Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Breaking in a barrel sure is fun. Not!

Got my Accuracy Systems mini 14 back Saturday and got to the range today for the break in. I was bound and determined to follow their break in procedure. Arduous would be a good description. Shoot three. Clean. Shoot three. Clean. Repeat for 90 rounds. It was 15 degrees, gray, overcast and gloomy. Not my most fun day at the range, but it is done. Now I can start on some load development.

Anyone have a favorite accuracy load for a 6x45. I have a lot of load data for it, a plethora of powder choices and a bunch of different bullets from 58-85 grains. Just curious what some of your favorite combinations are with the 6x45.

Barrel break in is a myth.

You're probably right. After today's fun I probably won't ever follow break in instructions on a new barrel again.

Well I ain’t no gun writer but AFAIC Barrel break in is a waste of time,
Effort, Barrel life, &. Components.

It will naturally ‘break in’ (read) WEAR as you Shoot, do Load development ,
Sight in, Practice, & Hunt the Rifle.

Jerry

No, to hell with those directions, shoot that thing till accuracy lessens, then clean the hell out of it and shoot it some more, congrats on the new iron Mart.

I Dyna Bore coat a new barrel then just shoot it. After a few shoot and clean cycles, I end up with minimal fouling and an easy to clean barrel.

That’s my break in process. Works.

DF

On a few factory barrels I have followed the following procedure.

Clean after each of the first 3 or 5 shots. (3 if there isn't much copper 5 if there is) I use these shots to get on paper and make scope adjustments.

Clean after each group for the next 3 to 5 groups. Do it while the barrel is still hot. Has the advantage of cooling down the barrel before the next group.

Clean after each range trip for the first 100 rounds.

Cleaning is accomplished with a good solvent and several strokes of J.B's. Bore paste for each shot .

Don't know if it actually helps but each of the barrels I have done it to clean fairly easy and are fairly accurate. Easy, doesn't take long and gives me the warm and fuzzy feeling. The 7/08 I am doing had very heavy copper fouling for first 2 or 3 groups but by the time I got to the fifth group it wasn't bad at all. After that I put 20 some rounds through it and it was very easy to clean.

I probably wouldn't bother with a lapped barrel.

As I have pointed out many times before, the one-shot-clean "break-in" procedure was developed by benchrest shooters who wanted their (very fine) barrels to be shooting their best before the first match. The technique accelerated the smoothing of (again) very fine barrels, because each shot was--supposedly--fired over bare steel.

If you just clean to bare steel every 10-20 shots (about how many rounds most of us shoot during range sessions) the same thing happens--at least with good barrels, With most factory barrels it makes little difference, because they're not as smooth as the very fine barrels benchrest competitors use.

I just broke in a new 22 creedmoor on Sunday.
Shot 20 rounds
Brought it home and cleaned with Wipe Out and Boretech carbon killer. very little blue on patches.
It's clean, and broken in. It should speed up after I get another 50-100 down the pipe.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


THIS

Amen brother.

90 break in rounds ? I haven’t heard of that many before... 50 yeah, 90... wow.

True, with the exception of high-powered and military-grade rifles.

Over the past 20 yrs....I've had Pac Nor build my p/dog barrels......never got a bad one

Followed their procedure for maybe twenty rds....during scope sight in.....

Keep 'er clean & cool.......after 50 rds switched to moly bullets......

Keeping barrel cool in a dog field is a must...bring a spare rifle

retired my 6BR two summers ago...was pushing 13K rds and still killin dogs at 600 yds

Cham Wow in the dog patch helps too ......

Next time stop at 20 rounds. As above, shoot one, clean. Repeat for 3-5 shots. After those single shots are done, shoot groups of 3-5, clean, repeat until you hit 20 rounds, clean good, and you're done. Sight it in while you're breaking it in. You'll feel the difference in pulling the snake or patches through after about 5-10 rounds. Editing to add, you'll actually feel the difference between the first few patches, and by round 5-10 it will feel smooth.

Pac Nor's suggestion

http://pac-nor.com/care/

You just shortened your barrel life by 90 rounds!
I always like to team up 'break-in' and load development, at the same time, kills two birds with one stone.

"I always like to team up 'break-in' and load development, at the same time, kills two birds with one stone."

Bighorn, that's what it do as well--unless the rifle is "pre-owned," so I assume it's been shot enough to be broken-in.

Will also note that I have talked to more than one gunsmith and even barrel-maker who made up some sort of break-in technique just to give to customers who insisted that they wanted to break in their barrel "properly." The smiths and barrel makers grew weary of telling such customers that they could just go shoot their rifle, finding it a lot easier to provide a break-in routine. They got more work done, and the customers convinced that break-in was absolutely necessary could waste their time instead.

Exactly.

Break-in? Do you know what you are doing and why? What needs breaking in on a custom lapped barrel?
Only one thing-the throat has a little "fluff" from the chambering reamer. I use a quality bronze bore brush, wrap 0000 wool around it. Now get your trusty Makita hand drill and polish the throat for about 5 seconds. It is now broken in.