damadama said:
I'm about to take delivery of a new varmint rifle and would like to hear what the current thinking is on "shooting in" the (stainless) barrel and recommended cleaning procedures/chemicals/intervals.
Some people think breaking in a barrel is a waste of time and barrel life. Considering it only takes about 20 shots and a couple of hours at the most I break in my new barrels.
Breaking In A Barrel - Read fully before starting the procedure
When cleaning, always use a good bore guide and a good rod.
Start with a clean, lightly lubed barrel, fire one shot, then run a loose patch through with Sweets 7.62 or any other solvent that will “eat” jacket fouling. Saturate the bore and let it sit a few minutes. Sweets indicates jacket fouling with a
blue colour.
Run patches through to dry the bore and then wet patch it again and saturate the bore. After a few minutes dry patch it again. Repeat until the jacket fouling is removed (no
blue patches).
After cleaning with Sweets, swab the bore with several patches using rubbing alcohol, this will dissolve any remaining ammonia. Dry and then brush with Hoppes #9 and dry patch the bore and then leave it slightly lubed with a wet patch of Hoppes #9 before firing.
Then fire one more shot, and repeat the above procedure. Do this for a total of 10 shots, and then proceed to fire 2 shots and then clean as above, for 10 more shots. (Total of 20). The barrel is now broken in. It should be cleaned after every 20 or 30 shots there after, if possible.
You will find when the bore is broken in properly, the cleaning procedure is very quick, because there is very little jacket fouling in the bore.
I prefer Sweets 7.62, because it shows “
blue” if there is any jacket fouling. I never use a copper or bronze brush with Sweets, because it will eat them, and give a false blue indication of fouling. I never let any other chemicals mix with Sweets. That is why there is a lot of dry patching and swabbing with rubbing alcohol and dry patching between switching chemicals.
