Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Barrel break in...myth or what?

Unprotected riders will leave more skin and flesh behind on a rough road surface than a basketballer will leave imbedded
in a polyurethane coated basketball court. To say those two surfaces are accomplishing the same thing/ result is nonsense...

Maybe You or Butch can explain how smooth glass or a smooth polyurethane finish creates/contributes to more fouling...???

AGAIN, , better to show the science-physics that supports the claimed theory that smoother surfaces create more fouling,
..but nobody seems able to provide such.

How about you assume the burden of proof that the statement is incorrect. Get yourself a top quality barrel from Lilja and polish it to a mirror finish (which should yield the ultimate non fouling barrel if your theory is right ) and see if it copper fouls or not. If it fouls call Dan Lilja and complain that it fouls and tell him you polished the [bleep] out of the barrel and ask for a replacement. You might be offered his insight on why he states that a barrel can be too smooth.

So when your 'smooth polyurethane basketball court' analogy and Butches 'smooth glass' analogy don't stand up
and you fail to provide any supporting Newtonian science,,,

you quickly pass the buck to Dan Lija to explain it.... ..LOL.

Dan Lija is on record for saying barrels can be 'too smooth' , however he does not technically/scientifically elaborate
or define what surface finish he regards as too smooth.
Whatever grit size Dan uses to lap barrels, , its obvious that its not considered sufficient to reduce fouling to his acceptable levels.
...He is very specific in explaining his recommended break-in process in order to reduce fouling in his new barrels.

Did you order the barrel yet? There's no science to prove it, and equally you have nothing to disprove it. Could it be that there are some shooters out there that have had premium quality barrels by the truck load over decades that come to a conclusion from experience? The same guys that have had some problem barrels that copper foul that were ultra smooth that formed their opinion. Could it be that a guy that's been in the barrel making business for nearly 40 years has some experience with barrels that have fouled and has formulated his opinion based upon experience? Nah, no way that could have ever happened in either case. Again, if your theory that the smoother the barrel finish. the less likely the barrel is to foul then how do you explain why no barrel maker tries to gain an advantage on his business competition by lapping to a 2000 grit finish. If it was a superior product competitive shooters would flock to them in droves. There's a reason they don't lap to those micro finishes. Butch says Shilen laps with 320 grit. I know there's barrels that are lapped with 180 aluminum oxide that yields a smooth enough surface to perform well without fouling. Wonder why that is?

Coefficient of friction. Two smooth surfaces have much more bearing surface causing friction. It's the same thing that allows a boat to travel much fast on slightly choppy water. When we are talking about a "rough" bore here, we aren't taking about rough in the sense of sandpaper stripping the copper jacket from the bullet. Only "rough" enough to reduce the friction.....

From Lilja's info referenced on page 2 of this thread.

Another factor in surface finish has to do with its smoothness. While it is very desirable to have a finish running parallel to the rifling, the finish can be too smooth.
In our extensive testing we found that a lapped barrel could be made too smooth and that these super smooth barrels would foul more than our conventionally
lapped barrels. We have drawn an analogy between these “too smooth” barrels to racing slicks on race cars. These tires have no tread so they can get better
traction (or more friction) on the asphalt or concrete surface. It seems as though a similar situation results between a bullet and barrel if the finish is too smooth.
But in this case, the result is increased fouling, not increased performance.

Stargazer, why do the barrel makers not use 400-1000 grit lapping compound?