John Barsness had an article in the April 2011 issue of Guns Magazine called "Stop the Madness".
He made several good points, a couple of which really resonated.
First of all, unless your barrel break in cleaning method is removing all the metal fouling each cleaning interval then you're pretty much wasting your time. The bullet won't be burnishing the bore if it's tracking over jacket fouling laid down by previous rounds.
Second, if you really remove the fouling (metal fouling included) every time you clean your rifle after a range session then you're going to get the same effect (over time) that you would get from the typical "shoot a shot & clean" break in methods. Basically the first bullet or two of each range session will do some burnishing and over time you'll get the bore as burnished as it's going to get.
Application? I'm not advocating barrel break in, BUT, I can say this: If you're going to try to "break in" a barrel using one of the common methods then you need to actually CLEAN the barrel in between shots or you're just wasting effort. A few brush strokes, some nitro solvent and a patch ain't gonna cut it. The jacket fouling needs to come out or the bullet's not going to be making significant contact with any rough portions of the bore (the places that actually need burnishing) after the first few shots.
Of course, there's a more useful practical implication to the article. Unless you have a barrel that's giving you fairly serious metal fouling symptoms & problems, you can achieve an identical effect to one of the typical break in methods by simply cleaning the bore back to bare metal (removing all fouling including jacket fouling) after each range session and you can do it without having to waste your range time cleaning.
Sure, it will take longer, but unless the bore is having problems with metal fouling build up leading to accuracy issues over the course of a normal range session, it's not going to make any practical difference at all. It will surely make your first few range sessions with your new rifle a lot more pleasant.
He made several good points, a couple of which really resonated.
First of all, unless your barrel break in cleaning method is removing all the metal fouling each cleaning interval then you're pretty much wasting your time. The bullet won't be burnishing the bore if it's tracking over jacket fouling laid down by previous rounds.
Second, if you really remove the fouling (metal fouling included) every time you clean your rifle after a range session then you're going to get the same effect (over time) that you would get from the typical "shoot a shot & clean" break in methods. Basically the first bullet or two of each range session will do some burnishing and over time you'll get the bore as burnished as it's going to get.
Application? I'm not advocating barrel break in, BUT, I can say this: If you're going to try to "break in" a barrel using one of the common methods then you need to actually CLEAN the barrel in between shots or you're just wasting effort. A few brush strokes, some nitro solvent and a patch ain't gonna cut it. The jacket fouling needs to come out or the bullet's not going to be making significant contact with any rough portions of the bore (the places that actually need burnishing) after the first few shots.
Of course, there's a more useful practical implication to the article. Unless you have a barrel that's giving you fairly serious metal fouling symptoms & problems, you can achieve an identical effect to one of the typical break in methods by simply cleaning the bore back to bare metal (removing all fouling including jacket fouling) after each range session and you can do it without having to waste your range time cleaning.
Sure, it will take longer, but unless the bore is having problems with metal fouling build up leading to accuracy issues over the course of a normal range session, it's not going to make any practical difference at all. It will surely make your first few range sessions with your new rifle a lot more pleasant.
