Just got my 25-06 back from shop today with new barrel,I was wandering what some others recommend for barrel break in. Its a Douglas Premium XX 26" 1-10 twist. Nothing down the tube yet waiting on optics to arrive.

Since your Douglas in NOT hand lapped I would shoot and clean -shoot and clean for the 1st five shots looking for Copper -IF it is still evident repeat shoot and clean for five more. Repeat until NO Copper is seen then 3 shots and clean as above. After 25 to 50 rounds your bbl should be BROKE IN.
the Copper comes from two points in the rifle:
First the BURRS made from the chambering reamer at the throat
Second from any imperfections made from the Button used in rifling

Good Luck

Jim

+1 shoot and clean. I just broke my new 25-06 in by shoot and clean the first 4-5 rounds and after about three rounds I had very little sign of copper. I started shooting three shot groups after the first five rounds. I had very little sign of copper fouling on the second time out to the range after firing a number of three shot groups testing different loads.

Douglas sez if you know how to make a barrel, it doesn't need to be hand lapped. And I guess those WV barrels don't know how to count since I've never done that shoot and clean routine and my Douglas barrels have shot fine.
If you want to do anything to "break in" your barrel, give it about 500 strokes using JB paste. That and avoid overheating the barrel at any time during its lifetime.

Barrel was lapped by gunsmith

Then you gave nothing to do except work up a load and shoot little bitty groups.

Barrel breakin is a subject that has been debated forever. Two modern developments have pretty much obsoleted the debate. Three grove barrels and Nitriding allow you to toss all the mouse milk, lapping crap and so on in the trash.

Scott Null built me a 338 RUM super long range barrel last year. 36", 3 groove and Nitrided.
I asked about breakin. He said load it with heavy loads of Retumbo and 300 gr Bergers. Shoot one, push a Hoppes saturated patch thru, push thru a dry patch, repeat 10 times. The "breakin group" went into 7/8" @ 100. After 100 rounds with one wet/dry patch @ 50, and after load development, it now shoots 5 of those 300 gr bergers into 5/8" @300 yards. Interesting to note that all US military 223 barrels are now Nitrided.
It doubles the cost of the barrel and increases barrel life by at least 500%.

I used to break barrels in, but came to the conclusion it was mostly fun and games. I suspect if your a bench rest shooter and the silly milimeter can win you a check the break in is a good thing, but many bench rester just laugh and tell me that break in is the same thing as barrel wear, and that makes since..I have found that barrels are either accurate or they are not, end of story...just my opine.

I'm sure that all barrels shoot better after a couple of hundred rounds.

yeah, the clown in Lebanon TN told me I'd have to shoot 200 or 300 rounds through my new barrel before it'd shoot tight. I asked him why did I win the very first match I shot with the old barrel without a break in?
When I get a new barrel, I give it 500 stokes of JB paste. I can do that at night, or break it up over several days, but I've never be a shoot one, clean one, etc advocate.

I had a Pac Nor Super Match Grade featherweight barrel installed on my small ring Mauser in .257 Roberts. I read Pac Nor's break in procedure which believe was clean shoot for 10 shots then shoot 10 and clean but somewhere in there I got bored with the clean and shoot thing and just started shooting tiny groups when I figured out it liked 117 grain bullets.
There are many schools of thought on the topic.
Here's one from an ex AR member "Busheler"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?f...ilpage&v=TRRahHX9Zkg

These thoughts from Gale McMillan...
http://www.6mmbr.com/gailmcmbreakin.html

Makes me wonder how much more harm I've done than good, all these years!!!!
It's always good to hear the true experts weigh in on the debate.
Zeke

I started using the shoot and clean procedure on the advice of a gunsmith that built benchrest rifles. It was my understanding that it was not for accuracy but to reduce fouling long term. I never shoot and clean more than about the first 5 or 6 rounds and generally by then I see much less fouling near the muzzle and start shooting groups. I have several rifles with factory barrels that I broke in this way and have never had a major fouling problem after this break-in. I have a few rifles that were rebarreled with hand lapped barrels and I only shot and cleaned after the first couple of rounds out of habit I guess. I generally shot a group with the break-in rounds and I don't remember any noticeable change in accuracy just reduced fouling.

Update on rifle, I have been able to shoot the gun with several loads, bullets,powders, seat depths you know all the in between and was looking for ONE accurate hunting load. Finally after about 100 rounds I liked the ,results of the 117 BTSP Sierra Gamekings and IMR7828 at 2950 fps. This load shot best out of SST, Hornady BTSP, either one of these were more than enough accuracy but just trying to settle on one load. I shot H4831,IMR4831,and IMR7828. The 7828 and 4831 loads were pretty much identical on accuracy and velocity. I did experiment with 75g VMAX with IMR4831 and RE19. 4831 velocity averaged 3480 while the RE19 averaged 3600. Both loads were around 1/2" 5 shots @100. See 1st pic of vmax load and second pic is 117 GK Loads
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I screwed up on the last update on the pics its been a while since I posted any pics anyway here is the 75gr VMax 5shot group
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Here are a couple rifle pics along with some more groups, notice I had a few flyers I believe that were my fault.



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Sorry for the double pics above, didn't get it right from photobucket been a while.

Looks like your 25/06 is shooting well no matter how you are breaking it in.
Don't be afraid to use those 117 Sierra's on Deer and antelope. I shoot them religiously in my 257 Roberts going 2825 fps. I have yet to recover a bullet and all one shot kills on large Mule Deer Bucks, 200 yards to 326 yards and Antelope. Drop in their tracks.

Breaking in a new barrel is BS. You're just putting more wear on it faster.
Just shoot it and don't do any "cleaning" until groups get bigger. Then a squirt or two of wipe out and patches pushed one way out the muzzle will be all that's needed.

More barrels are worn out by cleaning than shooting.

I don't think it's pushing a moist patch through the barrel that is the issue here. It's the pointless, tedious interruption of shooting.

The idea of shooting a .308 100 times as fast as you can pull the trigger is kinda stupid. It would be counter-productive with regards to barrel life and accuracy. Unless you're shooting a "platform" were you can buy another $29 barrel, screw it in, and continue to murder telephone books.

quote:

Breaking in a new barrel is BS. You're just putting more wear on it faster.
Just shoot it and don't do any "cleaning" until groups get bigger. Then a squirt or two of wipe out and patches pushed one way out the muzzle will be all that's needed.

More barrels are worn out by cleaning than shooting.

This is about the craziest thing I've read on AR.

I'm gonna guess that the "more guns ruined by cleaning...." thing dates back to when rifles were cleaned from the muzzle. I've also read about how using a string pull-through would booger up the crown. IIRC, one was to hold the patch straight up from the bore to keep the string from rubbing on the crown.
I guess sports writers have "slow news days" also.

Whatever floats your boat.
If you really want to solve the break in/ cleaning stuff get a quality barrel and have it Nitrided. Not only will it last 4 times as long but break in and cleaning are almost never an issue.

As for pushing your brush up and as for your brush. It's not the brush, it's the rod flopping around in the barrel especially the Aluminum or plastic coated ones that love to pick up grit.
You still have to remove the brush after pushing it through and now you're dragging back a rod with a metal tip .... good for the lands.

Before you become "the expert" you might wish to read what real experts have to say. Note how often they differ. You might also notice that Wipe Out gets good press.

http://www.accurateshooter.com...rel-cleaning-debate/

I don't buy many new rifles as most lack class.
The last two were cheapie Marlins, one long one short, one 270 one 7mm08. Pushed the grease out of the 270 with Hoppe's and a couple of dry patches.
First group with 135 SMKs put 4 in one hole and one (the first) 1/4" out. The 7mm08 w/140 TSXs plopped its first 5 into 1" in a nice round cluster. Hardly $400 barrels but shot very well for hunting rifles with hunting scopes.
Show me a bone stock 722 in any caliber that won't shoot sub MOA. If the quality is built in, that's all that is necessary.
If you want a really broken in, polished bore, shoot a few 1000 quality lead bullet loads through it. Those old timers knew how to make barrels shoot and it did not involve jacketed bullets and bronze brushes.

There is no reason to clean any barrel until the groups open up. With a top quality Nitrided barrel that is a long, long time.

I see Larry Root ("metalbeater") is back yet again...

I've never bought into the barrel break in thing and I have some very accurate rifles.
And then there is the crowd that think fire forming for an improved cartridge has to be done as a seperate operation, it ain't so.
As a side note I have a 96 Swede made in 1921 that shoots dime size groups, ya think it was broke in according to todays directions?
I also have a 700 Remington with a Shilen match barrel, 22/250 Ackley that shot a .228 group, it's first group.
I fully agree with the comment about 721/722's,
I have 2 722's here and they're hard to beat!
One more comment about Douglas barrels, I have one on a Sako action(222) that shoots better than it should, and cleans easily.

Stepchild

If I was an infamous barrel maker, I'd recommend a long, progressive technique...with later groups allowing "X", then "Z" and so on, number of shots between cleaning. So, if after all that, you decided my barrel just wasn't worth a tinker's damn and wanted me to make good on it, I could blow you off claiming you had erred somewhere in the break-in procedure....something for which I could not be held responsible.

If I was an equally opportunistic bullet-maker, I'd probably recommend an even longer, slower, process...with the last phase being 20 shots & clean, repeated 5 times. Rather than you finding a decent load, sighting in, and successfully killing your deer with one box of my bullets, you'd have to buy at least three times as many to get started.

Luckily I'm pretty sure we don't have any manufacturing/merchandising people like those around the shooting sports these days. Right?

Nor do we have any such pushing a remarkably capable, copyrightable/patentable modern cartridge design. Shooters are too smart for that brand of quackery.

quote:

Originally posted by metalbeater:
I don't buy many new rifles.

I don't recall your bitch-ass buying ANY rifles, Larry. You've always absconded with various pictures and spun a tall horseshit tale to serve your own ends. You should tell about the time your ass was hiding under the bed in Pinedale because you thought someone was coming for your ass.

metalbeater = Larry-BITCH-ASS-Root

Hey Miles Massey, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?