Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters barrel breaking in

Back in the day, people used to say that a barrel would need to be "broke in" before it would shoot it's best.

I have not seen this topic touched in quite a while, but it seems that the last I read from experts was that a barrel did not have to be broke in..

Any comments from people that know would be appreciated.

It is not necessary!

If you keep track of your first cleaning patch through the bore, you will notice each first patch will be progressively lighter in color for the first 10 or 12 times.

It makes no difference if this is done after each of a dozen trips, or a dozen times while on your first range trip. Same results.

Perhaps one of the funniest post's in quite some time , this topic has been beaten to death at nauseating regularity over and over again, better try search again it was a big topic just a couple weeks ago

It's been at least six hours, about time to touch it off again.

Exactamundo. :Like a lot of other mythology...it apparently takes millennia to finally go away...


Oh, and to answer the OP...on a hunting rifle its not necessary. If you are anal retentive and OCD and looking at Long Range rifles or Bench Rest you might consider it briefly.

Damn it Ingwe, I resemble that remark I break in every one !!!!!!!!!!!

I have a 100+ year old Swedish Mauser that copper fouled fairly badly. Seriously cleaned all the copper out, fired one cartridge, cleaned again, repeated a few times, and then went to three shots. It pretty well fixed the fouling problem.

That will happen.

Just sayin.

Doesn’t that describe all of them...?

Who has Stock's break-in video on speed dial?

I like a cow barrel! 😂😂

........... Me too. Back in the mid 1990's a lot of that barrel break in stuff was affecting me. Picked up one of those Swedish Mausers that Kimber was sporterizing back then. Actually did that procedure on it ( still had original 6.5x55 barrel) and it gets very little fouling now, and I still have it. Can't say that it's a solution for barrels that copper foul a lot but mine seemed to respond to it. I always thought that was pretty unusual for a used barrel and don't have much of an explanation for it but there it is. I'm not complaining.

My 300 Roy took about 7500 rounds before it settled down.

To each his own.

With hand-lapped aftermarket barrels, I don't see much point, and I don't really "break them in". They already seem to shoot like a "broken in" barrel after a dozen shots. With factory rifle barrels, yes, I have process of fire-lapping and bore seasoning. It doesn't seem to hurt, and in the instances where I started just shooting without the process, accuracy did improve a bit, along with a couple other things. Who knows? It's all tinkering with guns, so it's all good for me.

I clean new ones before shooting. On most of them I get some metal on the patch, even the custom barrels. On the customs I expect it is from the chambering where the oil didn't flush out the barrel 100%. On the factory rifles I suspect it is actually fine burs in the barrel as I assume the chamber was hammer forged simultaneously with the rifling process. Chances are the first shot would just blow any fines out the barrel rather than ironing them in as gun lore (legend) has it. The cleaning is good to get any machining oil residue out so I will keep doing this even if there is no other benefit. I also have had some that were pretty dirty just from the factory test shots. Seems like they could clean them before shipping.

Barrel break in procedures and cleaning barrels are vastly over rated.

Without a doubt.

One reason this lives on might be that some makers, Howa is one, "require" it in their owner's manual. They don't however, say what kind of cleaning you are supposed to do; powder fouling, copper, duck feathers, whatever. Brian Pearce seems to be a believer, and has written of positive results in handgun-cartridge rifles and IIRC, revolvers, but who knows if it's really the break-in or just rounds down the tube that does the work?

One of the points I have made a number of times over the years is that periodic cleaning, say after each of a rifle's first few range sessions, eventually accomplishes the same thing without cleaning after every shot.

Have also pointed out that the one-shot-clean routine was primarily developed by benchrest shooters who wanted a new barrel to be broken-in before its first match. That said, there are a few examples of shooters winning matches with barrels that had never been fired before, except to sight them in.

Some factory barrels are too rough to be affected much, if at all--though many of today's factory barrels are pretty smooth. But the major thing that's supposed to be "cured" is the circumferential machining marks left by the chamber reamer, especially in the throat/leade area.

when i was young i did the one shot -clean break-in thing, i also wondered is this tedious barrel cleaning on a new bench rifle worth it or make sense ? i do feel a new barrel or a rifle you buy even used you should run a patch thru the barrel to make sure its cleared of particles. but never again will i do the one shot and clean method again on a new barrel, it makes no real difference, none of us have that much time for a tedious foolish one shot and clean on a new barrel,heck i haven`t run a rag/patch down the barrel of my deer rifle for a couple of years,i only wipe the outside down a little after the season. again this year i will take 2 shots at 100 yards both shots will be inch - 1 1/2 inch above the 1 inch bullseye and i am ready for another deer season. its that simple why wear out your prized deer rifle shoot`n holes in paper do that with a bench rifle.