I am building a huntingrifle in 30-06 based on an FN 98 action. The barrel is a Lothar Walther stainless steel match quality. These barrels are cold hammer forged and the bore shines like a mirror.
I have read a lot of articles and comments on braking in a new barrel with suggestions such as fire lapping, firing 10 shots and cleaning thorougly after each and every single shot etc.
I understand that the purpose of breaking in is to take away peaks and edges of the barrel material to obtain a smooth bore.I can see this would work on cut riffled and maybe even on button rifled barrels, but would I also gain anything with braking in a hammerforged one?

Raindeer there are as many opinions on this suject as there are shooters! The crux of the matter is what do you expect and what will you accept, bottom line is what makes you confident and what will not abuse the barrel itself. Many claim more barrels are worn out by excess cleaning( I am in this clan) than by shooting them. The .30-06 isn't known as a barrel burner therefore I wouldn't be concerned about too much firing being detrimental. Secondly you mention that this rifle is to be used as a hunting rifle, not a tsrget gun, so I would ask what level of accuracy is acceptable to you? I do recomend cleaning every shot until no copper fouling occurs, then the bore will be ready for it's best possible life and accuracy. This is just my observation and opinion. Starting with a quality barrel is a major step towards satisfaction... good shooting.

You can put as much effort into it as you like. Some shooters believe in an elaborate procedure to break in a barrel and I've seen guys take right off and shoot groups and deliberately try to overheat the barrel, thinking that's a proper break in.

I use, what I think is common sense, for any barrel, benchrest or hunting. If for no other reason than confidence that I've done all I can to achieve accuracy.

I shoot one and clean for 10-15 shots, depending on my patients that day. The I shoot 3 shot groups and clean for another approximately 21 rounds. During these first two steps, I never let the barrel get overheated. I'm really careful to keep in only warm to the touch. After that I let the guns barrel tell me when to clean. Powder and copper fouling and accuracy are indicators of when to clean. I've done this with every rifle I bought new and they have for the most part truned out to be tack drivers, so at least I'm not hurting them, and that's what I'm looking for.

Personal opinions only, the goal of "break-in" is to remove any residual machining marks, but not the sharp corners of the lands/grooves.

Fire-Scrapping should only be done as a last ditch effort before turning the barrel into a tomato stake.

How I do it is:

Clean barrel/chamber and bolt lug recesses thourghly (before you fire the first round, you want to remove any crud/chips that may be left inside the gun). Lube the bolt lugs.

Fire 1 round and inspect for visual signs of copper. Clean if copper is visable.

Repeat the "Fire and Inspect" until copper is seen or your done for the day.

Clean thourghly once your home (I prefer a mild solvent and overnight soaking, with a minimum amount of brush scrubbing, when I clean).

Where did you find out they were hammered? FNMauser

"Ausger�stet mit modernsten Maschinen fertigt Lothar Walther spanlos gezogene (kaltflie�gepre�te) L�ufe aus Spezial-Gewehrlaufstahl und aus rostfreiem Stahl in mehr als 100 Kalibern" (Quote from their website)

Why not ask the people who made the barrel about their recommendation on break in. The last custom barrel I used was from Shilen, I followed their break-in instructions and was pleased with the results.

lotharwalther@mindspring.com