this thread since he started it. He's got a kazillion gillion million posts in the PF but........ just seemed odd. Greg

Ol' BBBruce may not know how to "Break-in" a barrel but, he sure knows how to stir a pot!

"Trying to keep from laughing while I'm typing."