Barrel break in HELPPP!!
- Thread starter etoast
- Start date
What are your thoughts? Do you subscribe to the ( take one shot, clean, take another 5 shots and clean again etc]. Or do you wish to clean and then start building a copper/fowling equilibrium?
Some factory barrels may never break in... and there are guys who think you should just shoot it for 500 rounds before cleaning.
Use any of the barrel makers break in procedures... it is important you use a quality rod and a bore guide so you don't cause damage...
Use any of the barrel makers break in procedures... it is important you use a quality rod and a bore guide so you don't cause damage...
abbynormal
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"Break In' procedures are touted as the method of removing the tooling / machining high points off the lands of the gun's barrel.
If your firearm is CHF (Cold Hammer Forged) then stop reading right here - there are no tooling / machine remnants to polish off. (SIG pistols, Swiss Arms, Danial Defense, etc.)
Otherwise - one camp of shooters are gonna tell you to take a certain amount of shots, then clean the barrel.
Then there is the other camp that will tell you to shoot a bunch of rnds through the barrel without cleaning it, as the residue left behind creates a 'lapping compound' of sorts to aid in the removal of said machining marks.
And finally there is the group that just says shoot the weapon, and clean it when it becomes fouled.
Your choice my young friend - this debate will go as long as the DI vs. Piston debate.
Abby
If your firearm is CHF (Cold Hammer Forged) then stop reading right here - there are no tooling / machine remnants to polish off. (SIG pistols, Swiss Arms, Danial Defense, etc.)
Otherwise - one camp of shooters are gonna tell you to take a certain amount of shots, then clean the barrel.
Then there is the other camp that will tell you to shoot a bunch of rnds through the barrel without cleaning it, as the residue left behind creates a 'lapping compound' of sorts to aid in the removal of said machining marks.
And finally there is the group that just says shoot the weapon, and clean it when it becomes fouled.
Your choice my young friend - this debate will go as long as the DI vs. Piston debate.
Abby
Boresnake is great for removing dust , dirt and powder residue but you need a rod and brush to scrub the copper out.
Just to emphasize a bore snake is not a good cleaning tool, they accumulate crud that becomes embedded and it's not a good idea to shove that down the bore for cleaning purposes.
You need a good 1 piece cleaning rod, brushes and fresh patches. Break in of a factory barrel many options here, try shoot1 and clean for 3 shots then shoot 3 and clean for 3 groups and you are good to go after that. Clean the new barrel before before any shoots fired to remove anything from manufacturing process.
Enjoy.
You need a good 1 piece cleaning rod, brushes and fresh patches. Break in of a factory barrel many options here, try shoot1 and clean for 3 shots then shoot 3 and clean for 3 groups and you are good to go after that. Clean the new barrel before before any shoots fired to remove anything from manufacturing process.
Enjoy.
Not that good for polishing shoes either.
I'm not interested in debating various cleaning proceedures but I would suggest different rifles may require different proceedures. What I would suggest is take your cleaning equip to the range with you.With a clean bore Shoot one shot and examine the bore. If there is any fouling, powder residue , copper residue etc I would clean the barrel. You may want to clean the bore just to see how much residue comes off one round. If there was very little residue I would shoot 3 to 5 rounds and inspect and clean. If there was very little residue after 5 rds I would them shoot about 20 rds and re-check. If the bore is still clean I would call it ready to shoot. If you still have considerable residue after 5 rds clean and re-shoot 5 rd groups until the residue decreases then move to the 20 rd between cleaning. I had one rifle that had a considerable amount of fouling and copper deposited in the bore. It shot about 4 in groups. After about 100 rds it cleaned up and started shooting groups under 2 inches. Also if you have a rough barrel I would suggest you NOT shoot softer pure copper bullets. I would shoot Sierra bullets as their jacket is as hard as any and is likely to leave less residue.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^this.
I had NEVER heard of a "break in" procedure for a rifle until I started reading this forum. All the rifles I bought new got shot lots and cleaned once in a while and they all shot great
I won't say that a break-in procedure is either necessary or works but I use Weatherby's scheme.
They suggest you break in with 40 rounds as follows:
Start by thoroughly cleaning the new rifle before firing then -
for the first 10 rounds:
fire 1 at a time - let the barrel cool and then clean with a copper fouling cleaner/brush followed by patches until they come out clean
(yes this takes quite a bit of time)
then for the next 30 rounds, fire in groups of 3 at a time, let the barrel cool, clean as above.
At least on the two Weatherby's I have broke in with this process I "noticed" a significant tightening of the groups around the 30th round down the pipe.
They may have done this without the cleaning/break-in "voodoo", but at the least, it certainly didn't hurt following their recommendations.
They suggest you break in with 40 rounds as follows:
Start by thoroughly cleaning the new rifle before firing then -
for the first 10 rounds:
fire 1 at a time - let the barrel cool and then clean with a copper fouling cleaner/brush followed by patches until they come out clean
(yes this takes quite a bit of time)
then for the next 30 rounds, fire in groups of 3 at a time, let the barrel cool, clean as above.
At least on the two Weatherby's I have broke in with this process I "noticed" a significant tightening of the groups around the 30th round down the pipe.
They may have done this without the cleaning/break-in "voodoo", but at the least, it certainly didn't hurt following their recommendations.
Barrel break in is all about smoothing out the throat that was cut when the chamber was reamed.
Basically the tooling marks remove small amounts of copper with each shot and these get deposited in your barrel. Cleaning every few shots makes it easy to remove the copper before it builds up a lot, and after a bunch of shots the amount of copper being removed by tooling marks decreases.
This is all about keeping it easy to clean and not at all about what'll give you the best accuracy or whatever.
As stated before, break in procedures are largely a new thing. Only when the customer demanded one did the manufacturer come up with one.
Basically the tooling marks remove small amounts of copper with each shot and these get deposited in your barrel. Cleaning every few shots makes it easy to remove the copper before it builds up a lot, and after a bunch of shots the amount of copper being removed by tooling marks decreases.
This is all about keeping it easy to clean and not at all about what'll give you the best accuracy or whatever.
As stated before, break in procedures are largely a new thing. Only when the customer demanded one did the manufacturer come up with one.
