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barrel break in

1K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  U_L 
#1 ·
I have a new rifle on order and have been reading some and seeing talk of breaking a barrel in. could someone explain. I have never broken in a barrel on any of the other new rifles I have bought and most have shot well.
Thanks
 
#3 · (Edited)
When I bought my new Rock River AR I followed the prescribed break in method, and I have always been disappointed in it, since the best I can get with it shooting anything is 1.5" at 100 even though they "guarantee" MOA. The shoot one-clean-shoot 2 clean-etc was really a PIA and did nothing for accuracy I could tell....

The second new rifle I bought was the Mossberg Predator 5.56, and because I didn't have a lot of time to work up a load before taking it on my annual trip to South Dakota where I had plans for it to be my "Walking Around P-dog Rifle...."

All I did was clean it well between range sessions, 5 times over two weeks, which started with getting the scope on paper, then Ladder tests, then shooting for groups with two different types of powder, and about 5 types of bullets, and it took me 500 rounds before I got it shooting under 1/2" at 1oo.

It was amazing, ANYTHING I put through it at first from handloads to Hornady and Black Hills Match ammo gave me MOA at best only, but after switching to Varget powder, and narrowing my bullets it started coming in for me at about 400 rounds....I still don't know if it was more me getting used to the scope and trigger as much as the barrel coming to me, but I have had several shooters tell me what I did "broke the barrel in nicely...."

Literally 50-100+ rounds each session, barrel getting quite hot, and not cleaning it until I got home after each session.

Don't know if I'm advocating this approach, but it worked for me one time, and I am planning to buy a Savage LRP in .260 Remington and plan to do it the same way when I do.....lots of shooting immediately after I get it until I find my load...
 
#4 ·
Yeah,ARs are weird...My LD rifles have all been broken in with the care you would give a newborn...AR-loaded up mags and burned through 500rds without a thought,it shoots 1.5" at 100 with 62gr air pulled 855/856s...more than good enough for gov't work.
 
#6 ·
When I bought my .308 Ruger American Rifle, I bought some of the Tubbs 175 grain .308 firelapping bullets and followed the instructions that came with them. I figured that if it took several hundred rounds to "break in" a barrel that I could do it in a fraction of the time and ammo. It seems to have worked, I enjoy some pretty good groups that that inexpensive rifle.
 
#8 ·
I always figured that for the person that makes a living shooting little, tiny, groups way out there...
all the fussing with "breaking in" a barrel may provide an extra margin of accuracy (it has never been proven to me).

For the average Mr. America we just buy them, clean them, shoot targets to get the sights dialed in, plink, hunt, shoot more targets.

"Breaking in" ain't going to make one bit of difference for us.

Enjoy...
 
#11 ·
A few years back I "took up" with a bunch of semi-dedicated bench rest shooters. Their advice on barrel break in has served me well. Start with a perfectly clean barrel, shoot one shot and thoroughly clean with a de-coppering solvent until the patches show no sign of copper. Do this two more times, and repeat the cleaning procedures. After this cycle of three, single shots do three cycles of two shots, repeat the cleaning procedures. After the three two shot cycles, go to three three shot cycles, and repeat the cleaning procedures between the cycles. When the patches come out with no traces of copper, your barrel is seasoned/broke-in. I had a Kreiger barrel that stopped showing copper after the 5th shot. I also had two Douglas barrels that quit showing copper after the 7th and the 9th shots. I have a Remington that I bought before learning of this cleaning procedure, and after 250-300 shots still shows copper on the patches. The Remington barrel is no where close to the quality of either the Kreiger or the Douglas barrels, so that is what I attribute this to.
Another this these guys told me is to clean your bullets before loading them, give them a wash in lacquer thinner before loading them (bullets only) into the cases. This reduces fouling also.
 
#12 ·
I personally do not think a barrel needs a "break-in" period. I have bought several barrels for different rifles and they all shoot the same as from the beginning to the present except for the first three rounds or so, it seems that the first several rounds laps the barrel (so to speak) from then on none of them have done any better or worse depending if I am in the zone that day and yes we all have bad range days no doubt, you cannot blame it on the hardware but I also learned that ammo is usually what shows good to worse groups, so when I find consistently good groupings I stick with the same ammo. The main source of bad shooting is the human factor.
 
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