Breaking in a new rifle barrel?

C

Chef777

New member
Rating - 100%
23   0   0
Location
BC
This may have been beaten to death at some point but didn't find anything quickly on it.

Myth or necessity? Seems a passionate debate. Watched a great video that makes me question whether there is any science out there to prove it works. What is your experience/opinion??

Thanks.. jw
 
One day I really got into this subject and came to my conclusion of it seems to not matter, unless, its recommended by the manufacturer. I thought it was weird I've never seen significant huge sections in instruction manuals on how to break in your barrel. However, I do always clean a brand new barrel and chamber to make sure to get any crud left behind from manufacturing. A light oiling afterward to make sure there will be no rusting issues and I'm good to go. What I've told customers over the years when it comes to breaking in do what you feel is right. You won't harm the barrel in any way by stringing your shot with one shot, clean. Two shot clean, three shots, clean and so on (unless you're careless with your cleaning rod and methods). One thing I try and avoid is to get the barrel overly hot; once I can't put my hand comfortably on the barrel for more than 3-5 seconds (as close as I can get to the chamber), I let it cool. Not based on much fact other than personal preference.

Just to be clear, I'm not stating my way is the correct way, its just my opinion and I havn't had any issues with any of my rifles.
 
This topic has been discussed on here numerous times, but
Just so any misconceptions can be set aside, breaking in a
barrel is to make it easier to clean later, not necessarily to
improve the accuracy. A fresh chambering often leaves slight
"burrs" around the throat that tend to strip copper in minute
particles, which is subsequently vaporized and deposited in
the barrel. Removing this copper initially makes for quicker and
easier cleaning as more shots are fired. Dave.
 
With a quality match grade barrel that is freshly installed the only part of the barrel that requires breaking in (it only takes a few shots) is the newly cut throat. The rest of the rifling has been lapped by the maker.

Some factory barrels may never break in...
 
Christensen Arms and McGowen have very specific instructions to break-in their barrels. Does it really make a difference? Will you void your barrel's warranty if you don't follow their break in procedure? I don't think so. The goal of breaking in a barrel isn't necessarily to make it shoot better. The only benefit I can see with a broken in barrel is it should be easier to clean. This is something I've noticed with every barrel I've cleaned. I find them easier to clean after some 500 rounds or so than at the very beginning. Mind you, I like to keep my barrels clean. In a hunting rifle, where you might not clean the barrel that much, it probably doesn't matter at all.
 
Regardless of the rifle - I prefer to shoot and let the barrel cool for the first 10 shots. I will clean after the first, third, sixth and tenth shot... Normally it's sighted in by the third round, but maybe it has burrs or not so I go easy on the first 1/2 box.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom