Barrel break in

M

maynard

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SW Ontario
What a PITA breaking in a new barrel. I had a new Bartlein .308 barrel installed this spring. After the first shot it took about 5 patches of Sweets 7.62 to get the copper out of the barrel. Same thing after the 2nd shot. The 3rd shot took 3 patches. Then I hit it with Gunslick foaming bore cleaner. I just shot 5 rounds to zero the sights and to my joy found the barrel wasn't coppered near as much and cleaned up with only one patch of Sweets.
I am off to fire 5 shots more to see what happens. If all goes well and it cleans up is a snap, I will clean it once more before switching to moly bullets. Then I won't clean it again for about 900 rounds or until the groups open up.
 
Odds are the copper you are seeing in the throat area. Bartlein and other quality match barrels copper next to zero.

If it doesn't clean up as you wish, a quick polish with JB borebrite in the first few inches of chamber/throat will knock off the high spots and fouling will be near zip.

Enjoy the accuracy but don't waste the best part of the barrel life 'breaking in' the pipe.

Jerry
 
Holy smokes...my HS .308 showed NO blue after the first 50, none after the 2nd 50, and just a small touch after the 3rd 50. First 50 were load dev, after that it's shot like a champ, at least to the limits of my abilities (1/2" @ 100m, 3" @ 400m on a windy day).
 
Ok, I got lazy and fired 10 instead of just 5. No visible copper in the barrel and just a speck of blue on the Sweets patch. I am declaring it officially broken in.
I will put about 20 rounds of moly down it tomorrow so it will be ready for a 600 yard practice on Wednesday, then a 600 match on Sunday. I will see how it looks at the end of the year and decide if it needs cleaning.
 
maynard said:
Ok, I got lazy and fired 10 instead of just 5. No visible copper in the barrel and just a speck of blue on the Sweets patch. I am declaring it officially broken in.
I will put about 20 rounds of moly down it tomorrow so it will be ready for a 600 yard practice on Wednesday, then a 600 match on Sunday. I will see how it looks at the end of the year and decide if it needs cleaning.
Click to expand...



grrrrrrr....
 
From what I can gather from this post is that you don't need to clean your barrel if you shoot moly bullets. Cool. Does the moly affect the taste of the meat. I will switch to all moly bullets if I never have to clean again. One more question, what does the moly do with the burnt powder residue and such?
 
Ya, tho I admit to no experience with moly bullets, I'd still be very very concerned about carbon buildup from burnt powder residue. My .223, which copper fouls very little, get's so carboned up that I can't run a patch down her with a jag after 50 rounds - had one get stuck halfway at Genesee, which was embarrassing.
 
Moly residue, I feel, is the worst type of fouling and is harder than copper to completely get rid of. That being said, I thing breaking-in is a waste of good barrel life and cleaning is something is something that should be done when it needs it. :)

Bartlein makes good barrels and you should have no reason to clean for hundreds of rounds. Enjoy!
 
Moly coat like barrel break in is a myth. I'm not saying, I'm just saying. There are previous threads on this topic and some statements by some in the business of accuracy who agree.

TDC
 
Curt said:
From what I can gather from this post is that you don't need to clean your barrel if you shoot moly bullets. Cool. Does the moly affect the taste of the meat. I will switch to all moly bullets if I never have to clean again. One more question, what does the moly do with the burnt powder residue and such?
Click to expand...

No matter how long you cook targets they still taste crappy:p I do use Failsafe bullets for hunting and they don't taste too bad.
The barrel will get a dry patch every 100 rounds or so, but other than that I have gone over 800 rounds before and still won matches.

Obtunded, I am not too big on breaking the barrel in either. It is more for the throat than anything else. After the first shot I could see copper in the rifling at the muzzle. This is one of Bartleins .30 cal tight barrels, .298"X.307".

With 18 rounds down the barrel now it is as broken in as it is going to get. I don't think I have wasted too much of the barrel life.;)
 
Using moly does not mean you never have to clean a pipe again.

In any barrel, you clean when accuracy falls off. Sometimes that is only 20rds even with moly (very rough barrel). Other times, you can shoot a 100rds of 'naked' bullets with no ill effects (good quality match/BR barrel).

You don't need to clean after so many rds have been fired as was common practise a while back (maybe still is). Some barrels like shooting dirty, others clean.

Keep it the way it shoots the best then clean only enough to bring back accuracy.

That can be as simple as running a few dry patches down the bore. Other times, you will feel like you are drilling to China.

With moly, you have to be very careful about cleaning as most barrels need a number of fouling shots to get settled. That does you no good at say a hunting camp after getting soaked in a downpour and needing to keep rust at bay.

Moly is neither good nor bad but a nice tool to help in certain applications. Personally, I have given up using moly in match quality barrels as the surface is so smooth, there is no reduction in fouling nor added velocity.

In some factory barrels, I have found moly to be a great aid.

Let the target and barrel decide what you need....

Jerry
 
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