Barrel break in procedures...

[Silvercreek Farmer]

What happens if you don't follow them?

[btroj]

Don't know, I never have.

[BD]

Who's procedures? What barrel? If I had just put $600 into a custom rebarrel, I'd be pretty sure to follow the barrel makers break in recommendations. On the other hand, standard break in procedure for a chrome lined AR involves nothing more than loading up mags and pulling the trigger.
BD

[XWrench3]

i have to agree. if it is a fine precision barrel, DEFINITELY do as the manufacturer tells you. he knows his barrels better than anyone. but if you are talking about an off the shelf gun, shoot it. clean it, and shoot it some more. the only thing i would not do is get the barrel smoking hot. for at least 15 or 20 heat cycles.

[**oneshot**]

Follow what the manufacturer suggests.
I use a clean the **** out of it, push a boolit lubed patch through it. Then its- shoot a few, clean, shoot a few, clean method. Never letting the barrel get overheated. I also use this time to get my sights on track and get a feel for the gun.

[Elkins45]

I have found myself following the break-in procedures that Midway published with their Adams and Bennett replacement barrels: clean after every shot for the first five, then after every five for the first 50. I don't know that it helps, but I can tell you that it doesn't hurt. It seems like my newer rifles are a little more accurate then the older ones that I didn't follow any break-in procedures for, but that's likely just in my head or due to other factors.

But I can certainly see why the first few shots (where you are smoothing out the minute little burrs left behind by machining the rifling) would makes sense to clean between. Every new bullet down the bore for the first few rounds might well dislodge a few tiny slivers of metal.

[Rocky Raab]

There is no magic sequence to follow. Just shoot it a little each time and clean it often. Don't run 100 rounds down it in the first ten minutes. Don't shoot it until it glows hot.

That's it.

[Shiloh]

Don't know, I never have.

LOL!!!

I love it. Neither have I.

SHiloh

[L1A1Rocker]

Barrel break in is a myth created to get people to use up barrel life in order to sell more barrels faster.

Edit: Took a bit of looking but found the old article I read about it written by Gail McMillan of McMillan Stocks: http://www.6mmbr.com/GailMcMbreakin.html

[40Super]

I had alway done a cleaning when I brought the new gun home and then a snug fitting patch with some flitz polish or ulra fine polishing compound, then run it up and down a number of times just to smoothen the buurs and put a light polishing job on the surface. After I started doing this, every barrel/gun I owned shot real good and didn't foul much at all. If it did any "damage" to the barrels, I didn't notice with all the good groups. Other than that I just shot and cleaned as normal, didn't pay to put 100 rounds down the barrel to break it in.
For my Storm Lake barrels, they recomended a couple hundres jacketed bullets be shot before shooting lead. I just started with lead.

[MtGun44]

Nothing bad. You will smooth out some of the inconsistencies and tool marks
if you follow the break in. If not, IF you clean it properly, it will get the same effect
after a while.

Bill

[HARRYMPOPE]

There is no magic sequence to follow. Just shoot it a little each time and clean it often. Don't run 100 rounds down it in the first ten minutes. Don't shoot it until it glows hot.

That's it.

that's what i was told by a BR gunsmith as well.

George

[HARRYMPOPE]

Barrel break in is a myth created to get people to use up barrel life in order to sell more barrels faster.

Edit: Took a bit of looking but found the old article I read about it written by Gail McMillan of McMillan Stocks: http://www.6mmbr.com/GailMcMbreakin.html

Our local gun warehouse "experts" go in great details with buyers of new Glocks and Springfield XD's XTC... how important barrel break in is.Man they sure sell alot of patches and solvent that way.

George

[W.R.Buchanan]

George: the idea that someone would waste time breaking in a Glock Barrel slays me.

Glocks have the same melanite coating inside the barrels as outside, The stuff is harder than the hubs of hell and no amount of bullets going down thru it are going to have any positive effect, or for that matter any effect at all..

By shooting thousands of rounds thru the gun the gun will appear to shoot better, but I submit that is becasue you are actually getting better with the gun, not because the barrel is getting better.

When I clean my Glocks it is one patch down the barrel to get any crud out and one more to check if I need another. Nothing sticks to the inside of these barrels. I sometimes even use the same patches I used last time!

Now if you are talking about an steel or stainless steel barrel, the I think some consideration is in order.

On my RGS 77 Scout I shot 10 factory rounds to sight it in, then I shot 10 more factory rounds at steel gongs. Then I cleaned it. Then I shot 40 rounds in the match. Then cleaned it, then another 40 round match, Cleaned it, and so on for 6-8 matches.

It shoots real well now. Guess I broke the barrel in well. It now has about 500 rounds thru it. My G35 has 8,000+ thru it, still bet it wouldn't break 3" at 25 yds.

What nobody has said here is that there is more being broken in than just the barrel. The rest of the action is also being broken in by shooting it, Action will smooth out , the trigger will get better, etc.

Nothing breaks a barrel in faster or better than just shootin it. Clean when done.

Randy

[JIMinPHX]

I've had some guns shoot great right out of the box. Others needed to have the rough surfaces worn, shot, polished or cleaned out of the bore before they behaved. I have several different friends that each swear by different break in procedures. They are all experienced people who get good results most of the time. As for me, if the bore looks good, I shoot it. If it looks rough, I have at it with lead away cloth for a while, until I start to see a shine, then I shoot it & see how it does. If it fowls badly, I have at it with the lead away or fine clover paste some more, depending on how bad it looks.

Some guys break in a barrel with oil. I have been told various reasons why that is supposed to be good. Some say that it soaks into the pores of the steel. Some say that it helps to form a patina. Others break in with cleaning solvent between shots, for the same reasons.

I hear a lot of things from a lot of different places, but the "universal truth" is still a mystery to me. I highly suspect that the truth varies from one type of barrel to another. For example, I strongly suspect that a button rifled barrel, a broached barrel & a chromed/polished barrel will each break in a little differently.

[Mozzman]

Years back (1987-89??) i bought a brand new Savage model 110 in 22-250. The gun was cheap, paid about $200 for it, cheap wood, terrible trigger. I was pretty proficient in getting 22-250's to shoot decent by then as i had 2 model 700's that i shot for a few years. I shot some basic 55 gr psp and some 50 grainers to get the brass. It shot ok, nothing special, shots did a diagonal walk as it heated up. Trigger was terrible did i mention that?[smilie=1: I took it home and since i was in my home gunsmithing phase, i free floated and glass bedded the action, stripped the balsa wood, stained and linseeded the stock. I had a 22 caliber Lyman mold, can't remember the numbers off hand but maybe 45-48 grains? I loaded up some rounds, maybe 50, with either Unique or 2400, not much, put some toilet tissue in the rest of the 3/4 empty case, seated the gascheck bullet with no gas check(didn't have any for that caliber).

Took the Savage back to the 100 yard range and proceeded to shoot some cast reloads. At first, i could hit the target, a 8.5" by 11" piece of paper. Soon, i could not even hit the paper, soon after that the bore seemed pretty smooth, full of lead actually. Took the gun home and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned until i could see the rifling once again.
Next trip to the range, with a little experimenting with oal and stuff, 38.0 gr of H380, i had the rifle shooting 5 shots you could cover with a dime. All day. Barrel was too hot to touch. Next time at the range, same deal, you could not touch the barrel and this would shoot 5 shots and cover with a dime. I abused that poor rifle and hated that damm trigger, but it would shoot. Ha dthe cheapest 4x16 power scope also.
Sadly, it was about the only rifle i ever traded in. There was a used Ruger varmit with the purple receiver in 220 swift that appeared at my gun dealer and the Savage was gone. I had to see 4000fps on my new Ohler 35p.
I have come to the conclusion that shooting all that lead at a decent velocity had polished that barrel and me cleaning out all that lead helped even more to polish that barrel. Always wanted to find a old 2 groove 06' and try some cast and see if it gets better over time.

[tomme boy]

The area that has the most problems in a barrel is the throat. Once the throat is polished the rest of the barrel should be good to go. When turning the chamber, the tool marks are 90* to the rest of the barrel. It should not take anymore than 10 rounds to break in the throat.

My last barrel I had made for my Savage was a Mike Rock in 308Win with the 5R rifling. If you have ever seen a Rock barrel under a scope, you would be amazed at how smooth they are. Each is hand lapped. And they seem to run around 50-125 FPS faster than most barrels. It never fouled from the first shot. A factory barrel I would do a little break in. A custom from Kreiger, Rock, Bartlien, Sheilen, Hart...... As long as the person chambering the barrel really knew what he was doing, I would not break it in.

A good smith can make a so-so barrel so pretty good. A hack for a gun smith can make the best barrel shoot like ****.

[44man]

I never "broke in" a barrel and most shot as good as it gets out of the box. Many custom barrels and the BFR revolver barrels are hand lapped.
Now the old TC "tender" barrels were ROUGH and would foul with a few shots. The copper removed would make a few bullets.
TC made a great Hawken ML for a while but then they slicked up the bores too much.
I am not a believer in rough or super smooth either, it is in between.

[zomby woof]

My first new center fire rifle was a precision AR service rifle. I did the break in procedure. The rest of my rifles are Military surplus. When I have a barrel replaced on them, it cost some money. I do the break in. It doesn't take 100 rounds. I don't do anything for a rimfire.
If you think about rifling is machined linearly and the chamber is machined radially, there is going to be a burr on the rifling from the chamber machining. You need to smooth out the burr. I think???

[gunseller]

For a stock Glock barrel 3" is not bad most go into 4". All barrel break in is is removing any metal slivers that are in the barrel from the manufactoring process. Is there any correct approach? Probable not. I do what the barrel manufactor says to do. Does it do any good? I do not know but I have too much money in the barrel to take the chance. I have shot factory barrels and cleaned when I got around to it. The custom barrels I have were shot and cleaned according to how the makes says to break in the barrel. Does it help? I do not know but the custom barrels shoot way better than factory barrels. Had a friend bought a new AR and shot it enough to sight in the scope and went west to shoot dogs. He could not hit a dog at 200yards. He said he got mad and shot the rifle all day with no let up and no cleaning. It now shoots dime sized groups at 100 yards. Go figure. I do believe that a barrel shooting cast boolits needs to be smoother inside than a barrel that is only shooting j bullets. The micro grove barrels on Marlins that do not shot cast boolits do shot them better when polished.
Steve