What if you don't break-in a barrel?

S

stoop

Member
Rating - 100%
11   0   0
Location
West Coast
I am curious, if one was to not break-in a barrel, would the de-burring process just take longer? And, could this have an adverse affect on the barrel?

My thoughts are the copper fouling hides the sharp edges and burrs of the new barrel, and if no break-in procedure was used, these imperfections would just take longer to smooth out, all dependent on how often the copper was removed between shooting sessions. However, I would think there is no adverse affect on the barrel by not using a barrel break-in, it would only translate into better accuracy being achieved later in the round count.

I've read a lot on barrel break-in, however I cannot find info on the opposite. Thanks for your insight!
 
All barrels are broken in. Whether or not they're broken in methodically may impact one more than the next from my experience. But then who's to say if one was just a more accurate rifle than the other?
 
IMO barrel "break in" is subjective for each user, while there is a burr after reaming and that tends to tear the jacket on the first rds, once the barrel is grouping, that's about it for me personally. YMMV. Cleaning after each shot for the first 10rds seems to be a reasonable procedure for me.
 
Barrel break-in is another one of those questionable things. Some people swear by it, others believe that it’s jumbo-jumbo.

It’s one of those concepts that somebody came up with. It gained a cult following and became this big deal in the precision shooting world. People began asking about it on forums, and it somehow became a standard. Years ago there were no “break-in” procedures. But when it became a big thing, barrel and rifle manufactures had to scramble to come up with a procedure, even if they didn’t necessarily believe in it, or think it was necessary. They had to give their customers what they wanted to keep selling their products.

Take your new rifle/barrel. Clean it. Shoot it. DON’T overheat it. Don’t shoot forever without cleaning it again. Clean it on a regular basis after shooting. The first person that tells you you have to break it in to seal the “pores” in the metal is an idiot - metal doesn’t have pores. Cleaning it after the first few rounds may help if there were any sharp edges, or other manufacturing residue left in it that cleaning didn’t get out, and the first few bullets loosened up, but you shouldn’t have to worry about that with a quality barrel.
 
You will find varying opinions about barrel break in... or how often you should clean it...

some say do it
some say don't do it
some even go so far as to say it is recommended by barrel makes so you will wear your barrel out faster. (That’s a myth)
some even get pissed off talking about it
everyone has an opinion about it

I particularly like what Lilja has to say about it.
"It is important to break-in a barrel though. The jacket material must be removed after every shot during the initial few rounds. If this isn't done the areas of the barrel that fouled will tend to pick up more fouling and it will build on itself. It is important to get a layer of powder fouling on top of the lands & grooves. This hard deposit will prevent the copper from stripping off the bullets. However, if the internal finish of the barrel is too rough the barrel will never be completely broken-in and fouling will always be a problem. Some barrels can't be broken-in. "
...there are breaking in procedures if you wish to do it.​

Factory barrels are considerably different than custom match grade hand lapped barrels.

Here are various barrel maker's break in procedures:

Krieger - Break-in Procedure
With any premium barrel that has been finish lapped -- such as your Krieger Barrel --, the lay or direction of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, so fouling is minimal. This is true of any properly finish-lapped barrel regardless of how it is rifled. If it is not finish-lapped, there will be reamer marks left in the bore that are directly across the direction of the bullet travel. This occurs even in a button-rifled barrel as the button cannot completely iron out these reamer marks.

Because the lay of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, very little is done to the bore during break-in, but the throat is another story. When your barrel is chambered, by necessity there are reamer marks left in the throat that are across the lands, i.e. across the direction of the bullet travel. In a new barrel they are very distinct; much like the teeth on a very fine file. When the bullet is forced into the throat, copper dust is released into the gas which at this temperature and pressure is actually a plasma. The copper dust is vaporized in this gas and is carried down the barrel. As the gas expands and cools, the copper comes out of suspension and is deposited in the bore. This makes it appear as if the source of the fouling is the bore when it is actually for the most part the new throat. If this copper is allowed to stay in the bore, and subsequent bullets and deposits are fired over it; copper which adheres well to itself, will build up quickly and may be difficult to remove later. So when we break in a barrel, our goal is to get the throat polished without allowing copper to build up in the bore. This is the reasoning for the "fire-one-shot-and-clean" procedure.

Barrels will vary slightly in how many rounds they take to break in because of things like slightly different machinability of the steel, or steel chemistry, or the condition of the chambering reamer, etc. . . For example a chrome moly barrel may take longer to break in than stainless steel because it is more abrasion resistant even though it is the same hardness. Also chrome moly has a little more of an affinity for copper than stainless steel so it will usually show a little more "color" if you are using a chemical cleaner. (Chrome moly and stainless steel are different materials with some things in common and others different.) Rim Fire barrels can take an extremely long time to break in -- sometimes requiring several hundred rounds or more. But cleaning can be lengthened to every 25-50 rounds. The break-in procedure and the clearing procedure are really the same except for the frequency. Remember the goal is to get or keep the barrel clean while polishing out the throat.

Finally, the best way to break-in the barrel is to observe when the barrel is broken in; i.e. when the fouling is reduced. This is better than some set number of cycles of "shoot and clean" as many owners report practically no fouling after the first few shots, and more break-in would be pointless. Conversely, if more is required, a set number would not address that either. Besides, cleaning is not a completely benign procedure so it should be done carefully and no more than necessary.
 
I just do the fire one, clean, fire two, clean, fire 5 clean x2, then shoot it. I normally clean the barrel around the 60 rounds mark. (Except rimfire)
I actually had a .22LR that shot poorly for the first 100+ rounds, after that it was great. The change in accuracy took place during a gopher hunt. Lol.
 
No matter how credible someone may appear, making a special effort toward breaking in a barrel seems to do nothing other than contribute to barrel wear caused by your cleaning efforts.

In a short amount of time the barrel will be ripe with cracks from heat checking anyway and over the long term that is far more of a concern.

Those cracks make the barrel like a file that collects carbon and copper.

An occasional scrub with 2000 grit scotch bright and your cleaner of choice will help with that, but you cant tell anyone I told you.
 
Never had "broken in" a barrel. Never had anything bad happen. Never effected accuracy one way or the other.
 
ArmedGinger said:
Never had "broken in" a barrel. Never had anything bad happen. Never effected accuracy one way or the other.
Click to expand...

Same here, When I picked up my new Insite custom, I asked and they said clean after the first 40 rounds, then 250, then every 400 or if you notice accuracy being reduced. I've done this with every other gun I've owned with no issues.
 
Maple57 said:
No matter how credible someone may appear, making a special effort toward breaking in a barrel seems to do nothing other than contribute to barrel wear caused by your cleaning efforts.

In a short amount of time the barrel will be ripe with cracks from heat checking anyway and over the long term that is far more of a concern.

Those cracks make the barrel like a file that collects carbon and copper.

An occasional scrub with 2000 grit scotch bright and your cleaner of choice will help with that, but you cant tell anyone I told you.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of roughing up CVT clutches with the same scotch bright, Notice any additional wear or accuracy issues? do you do the whole barrel or just the throat area?
 
I've mostly ignored break-in instructions to a degree. Run wet/dry patches once it's zero'd at 100 yards (usually a few shots to walk it into a zero, then a 3-shot group to verify). After that, I'll clean it after an outing which could be anywhere from 1-100 rounds.
 
I like guntech's post.
Here is my nickels worth of thought on the matter. First off I've never had a custom or aftermarket barrel; all been mass produced factory barrels (Winchester, Remington, Savage, Tikka, Browning, BSA,) I've done it both ways, religiously followed stringent barrel break in procedures on some rifles and purchased, cleaned the factory gunk out and just shot on others. I have no idea if one way or the other has improved, degraded or made no difference whatsoever to the accuracy on any of them. I'm the biggest variable when it comes to accuracy next to my reloads so I don't sweat barrel break in procedures. None of my rifles are used for precision target shooting so my accuracy standards are less stringent. Minute of deer, bear or moose is good for me. YMMV
 
Last edited:
ArmedGinger said:
Never had "broken in" a barrel. Never had anything bad happen. Never effected accuracy one way or the other.
Click to expand...

If you have never 'broken in a barrel', your comment "Never effected accuracy one way or the other" really isn't valid...

For clarification the 'breaking in' usually refers to the freshly cut throat of a custom made barrel install. Lilja and Kreiger discuss that... but who are those bozos anyway... (lol)
 
mareshow said:
This reminds me of roughing up CVT clutches with the same scotch bright, Notice any additional wear or accuracy issues? do you do the whole barrel or just the throat area?
Click to expand...

2000 grit is not going to rough anything up. 2000 is more in a mirror polish category.

Technically I do the whole barrel, but mostly the focus is on the throat and first few inches of the barrel.

You can feel it bite hard the first time, but as you make progress it will slide much more easily. That's how you know you're done.

Toward the front of the barrel there wont be any heavy heat checking, so you wont need to spend much effort there, so just push on through.

If it grabs hard, you need it. If it glides though easy, you're good. The art is in cutting the scotch brite patch to the perfect size.

As for accuracy, it improves accuracy if anything. 2000 grit is too fine to hurt anything.

Finding 2000 grit is the hard part. I'm lucky to have a relationship with an industrial abrasives dealer nearby, but I'm not sure where someone might go otherwise.
 
Last edited:
I have MANY rifles that were purchased new, including 2x DTA SRS, 1x AI AT, 2x PGW, and many Tikka, Sako, Remington, Cooper Etc. I have NEVER broken in a barrel and they all shoot as good as or better than most folks rifles that I have shot with. I firmly believe that the whole "break in" thing is absolutely bogus!
 
guntech said:
If you have never 'broken in a barrel', your comment "Never effected accuracy one way or the other" really isn't valid...

For clarification the 'breaking in' usually refers to the freshly cut throat of a custom made barrel install. Lilja and Kreiger discuss that... but who are those bozos anyway... (lol)
Click to expand...

And for further clarification the throat of a barrel will "break in" simply by shooting it. The concept that it needs to be cleaned following a dedicated regime for it to "break in" properly is absolutely false.
Also, most of those "Bozo's" point out that their listed "break in" procedure is simply for those who feel that such a process is necessary.
 
8 ball said:
And for further clarification the throat of a barrel will "break in" simply by shooting it. The concept that it needs to be cleaned following a dedicated regime for it to "break in" properly is absolutely false.
Also, most of those "Bozo's" point out that their listed "break in" procedure is simply for those who feel that such a process is necessary.
Click to expand...

I wasn't talking about 'most bozos' in general... I was kidding when referring to Lilja and Kreiger as bozos ... two of the most respected barrel makers in the world with a lifetime of experience.

No offence but I would certainly put a lot of respect in their opinions over your 'absolutely false' statement...
 
guntech said:
If you have never 'broken in a barrel', your comment "Never effected accuracy one way or the other" really isn't valid...

For clarification the 'breaking in' usually refers to the freshly cut throat of a custom made barrel install. Lilja and Kreiger discuss that... but who are those bozos anyway... (lol)
Click to expand...

I have shot mostly match barrels with well cut chambers for many years now... factory barrels are such a crap shoot that I have given up playing that game. I concur with GTs view that you do not want alot of copper plating early on ... so I check for signs of copper after the first few shots. Run a strong copper solvent and if there is signs of copper, continue to clean every few rds until it stops... as it will.

The last McGowen 22 Creedmoor barrel showed zip for copper a few rds in... didn't show any after 20rds so I am now cleaning whenever it is needed. Barrel is broken in if the goal is to watch for copper.

A quality match barrel should not copper foul much if any, so the first rds fired will show any roughness in the throat. that will likely be gone in 20 to 50rds so I keep an eye until I have fired that many rds. If fouling continues beyond that, then more observations will be needed.

Do you NEED to clean in that first few rds? Of course not, but if you have ever had a hard copper fouling barrel, the amount of work to excavate can be a big job.... so done early and often is just easier.

If you want to check the bore in the first few shots, have at it... I don't bother with the entire cleaning program cause I use quality barrels well manf so the odds of serious problems is low.

YMMV

Jerry
 
I do the one shot clean for the first 10, then a few 3 shot groups and clean after each group. I do find it gets easier to clean as the initial process is done. Did this for factory and custom barrels. I have heard of a guy not cleaning a factory barrel until he had 40 rounds threw it, accuracy great at first then opened right up. He cleaned it good but still had terrible accuracy. I don't risk it, and not really that inconvenient to just do the break in procedure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom