Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Breaking In A New Barrel

Here's a question that may be best asked on this forum. What are your thoughts on breaking in new barrels? I have read a range of opinions that run from "don't worry about it" to "your barrel will be ruined for life if you don't do it right." I recently finished a M1A/M14 build with a Criterion barrel and soon will be engaged in building a 1903 and a 1903A3 using NOS barrels. Do I need to carefully break these barrels in or can I just take them out for carefree blasting sessions? In all seriousness I do look forward to all opinions. Many thanks!

24 HCF Method.

That was in 2008 when NOBODY was posting on SH forum [not worth a toot now].

And the humor is appropriate for a question that will be resolved after we find out "How long is a string?"

It took me 5 years to figure out why water goes in clear and comes out yellow, while beer goes in yellow and comes out clear.

We will get to the bottom of this.

Well, I guess that settled it. Just throw the rifle on the ground three times and then open up. As I said, some folks don't think it's anything to be concerned about.

I've tried it both ways and don't notice a difference, so IO just go out and shoot. What I have noticed is that it takes about forty rounds before the rifle settles down. The funny thing is most of the suggested break in processes require about forty rounds. Something to consider.

Well, I have been breaking in barrels for over 50 years. Does it help, I don't know but I'm to old to stop doing it now. Almost all of my rifles have shot under 1 inch MOA so I'm happy with the process. Also, the guy in the video is a real idiot. You just don't do that to a rifle.

coyote268 - What do you do?

The way I break in a barrel is shoot a couple of fouling shots then shoot a three or five round group and then clean until I have around 50 rounds down the barrel, somewhere in this process you will see it takes less and less patch to clean up. Shoot one and clean until you have fifty rounds or more down the tube is a total waste of time and reloading supply's.

1) So if a broken in barrel is slower to foul and the break in procedure is to clean more often at first, can you see:

Someone who does not believe in break in will just be breaking in the barrel more slowly as he cleans at his regular intervals.

2) So if barrels foul at the same rate regardless if they are broken in and the break in procedure is to clean more often at first, can you see:

Someone who does believe in break in will just be cleaning more often and it will seem to work.

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What does it all mean?
1) Either side could stay happily wrong for 50 years.
2) Get a bull barrel.... you don't want a cow barrel.

Most do not have a clue what breaking in is for and why. To save a lot of time, just search the bforums.

Not that it hasn't been said or argued about enough, and every one has their ideas, but here;s something to think about 30-06 will be burning 50-60 grs of powder per shot,
yet a 30-375 will burn 100- 124 gr, thats a lot of fouling in a barrel, common sense says you should clean the barrel a lot more often then you do with your .223.

I think I like bea175's approach. Shoot five round groups and clean until you've shot 50-rounds. It does seem like 40 to 50 rounds defines the ending point, with perhaps some thought given to caliber and quantity of powder burned per round. And yeah, no way in heck would I hand the guy in the video any firearm of mine.

Hey 99, I'm a retired Gunsmith which doesn't mean I know everything's, just the way I have done it for all those years.

One thing I have found about rifle barrel's, the better the quality of the barrel you buy and use on your builds, the less of breaking in the barrel needs.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the comments that took my post seriously, which is not saying that I don't appreciate a good sense of humor too.

If its "hand lapped" it would seem to have been broken in.

+1

If the barrel is a quality barrel and is lapped, I can't see that cleaning after each round progressively is helping anything.
I don't think Criterion barrels are lapped, so a "shoot 5 and clean" would be what I would do for the first 25-30 rds (more if the bore is rough or it copper fouls excessively).

On a custom lapped barrel, you are not breaking in the bore. You are smoothing out the chambering"fluff" or burrs from chambering from the throat-leade area only. I wrap a small piece of 0000 steel wool around a bronze brush. I put it in a drill motor and smooth out that area for about 10 seconds. It is now broken in. Ain't gonna waste components doing that.

I heard that a few dozen passes with JB compound on a patch was alot better and faster than shooting and cleaning approach, I dont know Ive never tried it.

I used to do the shoot and clean break in. With factory tubes, I can see no difference.

IMHO, the most important thing is to get it clean BEFORE it is shot.

There is a lot of gunk in some barrels when it leaves the factory. I use good cleaning methods to get all that stuff out before I shoot it. After that, I clean when accuarcy slips.

Breaking in for me, is to clean the barrel and clean it often. Clean out the copper and clean out the powder fouling. I don't do my cleaning on a certain exact number. Also, if I'm shooting cast, I may not clean it as often as I would when breaking in shooting jacketed bullets.

Thanks much!

I agree with GeorgiaBoy, get it spotless before you start shooting. For me that also includes a few runs with JB. The I follow Bea's advice and clean after five round groups for the next 30-40 rounds. Then I clean it whenever it needs it.

Imo, your barrel will tell you a lot about itself early on. I shoot enough to get on paper be it 5 or 15, then clean. This cleaning gives me a baseline of how much fouling has occurred. Then I'll rip a 5 shot group and clean. This gives me an idea of how much fouling 5 shots gives me. From here, I do what the rifle needs....be it every 10 rounds or every 100, 300.....etc.

Let your barrel tell you what it needs.

Holy Jesus, steel wool, JB paste yada yada. I'm continually amazed at the lengths people on this forum will go to NOT SHOOT.

I ha a number of bolt guns with custom barrels. In all cases I shot and cleaned after the first 10 rounds and then after five shot groups for the next 50 rounds. Its a PITA.
Does it help? Hard to say. These guns are all more accurate than me, but I don't know how they would have shot with out this process.
I always figured, "it can't hurt."

Just shoot the sucker. When it looks dirty clean it. Life goes on.

^THIS^

Thanks for all the input!