Barrel break in?

What’s your take on breaking in the barrel? I’ve never done it before but going to shoot a new gun tomorrow and wondering how necessary it is. Also if you have a break in method you prefer please share.

Make sure the barrel is good and clean before starting. Then go shoot it, no break in needed

Following

I had never even heard of barrel "break in" until the age of online shooting forums and I have been shooting for over 50 years. There are those that are very meticulous about it, some manufacturers insist on it. I have never done a special break in on a rifle barrel, or a pistol either for that matter. When I shoot a new barrel, I clean and lightly oil it and just shoot it. I don't let the barrel get real hot. I will open the action after a few rds and let it cool down some. I think if you believe it will make the barrel more accurate, by all means do it. Me, never did and my rifles are plenty accurate. To each his own.

I'm in the camp of clean it and shoot it. No special break in. I sometimes wonder if these "break in" procedures are built in excuses for custom rifle makers.

I do what the barrel maker suggests. Who would know the barrel better?

I was told the barrel break in was a scam to cause barrels to shoot out faster. Prob never know the difference from us average shooters. I was told it started with benchrest rifles and they re-barrel if groups open up 1/16th. This break in period would cause them to do so faster meaning more barrels sold.

Below is the process recommended from Bartlein. LINK

Break in and Cleaning
The age old question, “Breaking in the New Barrel”. Opinions very a lot here, and this is a very subjective topic. For the most part, the only thing you are breaking in, is the throat area of the barrel. The nicer the finish that the Finish Reamer or Throating Reamer leaves, the faster the throat will break in.

Shoot one round and clean for the first two rounds individually. Look to see what the barrel is telling you. If I’m getting little to no copper out of it, I sit down and shoot the gun. Say 4 – 5 round groups and then clean. If the barrel cleans easily and shoots well, we consider it done.

If the barrel shows some copper or is taking a little longer to clean after the first two, shoot a group of 3 rounds and clean. Then a group of 5 and clean.

After you shoot the 3rd group and 5th group, watch how long it takes to clean. Also notice your group sizes. If the group sizes are good and the cleaning is getting easier or is staying the same, then shoot 4 – 5 round groups.

If fouling appears to be heavy and taking a while to clean, notice your group sizes. If group sizes are good and not going sour, you don’t have a fouling problem. Some barrels will clean easier than others. Some barrels may take a little longer to break in. Remember the throat. Fouling can start all the way from here. We have noticed sometimes that even up to approximately 100 rounds, a barrel can show signs of a lot of copper, but it still shoots really well and then for no apparent reason, you will notice little to no copper and it will clean really easy.

This is meant as guide lines only. There is no hard and fast rule for breaking in a barrel.

I agree with what Judd stated. My Howa 1500 came with instructions stating what their "break in" process was. Pretty straightforward and completed in 1 box of ammo. If not a scam to cause barrels to go bad faster, at least a scam to sell an extra box of ammo to everybody!😉

Clean barrel when new, shoot until accuracy falls off or excessive weather exposure, clean, repeat. I've never bought into barrel break-in on hand lapped barrels. I do think allot of barrels settle down after shooting a bit. Maybe it makes a difference but I've never had problems not following the procedure

They're also in the business of selling barrels.

Any new barrel, clean it with solvent, followed by dry patches. Put 20 foulers down it, then go about load development, or call it good on factory ammo.

I've never broke in a barrel with cleaning. Not saying it's right or wrong but I clean a new barrel and never touch it again unless accuracy issues pop up.

I believe if you look at the Shilen site they came up with a break in process just because customers whated one not that they even needed one .

Step 1. Clean barrel
Step 2. Shoot it.

All the "break in" procedures out there are bogus.

do whatever makes you feel good

I tend to believe it’s crap. Think about it- nothing you put in the barrel- copper, lead, bronze or brass bristles- are harder than the steel of the barrel itself. It’s not like you’re “buffing it out”- with the exception of using lapping compound.
Clean, shoot it, clean when needed. Other than that, you’re just consuming accessories.

I want to spend time shooting not cleaning, quick clean of a new barrel then go to work.

I was really hoping this is what the responses would be like, those methods seem to be a pain.

Frank, owner of Sniper's Hide.com got two identical rifles, only serial numbers different. One got a break-in, one got cleaned first then shot. Through thousands and thousands of rounds of .308 the rifles always shot equally well.

Break-in is nonsense. Clean it, foul it, shoot it, clean again when it starts shooting poorly, repeat.

My personnel view is I care about making sure the rifle is perfectly clean before I fire it. I have found shavings and such in rifles and I care more about that then a perfect break in procedure.

If it a good procedure makes you feel better great. But to date I haven’t seen any empirical data to show breaks in effects anything

If you believe a perfect barrel can be created by imperfect factory tools and processes, no break in is necessary. While break in recommendations vary, the end goal is the same, to create a barrel that has seen most of imperfections worn away so that bullets pass through the barrel in a more consistent manner. A barrel that has seen break in steps will be far less likely to produce cold, clean bore flyers because the rifling has reached a more perfect state.

It's much the same as breaking in a new engine where rod bearings are allowed to wear to a more perfect match to their mating services on the crankshaft. This is why many old engine buffs still recommend running conventional oil for the first 500 of so miles in a new engine. Synthetic oil doesn't allow proper "bedding" of road bearings and the crankshaft. So then, when you break in a barrel, you're allowing each small group of bullets to wear away factory imperfections before cleaning the barrel and repeating the process several times until the barrel is closer to perfect.

Now having noted these points, two other views come to mind. First, just like those who say factory processes are now so good that breaking in a new engine is no longer necessary, there are those who claim gunmakers are now producing near perfect barrels that don't require break in steps as well. The other view is that if you just always shoot a dirty barrel, the fouling will aid in reducing the impact of those factory imperfections. There is likely some truth in both of these views.

All of my rifles have seen a break in process. They are always taken to the deer woods with clean bores, and they never produce a clean, cold bore flyer. In other words, a "fouling shot" to dirty the barrel is never required.

A total waste of time.

Keep in mind too that debating the need to break in a new barrel is akin to debating the need for shooting practice. You will find those who will stand firmly in their belief that such additional effort produces little if any additional value.

Just fouling does the same thing.

Have you ever noticed any difference in rifles that haven't been cleaned in a awhile (but were shooting good), and those you clean periodically before fouling again?

I have a couple rifles that haven't been cleaned in a year or two, that shot perfect last time I took them out.

You're not taking into account most rifles don't shoot well when they're clean. I would never take a shot with a clean bore.

The whole ritual of shooting 5, cleaning, standing on your head, saying hail mary's, etc. is ridiculous. You're not going to affect steel using material that is designed to conform to it's surrounding.

Seen plenty of fouled barrels that have sat in the safe for months and come out shooting fine. My 7 Rem Mag sat in the back of the safe for 10 months. It did not have a scope on it. I moved a scope to it, and zereoed in 2 shots. Last shot would have hit a dime at 100 yards. From my experience round count, for a particular barrel, is what matters most. And from my experience button rifled barrels like to be cleaned on a lower round count than cut rifled barrels.

I have more trouble out of customer's rifles that were cleaned the night before than those that arrive fouled. We've had to keep shooting at 100 yard paper looking for consistency, before heading down range way more than we've had to clean one, and try again.

If memory sereves, we've had to foul one for 30 customers. We've had to clean one for 1 customer.

I've never even cleaned one before shooting it. Take it out of the box, mount a scope, go shooting.

Yep. I haven't cleaned the barrels on my two main go-to rifles in years, I learned that clean barrel lesson already. They'll let me know when they need to be cleaned.

I'd recommend a new practice. New barrels, mass produced rifle, or custom, can have metal chips in them from machining, machining fluid, and packing oil.

Why else would solvent, followed by patches come out with discolored patches?

I only saw one rifle last year that didn't show dirty patches on a brand new barrel. A Police Sniper's brand new, unfired, GAP-10.

Last post for me on this topic...if you get a barrel that is bad and all manufacturers put them out they will ask for two things...the stub and what was your break in process?

Y'all do what you want... I'm going to waste my time doing what the barrel makers say. Oh and my barrels don't burn out any quicker than yours JG so selling barrels has zero to do with it...but that's funny

Tell them you broke it in. Who's to say otherwise?

Yours do wear out faster, you only shoot yours half the round count I do. In fact, I need to start getting all your culls.

Don’t they shoot factory rifles at a test target before they ship? I know some of mine have, that would explain why they are dirty. I also have never cleaned one before shooting.

I agree with Judd. While there are many differing opinions on this topic and even more when it comes to cleaning (process, chemicals, frequency, brush or no brush) I would suggest that none of us actually has statistical data supporting either position on bore break-in. For those who clean and go shoot will never know if a break-in process would have helped on that particular barrel. For those who choose to do a barrel break-in will never know if that particular rifle barrel benefited vs. just shoot and clean.

Even the scenario JG mentioned of 2 duplicate rifles is only a data sample of 1 of each category which does not support a statistical conclusion. It would seem to me that a hand lapped precision barrel would have less potential benefit than the break-in procedure on a mass produced barrel, but that is just me.

As Buzz said, do what makes you happy.

No arguement there. Clean, cold bore shots from barrels that were not properly broken in are far more likely to produce flyers. But when broken in properly, that first, clean bore shot will be just as accurate one made many shots later. If you are one who doesn't subscribe to keeping a barrel clean, by all means ignore the break in process.

Here we have a factory Tikka .300 Win Mag, owned by a friend of mine. I was tasked with load developmemt, and as usual, cleaned the new barrel before testing powder charges. A friend had given me some 180 gr Noslers just because he didn't need them. I decided to foul with those prior to load development, using 210 gr. Berger VLD-Hunting. I looked at Hodgdon.com and found minimum and maximum powder charges for H-1000. I picked the middle, and loaded 20, for no other reason than to foul the barrel, and get the scope zeroed

CCB is clean, cold bore, and the first shot of the rifle and scope had ever fired, after bore sighting. After shot #1 I adjusted POI. Then the scope was not touched again while shooting groups. These were 5 shot groups, 10 minutes between to cool, and it was July and 95°F. No cleaning in between groups. It appears as though it had to get over the hump, then it all came together. I have seen the same scenario on many other rifles.


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Hogwash.

Yea that is

Yup.

Consider the source. "Texas Dan" from Mississippi that disrespects our American flag by throwing it in a trash can without honor because he didn't like the sitting president. Yes I'm digging up bones for the newer viewers and to remind everyone what a scumbag looks like on the internet. Comes on here and wants to lecture folks about rifles and hunting in Texas, can't even pay our flag proper respect. POS.

<<< Liked a post. Well said Skinner

Thank you.

For those looking for a truly objective and informative read on the topic at hand, try the link below.

http://www.rifleshootermag.com/gunsmithing/break-rifle-barrel/

You've got it all figured out Dan, you're the man.

Least he does not have it in a lead sled in the article...

I used to do the clean, shoot 2, clean, shoot 3, clean, shoot 5, clean, shoot 10 method of break in, but on my last two new rifles I cleaned and just started shooting. So far, no noticeable difference in accuracy between those rifles and my older ones that went through the other break in process. I've got about 500 rounds through one of them and about 300 through the other.

What's wrong with a Lead Sled? Looks like a great way to reduce the human influence on accuracy.

Not for those who consider themselves a shooting and hunting legend in their own mind.

Que?

They can shoot differently than shot from a shoulder, and stocks have been broken in Lead Sleds.

Not sure, but perhaps something that is more likely with the larger magnum loads where reducing recoil is as important as eliminating human error. Again, if it becomes a concern, just reduce the weight added to the sled.

A sled can also serve as a more polite way to show a shooter his/her rifle is not the issue, rather than having to watch someone shoot much better with their own rifle.

Based on ALL that has been shared, it seems the best approach is to first clean your new rifle to remove oil and other extraneous material left over from the factory before firing a few test rounds. Give the barrel a good cleaning and then fire a few more rounds. If they all group extremely well, you're good to go. If not, follow a break in process with the expectation that groups will get better as the barrel wears to a more perfect state.

Of course this assumes you're one who feels the need to get greater performance than what's needed to kill a deer in average conditions. I suspect most would agree that production processes are now sufficient that it's hard to find a rifle that doesn't have enough out-of-the-box accuracy to kill a deer.

But then, I'm sure some might want to argue that as well.

I've been an avid shooter for over 40 years. I've read tons of magazine articles, internet forums, books, ect.. I've been involved in precision rifle shooting for about 16 years at the international level.

I've never seen anyone scientifically prove that barrel break in does anything.

What I really would like to see is someone take 100 rifle barrels, 50 of them get a barrel break in, 50 get cleaned and shot. Then the barrels get really shot with accuracy checks every 500 rounds until 5,000 rounds have been fired through every one of the barrels. Then they would do a final accuracy check and bore scope the barrels to see how much difference there was.

That would actually tell us something about barrel break in. But then it would only be valid for that brand and caliber of barrel.

Would you have to work up a custom load to each rifle?

I've lost count of how many other people's rifles I've shot. Most asked me to, some I asked if they would like for me to. Every time that I got the rifle to shoot well, I told them "good news, it is you, not your equipment. I can fix you, I can't fix everything with the equipment". Point being, shooting for someone else can still be done politely without the use of a Lead Sled.

Shoot, clean, shoot clean, about 3-4 times, then shoot the thing!

Anyone else care to comment on this? Not looking for, "cut is better than button" or vice versa, just JG's fouled barrel at xyz round count comment.

That is interesting. I don't doubt the observations are correct, but I wonder what the physics would be behind that? And could this be related to the "5R barrels require less frequent cleaning" theory? Are all 5R barrels cut?

Cut rifled barrels:

Bartlein
Krieger
Brux
Obermeyer
Rock Creek

+ Chanlynn

Never heard of em. Looking up now.

Arguably but in my opinion the very finest Boots protege.

As for a lead sled, if you need one you shouldn't be shooting that rifle. As for break in, clean it shoot it once and clean it again. No elaborate process, just a cpuple wet patches followed by dry. Dial your scope in then clean it again. Shoot it a few more to foul it then just shoot the thing. For anyone wondering ive done the benchrest always keep it clean thing and all your doing is shortening your barrel life. Funny how most with strong opinions on the issue have never even shot a barrel out. TX Dan if you really tossed an American flag in the trash due to being butt hurt over the potus, you've got other issues you need to be worried about.

!

Huh...

While many false emails have been floating around the internet concerning the writings of the Scottish historian Alexander Tytler, the article at the link below offers very a plausible application of Tytler's concepts to our nation's history, at least IMHO.

I should add that some claim that Tytler never actually wrote the document. Whatever the case, there appears to be much wisdom in the stated principles, which perhaps is why there are those who take issue with its accuracy. After all, aren't these not days when what is truth is up for grabs?

The issue isn't and never has been about the flag but the future of the nation it represents. Anyone who hasn't recognized that is just waving a flag and whistling Dixie.

http://commonsensegovernment.com/the-tytler-cycle-revisited/

So is that a, yes I tossed our flag in the trash.?