Barrel break in

Mike G said:
It's a factory 700p 338 LM. I will be rebarreling to a 338 LM AI in the near future. I have not loaded any for it yet. The post your loading bench thread got me to rethink my bench it been a weekend of rebuilding. It should be finished tomorrow. And I can get loading. I appreciate all the responses and opinions. It's only my second NEW riffle all others have been new to me. Just want to make sure I'm doing things right......
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So, it is a factory barrel, and probably will copper foul at least for several rounds. Get yourself a good cleaning rod and guide (Dewey is first rate). You have a big bore there, and there is no excuse to damage it, if you take care. Clean after each shot with a good copper solvent containing ammonia (Barnes CR-10 or Sweets 7.62). Use a nylon brush with a white patch wrapped around it. The color of the patch will tell you if you have copper or not. You may very well find the barrel cleans up after just a few rounds. If so, then you are done. If not then you will be in no mans land wondering if it will ever clean up. No mans land is what drives folk to buy custom barrels.

Do the cleaning at the range of course and sight in, and have fun shooting it. Break in does not have to mean wasted shots. A clean barrel will have a different point of impact, but not much and don't worry about that for now.

If you follow this process then you can learn something about the barrel and hopefully you will share it with us. A simple method is to count the blue patches you get after each cleaning, before they start to come out white. You should see a steady reduction in the number required. In my factory Savage, I now see one black one, then a grey with no hint of blue, and then one pretty much white. That is with 50-60 rounds between cleanings.
 
Something that occured to me is that a lot of people are talking about how critical the first few rounds down the barrel are -- but in a lot of cases those rounds aren't fired by the rifle's first owner, but by its manufacturer. Not all of whom seem to be all that rigourous about cleaning after every round, judging by the state of my new Savage's barrel when I got it.

Minor personal note on the "clean until no more blue". Make sure that your copper solvent doesn't react with any parts of your cleaning rod -- I've got a nylon brush the brass of which seems to cause Patch-Out to turn blue. I can clean an infinite amount of times and still get blue patches. :)
 
You guys are missing the point.

This video was released a few years ago and has not yet been surpassed in the matter of breaking in procedure.
I have posted it before, here it goes again, listen carefully and take notes

[youtube]TRRahHX9Zkg[/youtube]
 
I know this wasn't asked but on a "new" factory rifle I would clean the barrel first before I shot it at all. The last two I bought (one savage, one rem) and one of a buddies (rem sps)were amazingly dirty, as in actual grains of crud in the barrels. Some seriously black crud came out of all three rifles. After that do as you please. Personally I clean after every round for the first ten and if it cleans up easier after the ten I call it good enough. It's more about the shooting Ju-Ju than anything else really.
 
I was too embarrased to go through the break-in procedure at the range with my unfired Chinese SKS. It just didn't seem right. There was a couple of other guys breaking in a much costlier rifle and they tied up a spot all day. Fire one shot and then gather around like scientists analyzing the patch.
On a serious note, I would like to ask if there is any merit to only pushing the patch through one way. Up until now, I've always gone back and forth like a madman.
When I was in the army (3RCHA), I had the luck of being selected to go to a Brigade rifle competition in Wainwright,AB. Our rifle team were issued new FNC1's two weeks before the competition. We cleaned them after our first day shooting, and then not again until after the competition. After the competition, we had to clean them. re-grease and pack them back the way they came. It was interesting that we used boiling water to get the carbon off the gas pistons.
 
Once my service gun is shooting well at CFSAC I don't clean it again until the competion is over.Same for the month of shooting at Bisley this summer.
I think the one way thing was more to prevent junk from going back into your action.Back and forth works just fine for me too. ;)
 
I read Savage's barrel break in suggestion before shooting my Savage 12 VLP for the first time. Then I looked through the bore and it was obvious the rifle had been test fired before a few times so it kinda turned me off following the suggestions.

I fired 3 shots to zero my scope (still 2 clicks of elevation left at 85 yards!), cleaned the barrel and found zero copper (with MFS ammo if it makes a difference), then fired my very first two 3 shot groups and packed up (prone off a bipod in the snow without a mat/snow pants while it's snowing all over my nice dry rifle was turning out to not be a whole lot of fun...)

When I brought the rifle home and dried it off, I cleaned the barrel and found zero copper after 4 copper solvent saturated patches, just black residue. And just like that she's broken in.

Can't wait to head out again, now that the scope's zeroed and the barrel is good to go, I can see about finding a better shooting possition off the snow and tightening up the 1.4" groups I shot.
 
Chumlee Bumsnag said:
I was too embarrased to go through the break-in procedure at the range with my unfired Chinese SKS.
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The only new rifle I have attempted to break in was my stevens 200. :D

I was asked seperately during the breakin by 2 very experienced older shooters at the range, what was I doing and why. :D

I explained that while I did not believe it could improve the accuracy of the barrel, my jury was out on whether or not it could help with ease of cleaning later. They were both kind enough to nod and say that it was possible it could work. Likely they made a note in their diaries to take a bench further away from me in the future.

After 22 rounds I gave up. But at least I know what its like to attempt barrel breakin. :D
 
warrenb said:
The only new rifle I have attempted to break in was my stevens 200. :D

I was asked seperately during the breakin by 2 very experienced older shooters at the range, what was I doing and why. :D

I explained that while I did not believe it could improve the accuracy of the barrel, my jury was out on whether or not it could help with ease of cleaning later. They were both kind enough to nod and say that it was possible it could work. Likely they made a note in their diaries to take a bench further away from me in the future.

After 22 rounds I gave up. But at least I know what its like to attempt barrel breakin. :D
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WarrenB: If they made any notes it was probably that they had found another serious shooter and to be happy when they shared a range session with you.
 
I can't wait to break my $2000 hunting rifle in like that guy in the video posted by chemo. I have also started growing a handle bar mustache as it also seems to improve shooting.
 
Thanks for all the responces finally going to get out this weekend and shoot/break in. Probably not like the video posted buy chemo.
 
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