just purchased tikka 223 varmint and wanted two know what if anthing i should do too break it in . sighted it in in the wind so i dont know how well it shoots yet . any body found cheap ammo that it might like, any info will be greatly appreciated.

also thought it was strange that very little if any copper on first cleaning. sighted it in with BH 52 match hollow.

Every rifle is a rule unto itself. You can buy 2 rifles of the exact same make and model, and one may love a particular ammo while the other despises it. It all boils down to barrel harmonics.

As to break-in, I am of the opinion that if the barrel is a GOOD one from the start, little, if any, benefit will be realized through break-in. But many factory barrels are not of the highest quality, and those can reap the benefits of break-in to smooth things out a bit.

In a firearm intended to be used as a hunting tool, you don't need to go with the complete benchrest routine, either. SHoot one and clean. Then two and clean. Three and clean...and so on until you get to a dozen.

You know, this barrel break in deal is very controversial!!!

Some people say it is necessary, others say it is a total waste of time!!

Well, I have been doing it for some time now, and I think it is worth doing. It is boring, boring, boring, but I think it is a good deal.

I buy custom barrels sometimes, and when the likes of Dan Lilja recommends breaking in a barrel, I listen.

If nothing else, I am completely convinced that a barrel that is broken in with the "shoot one, clean, shoot one" procedure will definitely clean up easier. It may or may not shoot better, but it WILL clean easier!!!!!

So, my recommendation is to go out and shoot ONE shot, and then clean. Shoot ONE shot and clean, etc. for a dozen or more shots. Then clean after 3 or 4 shots for a while.

As for cheap ammo for a .223 Remington, it is darned hard to beat either the white boxed Winchester ammo or Black Hills ammo, either one shoot great.

If you have already sighted it in, and cleaned it, with not much copper comming out, well you have already "shot the barrel in."
Just clean it frequently for a while yet anyway.

Um, my point was that to break in a barrel, you have to start with shot No. 1. You can't decide to do it after (say) 50 shots.
However, if you didn't fire many sighters, that may have worked out OK anyway.

need4speed,
I recently picked up a T3 Hunter in 25-06 and before I sent a round down the barrel I e-mail Sako/Tikka and thier reply was: "because we hammer forge our barrels they are very smooth and do not require a 'break-in' procedure."
I still scrubbed it out before I shot it and then after every 5 round for the first 30.
Not sure if it made a difference or not but it made me feel better!!!

Smedley

I've tried it both ways and can't really say that it helps or doesn't. I think it kinda like chicken soup, "it can't hurt". Its one of those anal things folks do to make themselves feel better.
I agree that you should clean the bore well before shooting it the first time. Maybe use a little JB paste. Then watch your barrel heat. 'course, you should do that throughout the life of the barrel.

The way I brake in a barrel. Is I shoot as I normally would without the barrel getting hot, take the rifle home and clean it. My rifles sometimes put 2 bullets thru the same hole.

I'll second the bore paste, IMO it helps to "polish" just a little more than factory. I generally shoot 3 or 4 groups of 3, the shoot something else for a while.
When the new gun gets home, I hit it wipe out. If there seems to be a lot of copper, out comes the bore paste again.
I know the bore paste is abrasive, but it's such a fine grit, your not going to wear out a barrel. Besides, it does a great job of REALLY cleaning the bore.

I sure appreciate all the info , when I sighted it in I shot about 20 rounds, cleaned it in about 5 or 6 patches with shooters choice alittle green on the last 2 patches, then some sweets no green went yote hunting and shot at some crows about 25 rounds cleaned easier thon before , just hope it groups as good as it cleans, much easier to clean than my weatherby varmintmaster 22-250

also shot BH 55 sp odly shot about 6 inches higher than the 52 mhp found that out the hard way, I hate educating them

quote:

Originally posted by need4speed:
just purchased tikka 223 varmint and wanted two know what if anthing i should do too break it in . sighted it in in the wind so i dont know how well it shoots yet . any body found cheap ammo that it might like, any info will be greatly appreciated.

Just take it out and shoot it.....like it already had 1000 rounds thru it....barrel break-in is more imaginary than real.

smedley, "because we hammer forge out barrels....they are smooth", hahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha
The reason SAVAGE rifles seem to shoot at the top of the heap for out of the box guns is cause SAVAGE never had enough money to buy a machine to "beat the hell out of a piece of metal to make a barrel"!!! And name one of the premium barrel makers who "hammer forges" a barrel!!!
As for barrel break in.....yea I do it!! No matter if its a Kreiger, Lilja, or a already had the hell beat out of it Remington!! Not necesarrily for accurracy enhancement(accurracy is a conglomeration of action/barrel mating or fitting...ie the machinist work that goes into it as well as the quality of said barrel!!) but for the cleaning ease or "lack of having to clean as often" on barrels that aren't broken in properly!!
Yea, I know there are those of you who have a rifle, that you didn't break the barrel in and it shoots 1 hole groups!! ......all my rifles shoot 1 hole groups!!....if I only shoot 1 time!! GHD

mistake

Barrel brake in makes me laught shoot the thing and be done with it, where everyone is lost is compairing factory rifles vs custom barrels the custom barrel mfg are doing nothing more then trying to cover all angles if it won't group.

Before a gun leaves the factory it might have 10 rounds through it.

Barrel mfg put ZERO 0000000000. again CYA.

I agree with GHD on the hammer forging and tikka is one that is

well so far I am very happy with the tikka , 5 shot group I can cover with a penny , 55 GR SP BH , white box winnys just about as good definatly shoots better then I can , cleans easy too . my brother bought a LVSF not real happy yet he needs to work on the bedding and the trigger , in this case tikka was much better out of the box than rem , used alot of JB after I sighted it in , dont know if it helped but surely didnt hurt.

need4speed:

Congrats with your new toy and the accuracy that you have got. Specifically I am happy to hear you have good success with the lighter bullets.

Please let me know what other bullets you have tried. According to BerrettaUSA, the 1:8" barrel needs 70+ gr bullets.

Thanks...

Danny

I just had a 338-06 built with a Hart barrel. Hart claims that no break in is necessary with their barrels. I decided that I would try one of the many versions of barrel break in procedures the first time I shot it. I noticed that as I went along the number of patches required to remove the copper fouling became less. My observation is that using a break in procedure in this instance cut down the rate at which copper builds up in the bore. I also think that it will cut down on the time required to clean a this barrel in the future.

Asbestos suit on:

People who have "issues" with hammerforged barrels are not being rational.

Insisting that the "old way" I.E. 18th or 19th century methods are automatically superior is nostalgia (emotion) not logic.

MY personal issue with hammerforged barrels is NOT the process or the results.

My issue is that they are using a new method (which I think is nothing short of wonderful) but not carrying that method through to it's logical conclusion; Switching to materials
other than those that have traditionally been used for making rifle barrels.

The common stainless steel barrel material is 416. 416 is Fine, but the reason it was picked as a barrel material is that it is reasonably machinable. But if you are hammerforging the inside (the difficult part to machine)
then the machinability characteristics are relatively unimportant by comparison.

We'll also note that the typical CrMo alloys used for barrels are usually re-sufurized "free machining" versions of the alloys, so even the CrMo's being used are not the theoretical best materials that could be used for barrels, they are the best materials that are practical to make without requiring most (rather expensive) tooling to become "one use" items, therby jacking barrel costs into the stratosphere.

there are a range of Inconel alloys that show promise and would show a tiny fraction of the throat errosion that eventually appears in heavily used rifle barrels
For those not familiar with Inconel alloys, they are similar in appearance to stainless steel, but usually contain
mostly Nickel and Chromium. (Most Inconel alloys only contain iron in trace ammonts)
Another family of alloys with possibilities is Hastelloy which is also like stainless steel but contains Nickel, Chromium & Cobalt

Hammerforging as a technique is not a "bad" method.
Infact it can turn out superb barrels, but the process itself is compromised most by the fact that none of the major users of the technique have adapted their material science to take best advantage of the method.

the thing about a hammer forged barrel is that it can be as smooth as the mandrel over which it is forged, and frankly I've always believed that making the outside of a farly small diameter rod very smooth is easier than making the inside of a tube the same smoothness.

Hell, P.O.Ackley knew 40 years ago (and said so in print) that most barrel steels were compromises between the best material for the use and the best steel that it was possible (let alone practical) to turn into a rifled gun barrel.

Hammerforging is relatively new give it a chance will ya?


AllanD

Here's my two cents.

I like to do it.

I start by cleaning the barrel, then I like to run bore paste down it for about 100 passes.

Then to the range.
shoot one-clean x10 rounds
shoot four (fouler + three shot group)and clean during load development.

I don't know if it helps, but I can't imagine it hurting.

I have been going through the break-in process with a Tikka T3 Varmint 22-250.

There was a post on these boards about break-in, where you observe the amount of copper removed by the cleaning. Start off with fire one/clean one. When copper fouling is minimal, then increase the number of rounds between cleanings.

After about five cleanings, Cu fouling has been minimal. The scope is dialed in and first three shot group was a 0.44 spread. This with Winchester 45g factory ammo.

Bobby T., do they still brew the Shiner Bock? Had some in when is was in San Antonio, but it is hard to find out of the area.