"Breaking-in a Rifle"

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Nannuk

New member
I really don't want to start a flame war here, but one thing has occured to me after several days of reading this forum:

The break-in period that everybody rants about is possibly less concerned with the actual cleaning of the fouling between each shot and more concerned with waiting for the barrel to cool down.

I have never broken in any of my previous rifles (.222, .223, and .243) and they all have shot .75 or better. Now, as I prepare to buy my first "real" gun (a .270) everyone is warning me to be sure to break it in.

My question is simple, clean after each shot, allow the barrel to properly cool w/o cleaning, or just pump rounds through as long as the barrel doesn't burn my fingers?

Once again, I am not trying to step on any toes.

Thanks,
Ben
 
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nandoaqui

New member
orlando5

I was unfamiliar with Mr. McMillan (RIP) or his clearly explained views regarding barrel break-in until I read your post. I had long suspected this just from a logical point of view, and had never followed any of the instructions that have accompanied some of the rifles I have purchased. Now I feel better about my decision.

The threads you recommended certainly provided an excellent expose on the subject. Thanks for the post!

Alex M.
 
T

Tropical Z

New member
Sometimes a manufacturer will recommend a break in period.My .308 Lone Eagle's instruction book said to clean the barrel after each of the first ten rounds using a copper remover.Figuring that wouldn't kill me i did it.Will it really make a difference? Who knows?
 
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Unicron

New member
First off...I am new to precision rifles.

Athough I don't buy into the break in theory all that much, I cleaned with a patch after each shot up to 10 rounds. Then I started cleaning after 3-5 rounds up to 20 rounds. Then, I said forget it and just started shooting.

I have about 90 rounds through my 700 P LTR...and it shoots .5 inch groups at 100 yards fairly easily.
 
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Bogie

New member
The way I see it, break-in isn't completely necessary, but keeping 'em clean is. Tony Boyer doesn't "break in" his barrels, but then again, he'll toss 'em after around a thousand rounds...
 
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Nannuk

New member
NOOOOO, I completely agree with GM re: aggressive cleaning. (My grandmother had a very old silver platter that her family brought from Ger, it had been polished with silver polish for years--you cannot make out the detail engraving anymore. How can JB users not see a corrolation?)

My question was really will swabbing out the rifle with a few wet patches between groups harm the rifle? The way I see it, it will help cool the barrel down (through conduction and evaporation) wich seems to be the most important aspect of "break-in"--to avoid overheating and thus making the flaws larger?

Conversly, I could see the possible problem of "stressing" the barrel by cooling too fast.

Thanks,
 
A

Art Eatman

Staff in Memoriam
Nannuk, ya gotta remember you're talking high-quality, heat-treated steel, here. It's designed to deal with high temperatures, just like the valves and such in a car engine.

Shooting fast and heating a barrel doesn't hurt the main part of the barrel. What IS hurt is the throat area just in front of the chamber. You can reduce its longevity by long strings of rapid fire.

Military rifles are expected to be over-used or abused. The shot-out barrels are thrown away as necessary, and new ones installed. Hunting and target rifles generally don't get abused as the rates of fire are slower and after a few strings it's all over for the day. That's why they get inherited.

IOW, running a patch through a barrel won't hurt anything. However, it's not commonly preventing any great amount of harm.

Example: I bought my pet '06 in 1970. I just took it out and shot it. I rarely ran a patch through it for the six weeks of Texas' deer season, absent wet weather. It always shot pretty good groups.

So, I read about all this copper removing goody, in 1997, and bought some. Cleaned the barrel with no more than about three patches worth of effort. Went out and shot a nice 3-shot, 1/2" group. I'd say the barrel has had maybe 4,000 rounds through it, over the years.

Around 1999, I first learned of "barrel break-in", here at TFL. Sorta snorted and later read Gale McMillan's comments. :)

So, as I've been doing since my first centerfire in 1950, I just shoot'em and clean'em.

:), Art
 
J

JIH

New member
I don't buy the break in theory, either.

I don't think it hurts (though even if you're careful, the rod will still hit the bore occasionally, and even something soft can eventually wear away at something hard given time... e.g. the Grand Canyon), but I don't think it helps either.

I fall in with McMillan's logic (if JBing the hell out of your bore made it that much better, barrel makers would do it for you).

I also think it only reliably accomplishes two things: wallet lightening and fattening the coffers of the cleaning products manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
 
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M4A3

New member
Here's my input...

I bought a DPMS AR-15, .223, 20" bull, JP break all that stuff. For extreme accurate shooting. I was told to fire 1 shot, then clean the barrel. Witch included a light brushing and a few patches. Nothhing too extreme. I did this for about 30 rounds or so. Did this help me? I have no idea... Was the rifle accurate? I could shoot the center out of a dime at 100 yards...with ease. As far as grouping went, .2" to .5" @ 100 was normal with this rifle.

I guess I could say the old shoot 1 clean theory worked for me. At least I dont think it hurt any. :confused:

In all reality you could ask 20 people. Whats the best was to break in a barrel? And get 5 differnt answers.
 
K

KarlG

New member
The following is from Winchester's web site:

The link is:
http://www.winchester-guns.com/faq/detail.asp?ID=28

Question: What is the recommended procedure for breaking in a new barrel?

Answer: For the first ten shots we recommend, if possible, using jacketed bullets with a nitro powder load. After firing each bullet, use a good copper cleaner (one that has ammonia) to remove copper fouling in the barrel. We do NOT recommend anything with an abrasive in it since you are trying to seal the barrel, not keep it agitated. If you look into the end of the barrel after firing a shot, you will see a light copper-colored wash in the barrel. This must be removed before firing the next shot. Somewhere in the procedure at around shot 6 or 7, it will be obvious that the copper color is no longer appearing in the barrel. Continue applications through shot 10.


If you have any ammunition left, you then may shoot two rounds and clean it for the next ten shots. This is simply insurance that the burnishing process has been completed.


In theory what you have just accomplished is the closing of the pores of the barrel metal which have been opened and exposed through the cutting and lapping procedures.


The same process may be used with firing lead bullets and black powder to do the break-in procedure with the exception that in this case you should shoot 2 bullets before cleaning for the first 30 rounds. You could use harder lead if available. This will accelerate the break-in. This will accomplish the same thing as the jacketed bullets.


After following the procedure, your barrel's interior surface will be sealed and should shoot cleaner and develop less fouling for the rest of its shooting life.
 
A

Art Eatman

Staff in Memoriam
Burnishing or lapping a barrel has been a subject of discussion since before I started shooting. I don't know about "closing pores", but any surface roughness is certainly reduced. From my own lab work in a metallurgy course, you can see grain structure at 600X magnification, but I sure don't recall seeing any physical voids, or "pores".

What's new is the frequency of cleaning. I can see where a buildup of copper, over time, can degrade group sizes. It happened on two of my pets, but only after many hundreds of rounds. Still, you're talking maybe 0.001" at most. Any more, and you'd start getting serious pressure signs.

Gale McMillan commented that his barrels did not need any break-in. Part of the reason could be that the final, finishing cuts were designed to be a polishing style or process. (Unfortunately, the subject of how he did the rifling process didn't come up.) Factory-run barrels in mass-production might well benefit from a "final finish", which we call "break-in".

Speculation FWIW,

Art
 
L

Ledbetter

New member
The last new rifle I got

Remington 700.

I took to the range for sight in. I had some Butch's Bore Shine, CLP, some patches and a wooden cleaning dowel (sealed with tung oil).

I bore sighted the scope and then sighted in. After each shot, I cleaned the bore by passing a BBS patch, then a dry patch, then a CLP patch then a dry patch through.

After ten shots, the rifle was sighted in. I started shooting five shot groups, cleaning after each one as above.

After another eight groups, I was done shooting and my rifle was clean. I was also very familiar with the difference on the target between the first shot out of a clean barrel and the next four shots.

Have it both ways. I wasn't "breaking in," I was sighting in. I just did it in a way consistent with obtaining the benefits, if any, of cleaning a new barrel after each shot.

Regards.
 
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