How to treat a new barrel?

[Frans]

The new gun should be here Monday! Larsen-Izhmash biathlon rifle, with a custom stock from Altius Firearms in West-Yellowstone!

Now. with centrefire rifles you hear all sorts of advice, ranging from "just shoot the darn thing", to "firelapping", and complicated break-in procedures.

How about for rimfires? Anything I should do or not do in the early stages of it's life?

And while we are on the topic.... how often do you clean the barrel? Some people tell me to never clean it, others suggest every two hundred shots.

This is the first rimfire that I'll own that will see a lot of use, my others have been used for some gophers and the odd fox. The new one will probably burn more bullets in the first three weeks than the others have seen in a decade.

Thanks for sharing your opinions.

Frans

 

[biathlonneil]

FRANS: Contact the guy from Altius and get his 2 cents worth. You won't meet a more informed biathlon gun tech any where in North America. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Nationals this year as he was the event gun tech was always very approachable and annie factory trained. Did you get a Russian or German barrel?
-Cheers, Neil

 

[Cowboy]

I will 2nd Neils advise. ----Cowboy

 

[Frans]

Thanks for that, and I was going too... didn't occur to me till after I posted...duh.. ;-)

The barrel is supposed to be guaranteed for cold weather... Larsen in Norway gets specially selected barrels (or different quality?)

Anschutz apparently no longer allows their approved gunsmiths to put their barrels on the Izhmash actions... or so Marc Sheppard from Altius told me.

This year the Nationals are in Quebec... and we Masters have been allowed back in, so there is a bit of pressure on us to show up... could be fun!

Frans