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Breaking in your handgun

3K views 27 replies 20 participants last post by  ms6852 
#1 ·
Everyone has a preferred method...
So how do you break in your new handgun? I know some semi autos require plenty of ball ammo to polish up the feed ramp before hollow points would reliably feed...
 
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#3 ·
I always clean new guns before I take them to the range. Most guns I have owned have problems with fail to eject the 1st 50 or so rounds. Some more and some less. My Ruger 1911 CMD and my S&W Shield has never had any problem but other I own have. After 100 rounds with no problems I judge them as ok. Like George said after 500 rounds I feel safe carrying it.
 
#4 ·
For both pistol and rifle: I use mostly fire one, clean barrel only for 10 cycles. Then I go to 2's for 5 cycles. Then 5's for two cycles. Then 10 for one cycle. After that I do a complete everything cleaning. Then I start hunting for which factory ammo actually works best. Then I use "that" ammo to set the sights if they can be set. After I have gone thru about 300 rounds without any mechanical issues, I start looking for the best reloads I can make. I wait until I am sure the gun is working well in case I have to return it to the factory before I use reloads. I keep the barrel cool and never over heat it in break in.

On rifles or pistols I think will be shooters, I will add to the sequence the number of rounds at the 1's and 2's before I advance to 5's. I never go past 5's to keep from over shooting the barrel. ON the regular break in's I use Hoppes #9 and call it good enough. But on the good shooters, I use Montana Xtreme as it is better chemicals. You can take a gun cleaned w/ Hoppes and think it's clean. Follow up w/ Montana Xtreme and you will be surprised how much more you can get out of it. But on the ones I broke in w/ Hoppes, I will use the Montana Xtreme on the final cleaning. All guns stored over winter get the better chemicals. I'm sitngy w/ it cause of cost.
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Some places don't want you tying up a bench if it is crowded while you clean a gun when some one else is waiting to shoot. On those crowded days, I will take a regular gun to shoot and only fire whatever sequence I am at in the breakin process and put the gun away dirty. I finish up my shooting my regular gun and leave then clean the break in guns at home.
 
#5 ·
I use what the factory recommends.
When I bought my Kahr I think it was 500 rounds or something outrageous. So be it. took it to the local range and let anyone who wanted to try it out shoot as much as they wanted. Asked for any failures, none reported. ... . 500 rounds down, 0 hick-ups.

Most other guns normally just want 100-200 rounds for break in. I can do that in an hour with some rounds, a cleaning kit, and some oil.
 
#9 ·
On semi's I shoot factory ball ammo for the first 500 rounds, usually Winchester white box. For the first 50 I clean with Montana X-treme every 10, and I shoot slowly so as not to overheat and also to be sure of function. After that first 50 I just clean after every use, which is usually a 50 to 100 round session. When breaking in I shoot out in the woods so I can relax and take my time. I set up a table for cleaning and a rest if needed.

For revolvers I usually use factory ammo for the first 100, cleaning after every couple of cylinders.
 
#10 ·
for my pistols I bought a Bulk can of Herter's ammo (600 rounds) for my Taurus PT24/7 45acp. For my Hi Point 40S&W I bought 200 rounds of PMC 155gr.

After the initial ammo purchase was used up they were broke in. Clean with Hoppes #9 oiled with Remoil.
 
#11 ·
Some folks really get anal about their shooting/cleaning of firearms, I just shoot them and when I get home I clean, it is part of the fun of the range day. “Breaking in” has never been an issue with me as I will never be able to afford enough ammo to wear out a barrel. I can see an AR barrel being shot out with the number of .223 that I shoot except for the fact that ammo is spread around dozens of my AR’s.
I guess I must admit my 1890 Winchester is a bit wobbly going down the tube, I have been shooting it since 1950 when I was given it (well used) by a relative.
 
#13 ·
I dont really do break in for guns. I break them down, inspect, either oil or wipe off excess oil, then shoot as I normally would. My only "break in" is that I wont carry anything until I have put 300 rounds through it without issue. No special process, just shoot.
 
#14 ·
I don't break in anything in the way of guns. They come from the factory ready to go. I will take a new gun to a competent gun smith to get the ramp polished, or to get a trigger job done, maybe hone out the cylinders a little. I will then shoot them until they need to be cleaned. With rifles that will be when they start to shot poorly. With pistols, when they start to jam up, and with revolvers, well not so much, just wipe them down good, add a little oil once in a while, and carry on!
 
#16 ·
I remember this young guy talking about his new special black ops hut-hut rifle once, about 'seasoning' the barrel to break it in the right way.

I was like "HUH?"

He said "Yeah, I like to soak it good overnight drenched in a lot of oil, wipe it down, then put 100 rounds in it and heat the barrel up, let the oil on the outside cook off. It seasons the barrel"

I was biting my lip the whole time...as to not laugh out loud.....
 
#18 ·
A manufacturer specifying a 'break-in' period means one thing to me- they expect me to finish the gun for them. I buy a gun new from the factory I expect it to be ready to go. If it isn't I don't buy it. Sure, a good clean and lube before firing the first time and maintain it, but break it in before it works? What kind of crap is that? This isn't to say I don't put enough ammo through it to be confident.

Couple years back I bought a Canik TP9v2 for something like $350. It was well finished and worked 100% right out of the box, was accurate, good trigger- nice gun. My wife's best friend fell in love with it and talked me out of it. A couple thousand rounds later it still hasn't malfunctioned. It did not need to be broken in- it was made to work at the factory and by golly that's just what it does.

'But my (insert brand here) wonder-gun is made to very tight tolerances!' So was a Detonics Scoremaster- and they were guaranteed to work 'out of the box' because they finished the gun before it left the factory and tested it to make sure.

Sorry, the 'break-in' thing makes me grumpy.
 
#21 ·
As an LEO, when we were issued a new pistol, we fired a standard 50rd qualification with our issue ammo, stuffed it into the holster and hit the street. I'm talking S&W/Sig/Glock autos. Rarely was there an issue in that first 50rds. Now, I run a magazine of carry ammo thru a new pistol, if it runs without issue I consider it reliable. I've never had a pistol that passed that test, to suddenly fail in the next 500 rds. I keep my guns clean and well maintained, and shoot them a lot. My carry gun gets on an average of 1-2k rds thru it annually in practice and in BUG matches. My action pistol guns get a LOT more. I'm not sure what this recommended break-in thing is about. As another poster said: Any quality gun should run right out of the box. In my experience, that's true the large majority of the time.
wh1
 
#22 ·
My Pistol Break in consists of the rounds I fire sighting the pistol in. On my Hi Point that was one round, center punched the X at 25 yards first shot out of the box. I have since fired a few thousand rounds through it and still have not touched the sights.
 
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#24 ·
Warhorse, On my range there was no such thing as a standard course as I tried to have something new each month. Of course I started a rookie out slow to see what results I got and worked up from there. If officers failed to fire on a quarterly basis they did not carry a firearm and a couple did graveyard desk duty until they could get to the next range date. We shot duty ammo for training and duty to avoid the pitfalls of separating them.
 
#25 ·
While maybe not a consideration, my tale begins over a decade ago.
Back when the glut of Makarov`s hit the market and they were under $100 we bought hundreds of them. Frankly I have a boatload of folks looking for a smallish pocket pistol for carry and otherwise.
We took 5 to the river camp, wiped the exterior crude off, filled the magazine, racked the slide and let go 50 rounds from each pistol.

Then broke them down for cleaning. What we found; the recoil spring was encapsulated in dried and wax like substance. Not only covering the recoil spring but hard just like a pencil inside the spring. Each one fired-ejected and fed, all five pistols 50 rounds each.

That sold me on the pocket pistol from that day forward, and to further it; all pistols were accurate to boot. 9x18 Makarov`s ruled the day.
Now I am eccentric when it comes to rifles, that's just how I was raised....pistols not so much.
 
#27 ·
I don't break any gun in. I take it to the range & shoot it, usually about 100-200 rounds. If it isn't 100% because of something obvious, it goes back in the safe after a good cleaning. I'd never trust my life to a gun that isn't 100%.

I've only had 1 Glock out of 4 different ones that wasn't 100%. My G-42 failed to fire one shell one time. It looked like a light strike, but after several tries on the same shell, I gave up & sent the shell back to Winchester. They sent me a check for 2 boxes of replacement ammo but never told me if the shell was defective. I have fired the gun a few times since with no problems, but haven't carried it.

I've got 4 different model Kel-Tec's & only the PMR-30 has had episodes of FF.

Never had a problem with any Sig's, Beretta's or any revolvers. My 2 favorite carry guns are my Sig 365 & G-26.
 
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