Breaking in a barrel
- Thread starter Buckmastr
- Start date
some fudd-lore i heard recently, a guy told me he "breaks in " his stainless barrel by shooting a round and waiting a half hour between shots. he shoots about 6 shots and waits the half hour between the shots. He claims it "hardens" the stainless so much you wouldn't be able to drill through the steel barrel. lol. i think he forgot that to harden steel it needs to reach a certain temp and then be quenched. not be warm and then cool down slowly with the ambient temp.
personally i have bought old and new guns and have never "broken" them in, and was able to achieve 1" groups @100m or better by hand loading for them. i find "the gun starts shooting better" after ive familiarized myself with the sights and where the trigger breaks an not so much after a "proper break in"
i heard the guy at wholesale sports give someone the breakdown. shoot one round. clean the barrel, shoot two clean again, shoots 3 etc until you get to some arbitrary number. seems unnecessary to me. but maybe im horribly wrong. who knows
personally i have bought old and new guns and have never "broken" them in, and was able to achieve 1" groups @100m or better by hand loading for them. i find "the gun starts shooting better" after ive familiarized myself with the sights and where the trigger breaks an not so much after a "proper break in"
i heard the guy at wholesale sports give someone the breakdown. shoot one round. clean the barrel, shoot two clean again, shoots 3 etc until you get to some arbitrary number. seems unnecessary to me. but maybe im horribly wrong. who knows
pescador :some fudd-lore i heard recently, a guy told me he "breaks in " his stainless barrel by shooting a round and waiting a half hour between shots. he shoots about 6 shots and waits the half hour between the shots. He claims it "hardens" the stainless so much you wouldn't be able to drill through the steel barrel. lol. i think he forgot that to harden steel it needs to reach a certain temp and then be quenched. not be warm and then cool down slowly with the ambient temp.
That's Friggin PRICELESS
RJ
That's Friggin PRICELESS
RJ
thatmikeguy
Regular
- Location
- Steinbach, Manitoba
Barrel break-in is a farce. Just use the gun. Clean it sometimes and repeat. The number of rounds between cleaning is up to you and how much you enjoy cleaning.
I cleaned my rifle when the groups soured. Afterwards it shot great groups again.
I cleaned my rifle when the groups soured. Afterwards it shot great groups again.
leveractionjunkie
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Kamloops, BC
You really F’d up this time Bartell
A couple things of note.
How many times did the factory or the gun plumber shoot said rifle before it got into your hands?
Anything above once, and there’s zero point in worrying about breaking in anything.
If you don’t get a decent first go at cleaning the rifle, break in is moot.(learn what cleaning procedures work, used alongside a borescope)
1- Clean outta the box.(if it’s worth doing, see above)
2- fire round one[from your perspective](moderate charge weight) and clean.
3- fire round two, and clean.
4- fire round three, and clean.
That’s it!
You’ll note about 50% less effort or materials are required from round one to round two’s cleaning, the difference between round two and round three’s cleaning should be close to 30% or less of the input needed for round two’s cleaning. Again assess your cleaning regimes effectiveness by utilizing a borescope(can be done way earlier through workbench assessments).
How bloody hard was that?
How many times did the factory or the gun plumber shoot said rifle before it got into your hands?
Anything above once, and there’s zero point in worrying about breaking in anything.
If you don’t get a decent first go at cleaning the rifle, break in is moot.(learn what cleaning procedures work, used alongside a borescope)
1- Clean outta the box.(if it’s worth doing, see above)
2- fire round one[from your perspective](moderate charge weight) and clean.
3- fire round two, and clean.
4- fire round three, and clean.
That’s it!
You’ll note about 50% less effort or materials are required from round one to round two’s cleaning, the difference between round two and round three’s cleaning should be close to 30% or less of the input needed for round two’s cleaning. Again assess your cleaning regimes effectiveness by utilizing a borescope(can be done way earlier through workbench assessments).
How bloody hard was that?
Last edited:
so if the factory fires it once break in is not required, but if they didnt then i have to fire it 3 times and clean it in between or else what happens? why dont i just fire it once like the factory?
Do what makes you happy. if a certain ritual is what makes you happy after your purchase thats awesome. i think most modern firearms with very few exceptions are good to go right out of the box
Do what makes you happy. if a certain ritual is what makes you happy after your purchase thats awesome. i think most modern firearms with very few exceptions are good to go right out of the box
dgradinaru
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- British Columbia
No break in or cleaning on this new ruger with cheap factory ammo at 100 yards. I'm sure it could do better with reloads. Got this set up for a non-reloader family member.
Anything beyond 1 factory firing and break in is moot. I remember some factory rifles coming with targets with a three shot group, that would be the no fly zone, as the break in ship set sail long before you owned it.
Again this is how I go about my business, and since there’s zero way of quantifying the end results, it’s just my way of setting the dominos in my favour if there’s any such better position to be in..... but it kinda eases my sensibilities at the end of the day, because who really knows.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
I do not have enough experience with brand new bores to say one way or the other. A brand new Ruger #1 got the "series" - clean with Butch's Bore Shine until no colour on the patch. Fire once. Clean until no colour. Repeated 5 times I think? Then went to two shots between cleaning. After 10 or 12 rounds, either I was getting more proficient or something was occurring, many times first patch came out with colour, second one was white. Most bores I get here are used - some take weeks of soak and scrub and various cleaners - especially 100 year old milsurps - some I actually do eventually get clean so that no colour anymore on the patch. But I can not comment whether that "break in" series does anything to make that barrel most accurate or not - I can not even imagine how to prove that one way or the other. I had read from guys like John Barsness that he cleans when new, fires for a box or so, until accuracy starts to drop off, then gets at the cleaning again. I do think there is a relationship between "clean" and tighter grouping, but can not say that a particular barrel is more or less accurate due to the "break in" procedure. As well, Barsness has mentioned several times about a heavy barrel Remington 700 he shoots - described it as most accurate rifle he has - regularly goes past 200 rounds before seeing a drop in accuracy, so that is when it gets the bore cleaned. Must be a very good barrel.
For some of my acquaintances, I suspect the "break in" gets lost in the iffy bedding, iffy scope, iffy scope mounting and so on. I suspect "breaking in" is something they understand to do, and so must be a good thing to do...
For some of my acquaintances, I suspect the "break in" gets lost in the iffy bedding, iffy scope, iffy scope mounting and so on. I suspect "breaking in" is something they understand to do, and so must be a good thing to do...
Last edited:
No break in or cleaning on this new ruger with cheap factory ammo at 100 yards. I'm sure it could do better with reloads. Got this set up for a non-reloader family member.
Well, I have to say, "excellent shooting!".........both shooter, rifle and "CARTRIDGE". Godda love the good ol tirdy-aut-six! Congrats!
How is this even possible? This is proof positive of how insane this really is.
Most factories only fire a single shot through new rifles now a days, Chuck, so there’s little to what you claim is insanity.
You do you, and I’ll do me, there’s nothing more to it, I own it I’ll do what I feel is appropriate, and that’s it.
And here’s the rest of my post you seem to have left out of your visceral toned reply.
“Again this is how I go about my business, and since there’s zero way of quantifying the end results, it’s just my way of setting the dominos in my favour if there’s any such better position to be in..... but it kinda eases my sensibilities at the end of the day, because who really knows.”
You do you, and I’ll do me, there’s nothing more to it, I own it I’ll do what I feel is appropriate, and that’s it.
And here’s the rest of my post you seem to have left out of your visceral toned reply.
“Again this is how I go about my business, and since there’s zero way of quantifying the end results, it’s just my way of setting the dominos in my favour if there’s any such better position to be in..... but it kinda eases my sensibilities at the end of the day, because who really knows.”
This is just like the “best way to clean corrosive ammo” arguments. No one can prove one way or another if one way or another is better unless one way obviously makes the matter worse , ie you get a rusty gun in the case of corrosive ammo or you get a continuous increase or decrease in accuracy if you do/do not follow a “break in” procedure.
Oh by the way , what do you guys think is better..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
45acp or 9mm ?
Lolololol
Oh by the way , what do you guys think is better..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
45acp or 9mm ?
Lolololol
I just shoot my guns - even my benchrest guns. No break in..just shoot them
Got many customs barrels - done the break in dance and without and frankly, barrel break in is a waste of time and a waste of barrel life.
I have yet to see someone loose a benchrest match because he has not done a break in.
Got many customs barrels - done the break in dance and without and frankly, barrel break in is a waste of time and a waste of barrel life.
I have yet to see someone loose a benchrest match because he has not done a break in.
Last edited:
