Advanced Marksmanship Best practice for breaking in a barrel

[robertritz]

I am new to this forum and new to shooting altogether. I want to hear what y'all think the best practice is for breaking in a factory barrel. I have read quite a bit and want to decide on a method before I take my new rifle to the range to sight it in.

Remington 700 SPS Varmint with factory barrel. I am shooting Black Hills 168gr. match BTHP.

Thanks.

 

[superyota]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

robert, not to sound like a dick but have you tried doing a search for barrel break in.

 

[robertritz]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

No offense taken superyota. Have done a search and I am probably going to go with the following method. Just read a thread on barrel cleaning and wanted to see peoples opinion as it relates to barrel break in.

Procedure:
First 5 rounds clean barrel after every shot
Next 45 rounds clean barrel after every group of 5

What "cleaning" is to me:
Brush 5-10 times, run a patch with solvent, dry patch, oil, dry patch.

 

[robertritz]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

I am also reading a lot that says to not clean after every shot, wanted to hear practical experience that isn't on 5 year old webpages. I want to hear from people who are shooting new ammo through new factory barrels.

 

[superyota]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

sorry can't help their because i only clean my bolt guns when accuracy goes away.

 

[Target In Sight]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

Hi Think Superyota was asking if you have done the SH search since this subject has been covered many times here

Like Superyota, and many others here, I do not clean my barrel until accuracy drops also. Hope you find what you are looking for, and be careful and not to damage your barrel during the process.

The only recommendation I can give you is to get a good bore guide and cleaning rod, Dewey comes in mind.

Dyl..

 

[robertritz]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

Thanks for the link. Tried the search on the website and didn't find what you linked. Didn't think of Google page search. Thanks.

 

[Target In Sight]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

No problem.

Here is the SH search engine, I would bookmark it for future reference. It is very useful.

SH Search Engine

 

[csi:cyberspace]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: csi:cyberspace</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This, taken from http://www.shilen.com/faq.html#question10 is by far my favorite answer to this question.

<span style="font-style: italic">
How should I break-in my new Shilen barrel?

Break-in procedures are as diverse as cleaning techniques. <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Shilen, Inc. introduced a break-in procedure mostly because customers seemed to think that we should have one.</span> By and large, we don't think breaking-in a new barrel is a big deal. All our stainless steel barrels have been hand lapped as part of their production, as well as any chrome moly barrel we install.</span> Hand lapping a barrel polishes the interior of the barrel and eliminates sharp edges or burrs that could cause jacket deformity. This, in fact, is what you are doing when you break-in a new barrel through firing and cleaning.
</span> </div></div>

 

[robertritz]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

Nice, I am becoming of the same opinion more and more.

 

[XOR]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

My barrel break in consists of a basic cleaning on a new barrel just to knock out any oil or rust preventative residue that may left from shipping/manufacturing. Then I take it and shoot the heck out of it until it drops in accuracy or I hit around 500 or so rounds fired. Even then, I won't do an aggressive barrel cleaning with harsh stripping chemicals because it seems to not do much for accuracy from my experience. After cleaning, I find I need to fire five or so shots to re-foul the thing before it settles back into the groove.

Every time you ram a cleaning rod down a barrel designed to shoot bullets you run the risk of damaging it. IMO.

 

[buffybuster]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

My barrel break in:

Clean when brand new.
Shoot until accuracy suffers. (~1000rds or more)
Clean
Shoot until accuracy suffers.
Replace barrel as needed.

In ~2500rds, I've cleaned twice: Once when new and then at 793rds. Over 1700rds and still shoots good, so no reason to clean.

 

[Chiller]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

only "problem" being poster has a factory barrel....

 

[Chiller]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

would hoestly foul the barrel....and see what she does.

 

[robertritz]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

I figure it won't hurt anything to foul it and see what happens. My girlfriend has a Savage in .243 and I just cleaned hers and I am betting she is going to have to fire at least 5 rounds before getting consistent results.

 

[n8lusk]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

I agree with Chiller. Factory barrels are a lot rougher than hand-lapped custom barrels. My department just purchased a Rem LTR and I had the same issue. There are hundreds of opinions on "breaking-in a barrel," but the majority start referring to a custom barrel.

I used to follow the M24 regiment from the Army FM-23-10 when shooting new factory barrels (for custom barrels I just shoot it until it slips). With the LTR I just got (using a sinclair bore guide,,dewey rod, butches bore shine, good patches, and light oil...nylon brush at times) I shot 5 rounds cleaning between rounds, 20 rounds cleaning between every five rounds and then fifty rounds and clean. My last five shot group was <span style="text-decoration: line-through">.182"</span> at 100 center to center. I think I'm going to stop there since the fouling has decreased some and it is shooting well.

Try this link... break-in research Jeff in TX did some research and lengthy debated opinion...worth reading. Again the test were on custom barrels, but interesting none the less.

 

[Mudcat-NC]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

Shooting it will break it in just fine. Though I tend to clean a bit more often. If you think there is anything in there when new just hit it with some JB paste. I tend to do that with new bbls and they seem to clean easier. Look a bit "smoother" with the borescope too.

 

[n8lusk]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

Sorry got a little carried away there ... <span style="text-decoration: line-through"> </span> .350" group on the last five.

 

[AUJohn]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

About time people started realising factory and quality barrels are not the same.


I would do a basic X shots then clean. Once I FEEL the thing cleaning easier and starting to smooth out add more rounds between cleaning. If you can FEEL it then you can do what each and every barrel needs and not simply do it in a fixed manner. If you can't feel it then you will simply need to decide on how you want to do it and probably spend a lot more time than you need

What are you cleaning with?

 

[AKAce]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

Copper is the Key to breaking in a barrel... if it strips off copper. and you keep shooting the copper acts like a Cushion and you never "Smooth" the ruff spots out... you also increase pressure leading to probs with working up loads.

With a new barrel I shoot a few, then clean Copper (Sweets 7.62) I shoot 5 or 10, then clean copper ... I repeat that till there is little to no signs of copper. Some "Break In" Very fast ... others, like many factory tubes may take 100 + to stop ripping hunks off. If you leave the copper in there, you will never fix what stripped it.

 

[DaveV]

Re: Best practice for breaking in a barrel

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Chiller</div><div class="ubbcode-body">only "problem" being poster has a factory barrel.... </div></div>

+1

If your factory barrel is rough, have your smith polish it out for you. Problem solved. Then shoot until it wont hold groups. Clean. Continue.