Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Brand new barrel process

I'm gonna post this as an inquisitive post just to try and see what everyone is doing.......I dont really want this to turn in to a who is right and who is wrong thread.

When you get a new custom barrel on a rifle what is your process of beginning to shoot the rifle (breaking it in if you wanna call it that).

I figure a good many of you here are dead set on highly accurate rifles and not just some redneck shooting in the woods 75-100 yards.

I find my BTO measurement to the lands with bullet of choice...
Run my 10-12 shot string over MagnetoSpeed to find max pressure and my flat spots in velocity....
Pick my powder charge accordingly...

Load a couple hundred and go shoot it. The shoot/clean, shoot/clean “break in” routine is a waste of time with the custom barrels of today IMO.

Follow the manufacturers breakin process...

Some guys will tell you that you are only breaking in the throat (machined) area but a couple other things to consider...

For instance- I would use the SAME bullets to break in that you are going to shoot in competition / hunting - Jack materials vary and have impacts to how much it’s going to foul, and clean... don’t use one bullet to break in and a different bullet to shoot.

After that do a ladder test to see where you have flat spots (a group of elevation )

Exactly this.

at risk of sounding stupid...BTO?

When you running he string over the magnetospeed i assume you are incrementally increasing in powder with each shot?

...base to ogive...

Yes, incremental increases.

This^^^

I accomplish barrel break-in by zeroing the sights, be that a scope or fixed sights.

I break in a barrel only after deep meditation .
Clean - meditate - shoot - meditate repeat , ten shots takes five days .

Give it a good cleaning and shoot it all the info. out there doesn't proves any process means anything .
After a day of shooting clean it .

If anybody read the benchrest guys story of shooting in the concrete plant with absolutely NO WIND you should come to the conclusion that we/ shooters get way too wrapped up in way too many details that don't matter .

A guy here or elsewhere online bought a CVA 33-30 break barrel and wanted recommdations on breaking in the barrel - benchrest style - got all kinds of good answers .

I make sure mine is clean prior to firing the first shot. There’s always the potential for some crud to be left in the bore from the chambering process. After that I shoot it. That’s it...

John

Depending on what the smith asked, and the customer asked for the throat length may be setup for long or short bullets... longer is typically the safe side.

So the BTO is something you the customer can ask the smith to setup for you so the base of the bullet is just above the neck should junction.

However with most hunting bullets - they are to long anyway so you have to seat the below that...

But it’s a good exercise to look at - don’t forget you have a magazine OAL issue to worry about as well.

Bartlien,
The age old question, “Breaking in the New Barrel”. Opinions very a lot here, and this is a very subjective topic. For the most part, the only thing you are breaking in, is the throat area of the barrel. The nicer the finish that the Finish Reamer or Throating Reamer leaves, the faster the throat will break in.

Shoot one round and clean for the first two rounds individually. Look to see what the barrel is telling you. If I’m getting little to no copper out of it, I sit down and shoot the gun. Say 4 – 5 round groups and then clean. If the barrel cleans easily and shoots well, we consider it done.

If the barrel shows some copper or is taking a little longer to clean after the first two, shoot a group of 3 rounds and clean. Then a group of 5 and clean.

After you shoot the 3rd group and 5th group, watch how long it takes to clean. Also notice your group sizes. If the group sizes are good and the cleaning is getting easier or is staying the same, then shoot 4 – 5 round groups.

If fouling appears to be heavy and taking a while to clean, notice your group sizes. If group sizes are good and not going sour, you don’t have a fouling problem. Some barrels will clean easier than others. Some barrels may take a little longer to break in. Remember the throat. Fouling can start all the way from here. We have noticed sometimes that even up to approximately 100 rounds, a barrel can show signs of a lot of copper, but it still shoots really well and then for no apparent reason, you will notice little to no copper and it will clean really easy.

This is meant as guide lines only. There is no hard and fast rule for breaking in a barrel.

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Krieger,

With any premium barrel that has been finish lapped -- such as your Krieger Barrel --, the lay or direction of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, so fouling is minimal compared to a barrel with internal tooling marks. This is true of any properly finish-lapped barrel regardless of how it is rifled. If it is not finish-lapped, there will be reamer marks left in the bore that are directly across the direction of the bullet travel. This occurs even in a button-rifled barrel as the button cannot completely iron out these reamer marks.

Because the lay of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, very little is done to the bore during break-in, but the throat is another story. When your barrel is chambered, by necessity there are reamer marks left in the throat that are across the lands, i.e. across the direction of the bullet travel. In a new barrel they are very distinct; much like the teeth on a very fine file.

When the bullet is forced into the throat, copper dust is removed from the jacket material and released into the gas which at this temperature and pressure is actually a plasma. The copper dust is vaporized in this plasma and is carried down the barrel. As the gas expands and cools, the copper comes out of suspension and is deposited in the bore. This makes it appear as if the source of the fouling is the bore when it is actually for the most part the new throat.

If this copper is allowed to stay in the bore, and subsequent bullets and deposits are fired over it, copper which adheres well to itself, will build up quickly and may be difficult to remove later. So when we break in a barrel, our goal is to get the throat “polished without allowing copper to build up in the bore. This is the reasoning for the fire-one-shot-and-clean procedure.

Every barrel will vary slightly in how many rounds they take to break in For example a chrome moly barrel may take longer to break in than stainless steel because it is more abrasion resistant even though it is a similar hardness. Also chrome moly has a little more of an affinity for copper than stainless steel so it will usually show a little more color if you are using a chemical cleaner. Rim Fire barrels can take an extremely long time to break in, sometimes requiring several hundred rounds or more. But cleaning can be lengthened to every 25-50 rounds. The break-in procedure and the cleaning procedure are really the same except for the frequency. Remember the goal is to get or keep the barrel clean while breaking in the throat with bullets being fired over it.

Finally, the best way to tell if the barrel is broken in is to observe the patches; i.e. when the fouling is reduced. This is better than some set number of cycles of shoot and clean as many owners report practically no fouling after the first few shots, and more break-in would be pointless. Conversely, if more is required, a set number would not address that either. Besides, cleaning is not a completely benign procedure so it should be done carefully and no more than necessary.
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Lilja,
We recommend that your new Lilja rifle barrel be properly broken-in to obtain the best accuracy. A proper break-in will help ensure that your barrel will clean easily in the future and that you will achieve maximum accuracy potential. Please follow these important instructions.

We are concerned with two types of fouling: copper fouling, which is caused by bullet jacket material being left in the barrel, and powder fouling. During the first few rounds a lot of copper fouling will be left in the barrel. It is important to remove this fouling completely, after each shot, to help prevent a build-up later on. Powder fouling is ongoing, but easy to remove. Do not use moly-coated bullets during the break-in procedure.
Break-in Procedure

For an effective break-in the barrel should be cleaned after every shot for the first 10-12 rounds or until copper fouling stops. Our procedure is to push a cotton patch that is wet with solvent through the barrel. This will remove much of the powder fouling and wet the inside of the barrel with solvent. Next, wet a bronze brush (not a nylon brush) with solvent and stroke the barrel 5-10 times. Follow this by another wet patch and then one dry patch. Now soak the barrel with a strong copper removing solvent until all of the blue mess is removed from the barrel. The copper fouling will be heavy for a few rounds and then taper off quickly in just one or two shots. Once it has stopped or diminished significantly it is time to start shooting 5 shot groups, cleaning after each one. After 25-30 rounds clean at a normal interval of 10-25 rounds. Your barrel is now broken-in.
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dave

How should I break-in my new Shilen barrel?
Break-in procedures are as diverse as cleaning techniques. Shilen, Inc. introduced a break-in procedure mostly because customers seemed to think that we should have one. By and large, we don't think breaking-in a new barrel is a big deal. All our stainless steel barrels have been hand lapped as part of their production, as well as any chrome moly barrel we install. Hand lapping a barrel polishes the interior of the barrel and eliminates sharp edges or burrs that could cause jacket deformity. This, in fact, is what you are doing when you break-in a new barrel through firing and cleaning.
Here is our standard recommendation: Clean after each shot for the first 5 shots. The remainder of the break-in is to clean every 5 shots for the next 50 shots. During this time, don't just shoot bullets down the barrel during this 50 shot procedure. This is a great time to begin load development. Zero the scope over the first 5 shots, and start shooting for accuracy with 5-shot groups for the next 50 shots. Same thing applies to fire forming cases for improved or wildcat cartridges. Just firing rounds down a barrel to form brass without any regard to their accuracy is a mistake. It is a waste of time and barrel life.
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Proof
Barrel break-in is performed in order to smooth out any
micro-roughness in the bore that may occur after initial projectiles
leave an uneven, and possibly excessive, distribution of copper
in the bore, which is why it is sometimes necessary to use
copper solvent. However, it’s not necessary to remove every
trace of copper. Don’t overthink barrel break-in.
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Hawk Hill
The following steps are our suggested procedure for breaking in your new barrel.

1. Shoot 5 individual shots, cleaning after each shot by running a patch wet with solvent till clean. Use a quality solvent.

2. Fire a 3-shot group cleaning after third shot. Repeat this 3-shot/cleaning process two more times.

-This should have your Hawk Hill barrel broke in well. If you need further instructions or have any questions please contact us.
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BENCHMARK BARRELS

Recommended Barrel Break-in Procedure:
-Shoot and clean after each shot for 8 rounds - clean with a proven copper solvent*
-After the first 8 rounds, clean after every 3-5 shot group for 4 groups - clean with a proven copper solvent*
-Follow your normal cleaning regimen after the break-in process.
* We find Bore Tech Eliminator to be an excellent choice, but most copper solvents are sufficient. FOLLOW THE MANUFACTURERS RECOMMENDED PROCEDURE FOR USE OF THEIR PRODUCT!!
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Pac-Nor
For best results, of course, it is necessary to 'season' it and use proper cleaning equipment. We like the Dewey coated rods, a good bore guide, copper/bronze brushes and cotton flannel patches, the appropriate size to keep that jag and rod in the middle of the bore. You will need a good bore solvent, like KG 3, Shooters Choice or CR-10 to loosen the fouling, followed by a scrubbing with Holland's Witches Brew or KG 2. After cleaning, nullify the solvents with rubbing alcohol and patch dry. Finish with Tetra Gun Oil, KG 4 or Holland's Bbl Break-in Fluid. Never shoot a dry bore as this will greatly promote copper fouling.

Chris recommends:
Shoot one, clean, for first ten rounds; shoot three, clean, for next thirty rounds; shoot five, clean, while working up load. Allow bbl to cool to the touch before testing a new load to avoid unnecessary throat erosion.

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That about cover it?
dave

I do it because I spend a lot of money and time getting a rifle set up like I like with a new barrel and it's a small investment to ensure it's taken care of. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't, but it sure doesn't hurt. The barrel makers mostly say do it, pretty much all the better gunsmiths say do it, and most of the best benchrest shooters say they do it, so I do it. It doesn't take much time and gives me a chance to chronograph some loads and get my scope zeroed. Unless someone can give me a reason why it's bad to break in a barrel I'll continue to do it. Saying "it's not needed" isn't good enough, give me a reason why it's not good for my barrel.

Barrel makers say it's good.
Top gunsmiths say it's good.
Top benchrest shooters say it's good.

Drunk guys making youtube videos throwing rifles against rocks say it's bad.

Which one do I trust?

Clean...one shot...clean...one shot.

Clean...three shots...clean...three shots.

Clean...5 shots...clean...five shots.

Clean...10 shots...clean...10shots.

Clean...10 shots.

Clean (only fouling) 20 shots.

Clean (only fouling) 20 shots.

Copper Equilibrium realized.

ONLY CLEAN FOULING.

Same. If it's a good shooting barrel and a keeper, I will strip it clean and DBC it after initial load work up.

^^^^^^
Yup

It's already a 'custom' barrel. If the maker didn't lap the barrel before shipping, or did a pi$$-poor job of it (besides looking for another barrel maker) you might want to do a little break-in. But, every 'custom ' barrel I've gotten from a variety of vendors has never needed anything more than what Josh stated.

Clean shoot repeat till cleaning is needed.

I didn’t say “break in” itself isn’t needed, i just totally skip all the feel good rod and patch pushing. I consider that first 200ish rounds my “break in” and will usually shoot that in a 1-2 outings off the couch. Brass is fire formed, the barrel should be settled in and past any “speeding up”. Only then do I really pin my chrono numbers down and true the ballistics up.

Past that, I let the barrels tell me when and if it needs a cleaning. I’ve gone to Hawk Hills on about everything and a number of those went the life of the barrel with never having a rod/patch pushed through them.

Load & shoot

I rarely EVER clean my barrels. All of my stuff shoots under 1 moa.