Breaking in a barrel

[Indrid Cold]

So I'm about ready to break in my new AR-10 and I've read through the instructions they sent with it regarding breaking in a stainless steel barrel. They suggest (this is off the top of my head) roughly 10 single shots followed by cleaning with solvent (Hoppes #9) in between each, then clean in between every five (?) until round #50 or so, and then clean at 100, and every 100 after. So, having never properly broken in a barrel, when they say clean do they mean disassemble the upper reciever and thread something through the barrel from there, or are they talking about taking a solvent-wet-no-lint-cloth-on-a-stick and brushing it down the barrel?

 

[fisherman66]

I believe they mean put a wet patch down the bore and then a dry one until it comes out clean. I've never been to anal about barrel break-ins. I clean after each shot for the first 5 shots, then after every 5 shots for the rest of a box of 20 (letting the barrel cool sufficiently between each shot). I'm done after that. As I understand it the first group is to remove any burrs as so not to embed them into the rifling.

 

[mc223]

I have never followed any Break in procedure. If a barrel is gonna shoot, it will. The following link tell it like it is.

http://yarchive.net/gun/barrel/break_in.html

 

[joshua]

Here we go again... josh

 

[tbtrout]

Shoot it and enjoy it. Barrel break in is a myth.

 

[USMCG_HMX1]

"Barrel break-in" is unfortunately a BS way of explaining how shooting actually polishes your bore.

There will be minor imperfections that will remain after the manufacturing process. What happens is as you shoot, you're just finishing this process and polishing the lands and grooves. You'll notice this after the first 100 rounds or so by simply looking up the bore with the barrel pointed towards some kind of light.

If you cleaned the bore now and took a picture of it, and then ran 100 rounds through it, cleaned it and took another picture you would see how the bore is polished.



In other words, just go shoot and enjoy the new piece.


Kris

 

[Sturmgewehre]

There will be minor imperfections that will remain after the manufacturing process. What happens is as you shoot, you're just finishing this process and polishing the lands and grooves. You'll notice this after the first 100 rounds or so by simply looking up the bore with the barrel pointed towards some kind of light.

Complete myth.

Would you agree Gale McMillan might know something about barrels?

As a barrel maker I have looked in thousands of new and used barrels
with a bore scope and I will tell you that if every one followed the
prescribed break in method A very large number would do more harm than
help. The reason you hear of the help in accuracy is because if you
chamber barrel with a reamer that has a dull throater instead of cutting
clean sharp rifling it smears a burr up on the down wind side of the
rifling. It takes from 1 to 2 hundred rounds to burn this bur out and
the rifle to settle down and shoot its best. Any one who chambers rifle
barrels has tolerances on how dull to let the reamer get and factories
let them go longer than any competent smithe would. Another tidbit to
consider, Take a 300Win Mag. that has a life expectancy of 1000 rounds.
Use 10% of it up with your break in procedure for ever 10 barrels the
barrel maker makes he has to make one more just to take care of the
break in. no wonder barrel makers like to see this. Now when you flame
me on this please include what you think is happening to the inside of
your barrel during the break in that is helping you.

Gale McMillan
NBSRA IBS,FCSA and NRA Life Member

Another post by Gale:

# On 29 Jul 1997 22:50:26 -0400, whit@cs.utexas.edu (John W. Engel)
# wrote:
#
# #This is how (some) benchrester break in barrels, and it does work.
# #The mechanism is that the bore has pores in it (microns in size).
# #If you simply shoot a box or two through it without cleaning, the
# #pores fill up with gilding metal, and stay that way. If you
# #follow the above procedure (and they mean *clean* between shots!),
# #the pores are "smoothed over" with each successive shot. A barrel
# #correctly broken in is MUCH easier to clean than one that is
# #not. If it is a good quality tube, it will also be more accurate.
# #Regards,
# #whit


This is total hogwash! It all got started when a barrel maker that I
know started putting break in instructions in the box with each barrel
he shipped a few years ago. I asked him how he figured it would help
and his reply was If they shoot 100 rounds breaking in this barrel
that's total life is 3000 rounds and I make 1000 barrels a year just
figure how many more barrels I will get to make. He had a point it
defiantly will shorten the barrel life. I have been a barrel maker a
fair amount of time and my barrels have set and reset bench rest world
records so many times I quit keeping track (at one time they held 7 at
one time) along with HighPower,Silloett,smallbore national and world
records and my instructions were to clean as often as posable preferably
every 10 rounds. I inspect every barrel taken off and every new barrel
before it is shipped with a bore scope and I will tell you all that I
see far more barrels ruined by cleaning rods than I see worn out from
normal wear and tear.I am even reading about people recommending
breaking in pistols. As if it will help their shooting ability or the
guns.
Gale Mc.

 

[USMCG_HMX1]

Whoa slow down .... I never said it will help improve accuracy, I just said it polishes the bore.

It's either gonna be accurate or it's not. Some of that the shooter might be able to fix, other times it might need a trip back for some work.



Kris

 

[joshua]

I fell victim to this barrel break in, but you know what? I do believe the factory rifles I did a break in process with cleans up easier. Or maybe that was just the polishing doing it. josh

 

[hodaka]

This is one that you can argue to death and never resolve. The trouble is that barrels are all individually different. If you follow a "break in" procedure and it shoots good, you can never tell how it would have done if you had not followed the procedure and vice-versa. Difficult to develop an experiment with controls. I figure it can't hurt and the 20-30 or so rounds used with the shoot-clean-shoot routine are fairly insignificant in impacting the barrel life. All of my new rifles have gotten this treatment (except .22's) and they all shoot really well. Of course, they may have done well anyway.

 

[Fremmer]

Indrid, if you're gonna do it, I think that you're supposed to get that barrel very clean in-between shots. It's the inside of the bore that you have to clean very well, and it doesn't really matter how you accomplish it as long as you use lots of solvent-soaked patches to make sure you get all of the carbon and gunk out of the bore in-between shots.

Personally, I'd shoot the heck out of it and then clean the bore when I was done shooting, but to each his own.

 

[Mach II Sailor]

in the case of ARs i was told by one factory rep. that they run a 30 round mag full just for the functional part, and do it as fast as they can tickle the trigger. so in other words, when you take possesion of said gun it has already been fired, how many rounds ?? who knows for sure ??

 

[echaraska]

I never even heard of breaking in a barrel before this. I just know to clean and lube before shooting the first time.

 

[bobn]

random thoughts> a true match grade barrel is hand lapped.> most hipower competitions consist of somewhere around 80 to 120 rounds with no time to clean. fwiw, bobn

 

[Indrid Cold]

Wow - didn't know this was such a contested topic! Thanks for the information guys

 

[line1]

Get a chamber guide rod protector , and Dewey rod. Dont leave chemicals in a stainless barrel . Mop out with lighter fluid or wd40 and patch dry before shooting.

 

[sks]

The first day I got my Bushmaster it went to the range and ate 500 rounds of Wolf ammo. Some slow timed fire and others as fast as I could pull the trigger with zero cleaning. I have 15 mags for it, some 30 rounds, some 20 and some 10. My feeling is that if it is worth what I paid for it and what the manufacturer says then it ought to shoot out of the box, no questions asked.

After that initial 500 I completely stripped the gun down and cleaned it. That was some years back and I've never had a problem. Only two misfires from the gun with the first 500 rounds and I believe that this was due to the magazine, (two used ones). These two have given me problems on other occasions.

I've never believed that it was necessary to break in a barrel. Especially those that come with a target to show how good they can shoot. However, if someone wants to break theirs in then more power to them.

 

[FirstFreedom]

There will be minor imperfections that will remain after the manufacturing process. What happens is as you shoot, you're just finishing this process and polishing the lands and grooves. You'll notice this after the first 100 rounds or so by simply looking up the bore with the barrel pointed towards some kind of light.

Complete myth.

Would you agree Gale McMillan might know something about barrels?

Hold up there SG - you're using Gale's quote to prove this gentleman "wrong", when in fact Gale's quote actually supports his position, contrary to what you're accusing - Gale said that the FACTORIES sometimes let their tooling get too dull, which results in imperfections which would NOT be present from a "competent gunsmith" [barrel-maker]. So you're 180 degrees from correct there in chastising him. Though I think you and he and me and almost everyone essentially agrees on the end result....these comlicated procedures just aren't necessary.

From Gale's quote:

The reason you hear of the help in accuracy is because if you
chamber barrel with a reamer that has a dull throater instead of cutting
clean sharp rifling it smears a burr up on the down wind side of the
rifling. It takes from 1 to 2 hundred rounds to burn this bur out and
the rifle to settle down and shoot its best. Any one who chambers rifle
barrels has tolerances on how dull to let the reamer get and factories
let them go longer than any competent smith would

USMC said the same thing!

There may OR may not be imperfections, depending on the gun-maker and their current state of tooling/quality control, etc.

Regardless, all the cleaning between shots is a bunch of hooey, IMO. Shoot Gun. Repeat. Repeat again. Eventually clean as needed.

 

[USMCG_HMX1]

Thanks Freedom ....


Actually the bore in my Bushy looked really dull and I cleaned it as soon as I got it, knowing it had been test fired already. After the first 100 to 150 rounds it was visibly brighter and looked more like my service weapon's bore.

Now she's just sparkling.



Kris

 

[arizona hunter]

When I bought my first brand new rifle (30.06) I had never heard this argument. I had always been told to clean the barrel after every shooting session. Thar rifle I still have, and after 18 years it still shoots 5/8" to 3/4" three shot groups with my favorite load.

Last year I got my first small bore centerfire, a .204 Ruger (love it!). It has a SS barrel. Again, I still was not familiar with the "break in" debate, and after about 600 rounds it's still easy to clean and shoots my favorite loads around 3/8" to 1/2" for 5 shot groups every time out.

I always make sure to clean it after about 20-30 rounds, while at the range or in the p-dog field. In those situations I do not always use solvent, most often a "multie purpose" cleaner and patches.