I am confused. I have a new Remington Stainless Sendero in 300 Weatherby. It has never been shot. A friend of mine recommends shoot and clean for 5 shots each then clean after 5 shots. Another friend that works at a gun shop wants me to let him polish the barrell. He charges 35.00 for this. A professional gunsmith buddy of mine says I should shoot those bullets that have numbers 1-5 on them and just start with the 3 grade and clean after 10 shots then go to 4 and then 5 cleaning after the 10 rounds of each.(I did let him talk me into these, 30 dollars for the box) I am not interested in a 1000 yard rifle that will win a match at pendleton but I do want the most from my rifle I can get. It has the 26 inch heavy barrell.It is 7.00 each day to go to the rifle range. With the 300 about 10 rounds would be enough for a day of shooting for me. It almost makes sense to just let the guy polish the barrell for me then I could just shoot and clean like a lot of people do on new barrells and like I said earlier. I don't want the throat eat up and the gunsmith said that is why you just use the bullets 3-5. Hope I made sense of this. Can any one unconfuse me Please?

The shoot-clean for 5 is a common break in methiod, that may or may not help but it dosn't hurt anything either.
My personal methiod is as follows:
1-After cleaning the factory residue and presertives out of the barrel and action.
2-Take your cleaning gear and a box of (uncoated) factory ammo to the range.
3-Fire 1 round and look into the muzzel end of the barrel for copper streaks.
3a-If NO than fire another round and repeat.
3b-If YES than clean out the copper, and repeat.
4- Continue until the box is gone. Scope adjustments can be made, and groups fired during this process.
As far as polishing goes (only if it's still visably copper fouled after each shot), wrap a patch around a brush, apply some JB bore paste or FLITZ polish to the patch. 50-100 strokes is all thats needed.
As far as grit coated bullets go, it's your gun to ruin as you see fit.
The above is my opinion/methiod only, others have there own ideas.

Firelapping should be one of the last things you do, not the first. IMNSHO.

Second, you can do that $35 bore polish yourself with a good boreguide, rod and 25 cents worth of Flitz metal polish. This really reduces fouling, IMO. JMO, Dutch.

You'll get a lot of negative comments here about fire lapping, I know I did !!! However, I took a new, out of the box rifle, and used David Tubbs Final Finish system on it, following the directions exactly . I now have a noticibly smoother and shinier bore, and the gun has shot 3 shot groups under 1/2" MOA (.432 to be exact)!! I am still in the process of load development. By the way, this is not a heavy barreled gun, just a run of the mill Savage 112 stainless/synthetic with a sporter weight barrel and adjustable brake hanging off the end in .300 RUM. I should mention that thisa was an experiment for me. Would I do that again, probably, but maybe it wouldn't hurt for you to shoot it first. After all, your Sendero costs almost twice what I paid for my Savage. You can always firelap later if the accuracy just isn't there.

bowhuntr

I'm with Dutch, firelapping would be the last thing I'd do, not the first.

I'd clean it real good (to remove the factory crud left in the barrel) then shoot it. If it doesn't shoot well then start troubleshooting to figure out why. The polishing thing probably won't help anything, but probably won't hurt either. The firelapping has a real potential to ruin a good barrel, I'd only do it if I were at my wit's end trying to get the thing to shoot and was ready to invest in a new barrel.

Fire lapping and polishing barrels is another word for wearing the barrel out, you can accomplish the same thing by simply shooting the rifle, all barrels have a peak period for accuracy, just makes since....

Your friends methods is about as good as any for a break in period, as are some of the suggested methods, one is about as good as the other...

I guess the point, Ray, is if you've got a rough barrel that isn't going to shoot well for quite some time until it is worn down a ways, is it worth preserving that early, inadequate portion of the barrel's lifetime, or are you better off accelerating the wear and using just the later portions of the barrel's theoretical maximum life? If the latter, then what is the best way to do so?

I've found that rough barrels don't usually produce less accuracy than smooth barrels. They're just a lot more difficult and time consuming to clean.

Savage factory barrels are a notable example. They are often very rough inside and foul quite heavily and very little improvement is offered by "hand lapping" with JB.

But they shoot very well for factory barrels and you just have to adjust your attitude about how clean you "need" to have your barrel.

I have friends that remove the large part of powder fouling and never worry about copper in their Savage barrels, that completly blow my mind at the range. Their rifles shoot way under an inch day in and day out with practically no cleaning.

Is ignorance (on their part) bliss or am I just anal retentive about cleaning and wasting my time trying to keep my barrels spotless?

$bob$

The roughest part of any new rifle barrel, factory or custom, is the throat as it is the only part cut at 90 degrees to the rifling and it is this area the "shoot one and clean" group are actually addressing and it is this area that is going to strip the most copper off a barrel.

If you read the literature with David Tubb's FinalFinish lapping bullets it will explain it as does the Krieger barrel web-site.

The first rule of firelapping is: Don't fix it if it Ain't broke. I've brought 2 rifles back from the dead by firelapping with a Beartooth Bullet kit, but I would not firelap a rifle until all else failed.
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/index.htm

Bye
Jack

Thanks for the advice. I think I will just clean it good and use the shoot and clean method. Like was said it don't make sense to pay someone for something when you can do it yourself. Then you will know it is done right. Thanks, Okie

Just a comment to all the "firelapping naysayers". Have you ever done this yourself and where do you get your information from ???? I've been dealing with guns and reloading since the early '70s and I've shot in various types of competitions. I am always willing to try something out if it's better and helps accuracy. I'm even willing to bet that some of you "naysayers" probably even use moly bullets, one of the worst things that ever came down the pipe! I guess what I'm trying to say is that don't knock it if you haven't tried it !!!! There are enough shooting myths out there without inventing new ones. If you can say that you are in David Tubbs class as a shooter, then I just "might" put some stock in some of these negative comments. I feel that it has been adequately researched, and if he says it's harmless, then I have to believe that. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to call him, he's a nice guy and will talk to you. Now about valve grinding compound and other "do-it-yourself"
firelapping procedures, well just forget about it! The abrasive in the final finish system is so fine that it feels more like graphite powder than abrasive. They polish and burnish the bore, rather than "grinding" it out as some have suggested. Do a little research before you condemn something. http://www.jarheadtop.com/article_finalfinish.shtml

bowhuntr

The question was what he should do first with a new barrel. Lapping may well be the answer if something is wrong. First thing is to determine if something is wrong.

Fact. Anything down a new bore starts the wear process. Anything more abrasive than the bullet should probably not be introduced into the bore until you know if there is a problem.

It is my opinion, that lapping "by any method" should not be the first thing done to a new unfired barrel. You don't administer chemotherapy until, or, unless it's needed, and the same logic should apply to new gun barrels. Clean it, shoot it, analyze it and then if necessary, address it...

Regards,

Malm

[ 03-05-2003, 01:51: Message edited by: G.Malmborg ]

Don't break it if it ain't fixed

The only way to find out if a barrel is rough, or fouls readily, is to shoot it.

My 350 Rigby with it's cheapie A&B barrel has yet to yield a clean patch of CR-10 even after repeated JB patching. That said, it'll group 3 shots into 5/8-3/4" at 100 yds even with a box of ammo or two down the bore.

My wifes Ruger .308 will shoot as accurately with a clean bore as it will with 100 rds through the barrel, and bright copper streaks on the lands.

As J Belk says, it doesn't matter if it's shiny clean so well as it shoots.

I'd save the $35 for an extra box of ammo and a trip to the range, a shiny bore won't improve your ability to shoot the rifle, but practice will!