Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Barrel Break In and Accuracy

I�ve done the break-in routine on my last 5 new rifles (2 300 WSM, 2 270 WSM, 1 270 Win), two of them re-barreled with custom barrels after trying the factor barrels, for a total of 7 barrels. I kept notes on all of them. The one area where I know break-in makes a difference is in cleaning. The 5 original factory barrels fouled to a degree after one shot, one of them was a true bastard. I should have recovered a bullet and weighted it to see how much copper it left behind in the barrel. It was that bad.

I kept track of how many patches it took to clean after each shot. I ran 4 wet patches through 4 of them, the last 1 clean. The stubborn rifle took 30 wet patches and still wasn�t clean. The 4 had sudden break points where cleaning became even easier. I still ran 4 wet patches through them, but the last 3 came out clean. (I don�t count the first patch. That one applies the cleaner only. Barnes.) The stubborn one never came out clean even after 200 rounds. (I stopped the one shot and clean after 20 rounds. Fanaticism never solved anything.) It was so bad that the muzzle end inside looked like a penny all the way around after one shot, and it shot like hell. That one went to market.

This is the one argument that the guys that think break-in is �crap� can�t win because every argument they make, other than it�s crap, can�t be proven.

Arguments for break-in: New barrel, not sighted in, you have to sight it in, one shot and clean while sighting in is no big problem. This way, all shots on paper come out of a clean, cold barrel and give an accurate appraisal of cold zero on the new toy even without a sweet load. I use cardboard off appliance packing and don�t adjust the scope until I have three shots on paper. I don�t adjust powder either until I have the scope reasonably close to zero.

Does it help accuracy? There is room for argument, but the argument will have to go on without data, because if you break in, you will never know the accuracy of not breaking in, and if you don�t break-in, you�ll never know the potential you might achieve if you did follow the break-in routine, and like working up a load, your can�t really compare one rifle to another.

Does it hurt? Evidence is on the side of no. You�re cleaning. How can that hurt? (If you do it right.)

I also have to add that my shooting bench is less then 50 feet from my loading bench. It�s easy for me to do. I can load a round, shoot it, check and mark the target, then clean and load the next round. By then the barrel it clean and cold.

If you break in the barrel as you have been taught "ad nauseaum" in the shooting mags and it shoots ok you will be happy.

If you don't do it and just blast away and the rifle shoots 2 inch groups, you will never know if it would have helped.

Nothing like superstition to make you feel that you did everything you could have done.

Reposting something I posted a while ago...

Ya know, this is all just anecdotal and always will be until someone puts out some statistically significant empirical evidence�

Someone take 40 barrels from the same maker, all made in sequence. Mix every other one so you have the �odd� barrels in one group and the evens in the other. Chamber them all with the same reamer, again going back and forth, even and odd. Put them all on the same trued receiver. Break in one batch but just start shooting the other and follow each barrel over the course of a 2000 round life. Run air gauges capable of millionth inch accuracy down the barrels to measure actual fouling buildup about every 100th round. Clean them every 100th round � right down to bare metal. Record just how many seconds of soaking with Sweet�s it takes to get to bare metal, or maybe how many passes of JB. Use bullets from the same lot, primers from the same lot and all powder from the same lot. Lessee, 40 barrels, 2000 rounds each, that�s um, 80,000 rounds. Keep records of groups; maybe get an aggregate average of all barrels in each group. Make sure you shoot them in a temperature controlled, indoor range with no air currents. Make sure you record any minute dimensional or metallurgical differences in the brass and factor in those differences.

Then come back and tell us is the differences in:
Overall aggregate accuracy difference between batches.
Statistics on cleaning � how many seconds of Sweet�s soaking or passes with JB
How much actual buildup of fouling in microns over 100 rounds.
Anything else you think is important.

Start with a cartridge with the expansion ratio of the .308.

Then do it all again with say, a 7mm Shooting Times Westerner or maybe a .257 Weatherby.

Then do it all again with something along the lines of a .358 Winchester.

Lessee, so far we�re up to 240,000 rounds of ammo and 120 barrels. Damn � that�s a good receiver ain�t it? Wonder if dimensional changes in it over 240,000 haven�t spoiled the test?

Then, on your deathbed, tell us if there is really, really, absolutely, more than a gnat hair�s worth of difference between the two methods that would prevent one from hitting a prairie dog at 400 yards, an elk at 300 or a buffalo at 50. As Ken Howell likes to quote from, IIRC, P.O. Ackley � �The gravitational pull of the moon affects the trajectory of a bullet, but not enough to worry about.�

Then have your children do it all over again with a slightly different method of breaking in to see if there is a difference between �shoot one, clean for 5 rounds, then shoot three and clean for 10 then shoot 5 and clean for 20� versus �shoot one and clean for 10, shoot three and clean for 20� versus � shoot one and clean for 20, then shoot 5 and clean for the next 20� versus any other method any barrel maker has ever mentioned. Let us know the effects of each different method of breaking in.

My take? It�s a hobby � have fun, knock yourself out. If breaking in a barrel blows air up your kilt and you enjoy the breeze, then it�s a good thing. If not, then don�t worry about it.

Jim in Idaho...

AMEN AND AMEN! Let's go shooting! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Did not some one in Shooting Times[rick Jamison?] shoot 1000 rounds of molly bullets in 22-250 without cleaning-If I remember it shot as well at the end as the begining.They had borescope pictures.I lent this magazine to a good friend- his wife cleaned his books in their bed room into the garbage bin.I never got it back but laugh every time I think of him bin diving for his books. Well worth it!
I just clean every 30 rounds or so.I do take a new gun apart -check and clean well before shooting it the first time.I cut my own patches so they fit the jags I'm using.I try to keep a consistant bore condition.You can feel in the rod when you have to clean.
You do have to do this properly using good rods ,brushes and real bore guides carefully.I see more people cleaning properly now than twenty years ago and we have better products to do it with with less effort.
Glenn

I generally give a new barrel a chance to shoot well and not foul badly before I start tinkering. If the new toy does not shoot as well as it should or if it fouls easily I use firelapping and JB bore polish to smooth it up. Works wonderfully when needed. Spending the extra $$ for match grade barrels from good barrel makers usually precludes all of this.

safariman

Jim in Idaho
Right on man.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Charlie

Homer Powley: "The moon affects the trajectory but not enough to worry about." (P O didn't know nearly as much about such things as Homer did. And Homer didn't use many unnecessary words.)

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Ken - I've said it before - you're a treasure for information such as this - like you said, the book of random information would be just too much, but maybe someone can come up with some sort of device to insert some wires into your head and transfer it all to a computer disk or something. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Thanks for the information and best as always, John

JinI - not only a good post, but I love the phrase about air up one's kilt - I am going to have to remember that one and steal it. Best, John

Ken,

Thanks, I stand corrected. However many words one uses, I always liked that quote.

Also like the one about measuring barn rafters with micrometers. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />