Ok, against my better judgement I went thru about 1/2 of the break-in procedure that MRC recommended. I have never done this before to any great degree, I have cleaned barrels on new guns a little more frequently thru the first 40 or 50 rounds though.
So anyway I wasted 30 rounds yesterday and spent 6 hours on the range, I may continue the last 20 round procedure at my next range session. I did not have any brass to reload rounds so I purchased some Fed Premium 140 gr Gamekings for the break-in and to get some brass. The first ten rounds (cleaning every round) went into about a 4" group, which I thought was fairly good a clean bore new barrel. When I started shooting the 5 round procedure I shot 2 rounds to foul the barrel and 3 for group. To my suppress the 3 shot groups were around 1" with some a little over and a couple a little under. I did let the barrel cool approximately 5 minutes between the 3 rounds.
If I can shoot 1.25" groups with a factory load with less than 30 rounds thru the barrel I think the gun will be a great shooter whens loads are worked up for the gun.
Now I am not endorsing the break-in procedure, I just elected to do it to see what the rifle would do and to get some brass to work with. I could have shot just as good or better by just firing rounds with a little time for barrel cooling.
Note, at 64 years old I don't have the best eyes in the world.
I have learned to not trust a rifle's accuracy until I have 100 rounds and 4-6 cleanings through the barrel. In fact, I think most barrel's accuracy improves until it hits about 100 rounds. My anecdotal not scientific experience suggests that the shoot one and clean break in method speeds this process up with many rifles shooting well at 10-20 rounds. It is tedious, though.
