Yes button swaged, but button or cut, leaves a pretty rough bore surface compared to hammer forged. Button/cut look the same under the bore scope, all can shoot well enough, just foul a bit more unless you pony up for some hand lapped custom.
Picked up a Howa , break in procedure?? New to bolt guns
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Yes button swaged, but button or cut, leaves a pretty rough bore surface compared to hammer forged. Button/cut look the same under the bore scope, all can shoot well enough, just foul a bit more unless you pony up for some hand lapped custom.
littlehughey
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Dont waste your money on a chassis. Just shoot the darn thing.
Many shooters miss the real purpose of breaking in a barrel. Barrel break in usually has little effect on the accuracy of the barrel.
As hend238 stated, it is primarily to make future cleaning easier.....less fouling. less copper deposits. Quick clean up.
I am not quite as anal as some. I do not believe that every trace of copper must be removed to guarantee stellar results.
But a carbon ring at the throat, or heavier copper deposits are anathema to good groups. Some barrels are simply easier to
clean than others. A bore scope definitely tells the story. Dave.
As hend238 stated, it is primarily to make future cleaning easier.....less fouling. less copper deposits. Quick clean up.
I am not quite as anal as some. I do not believe that every trace of copper must be removed to guarantee stellar results.
But a carbon ring at the throat, or heavier copper deposits are anathema to good groups. Some barrels are simply easier to
clean than others. A bore scope definitely tells the story. Dave.
Thank you for supporting the point I was trying to make. Clearly I'm not being articulate enough. I don't even want to get into a carbon ring discussion. I believe if shooters understood that the true value of barrel break-in is as stated, more would go through the hassle or at least support it whether they chose to adopt it or not. It's an onerous task to be sure but something I'm willing to go through to avoid spending hours cleaning a rifle when I feel like doing so.
I'm only super anal with copper removal on my bench rest rifle barrels and to a lessor extent, my Fclass rifle barrels. Hunter and plinker rifles don't get the same treatment when it comes to cleaning but when I feel like cleaning them, it only takes minutes and not hours for a deep clean. That is the point! I have rifles I haven't cleaned in years and some I clean only when I see a large accuracy loss. I guess though if you're not the type of firearm owner who cleans their rifles then you wouldn't realize the benefits of barrel break-in in the first place.
It's all good discussion and hopefully a few people will take something away from this particular one.
Those of us that don’t agonize over cleaning guns aren’t missing the point at all. And probably the majority of us aren’t shooting at competitions. If my rifles will shoot under 1.5 at 100 yards I’m good to my self imposed maximum hunting range, although I own a number that will do far better than that. Even if a gun needed 2 hours of cleaning to get all the crap out, I’d never invest that kind of time in cleaning it to start with, so why piss about with hours of break in either. That said I had a Winchester heavy barrel .223 that I shot a ton, never did anything special with the barrel, only occasionally put a few patches through it, and still it would shoot groups you could cover with a dime if I could hold it steady enough. Truthfully I’ve never seen a barrel so badly fouled that I couldn’t get reasonably clean enough with a little bit of effort other than ones that have been entirely neglected, left to rust out or some milsurps. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky, but I doubt it. YMMV
All very good points meatsticks. (love your handle by the way) For me 1.5" at 100 in any rifle for any task would keep me up at nights but that's just me. Yes, I'm a competitive shooter and I apply those doctrines to all my firearms. It's a curse much of time and I'll admit I struggle to keep things in perspective. We all have our self imposed goals, limits or whatever when it come to what we want out of our rifles for a given task. You support my point when I said guys who won't put in the effort to thoroughly clean a barrel wouldn't break in a barrel in the first place so it's moot. I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong. The OP asked a question and I offered him my personal experiences and what I feel the value of barrel break gives you. He, you and others can take it or leave it. No skin off back. I'm not cleaning your rifles! 
Like I said, this is all good discussion and eventually some good arguments from both sides come to light providing people keep it civil and not take things personally.
Like I said, this is all good discussion and eventually some good arguments from both sides come to light providing people keep it civil and not take things personally.
