Prepping and starting of a new bore for shooting cast.

[Ronnie Dale]

Bear with me here if this is a common question. I am still new to cast. I have a 26" 1-12 twist MGM barrel coming for my TC encore chambered for 30-30win. The main purpose for this barrel is as a testbed for what does and doesn't work in my new hobby of bullet casting and powdercoating

Generally speaking I haven't put much stock in "barrel break in" claims but I would like to know how you guys approach prepping a new bore for a lifetime of primarily CB shooting.

[303Guy]

You might try paper patching. It polishes up a dark bore pretty well. You might need a hundred or so such loads and you may well find yourself hooked but at the very least you will have experienced paper patching. But the bore should then be very ready for a life of cast boolits.

My understanding is that the 30-30 is about the most ideal cast boolit chambering (and good for paper patching too). I can't say because I don't have one.

[ShooterAZ]

Just clean it & shoot it, then clean it & shoot it is what I'd do...

[Scharfschuetze]

I've polished up some rougher than normal barrels with the Wheeler fire lapping kit. It's turned a few average barrels into usable barrels and has cut down on fouling significantly on a few military barrels. The vast majority of my barrels (mostly surplus rifles) have never needed its ministrations. I note now that someone (might be Wheeler) has gun powder formulated with abrasive in it to do the same as the original kit, but without impregnating the bullets/boolits with the various grits of abrasive.

Most new and good quality barrels really don't need a lot of work, particularly with hammer forged barrels or hand lapped barrels like those from Krieger. I've watched more than a few shooters at the range go through break in processes that have just stupefied me. It seemed to make them happy, so the end result was probably worth it for them. Start with a good barrel and you really don't need to do much more than fire a few fouling shots, sight it in, develop a load and call it good. If it fouls more than you want, then check your velocity, boolit fit, alloy, lube or consider the above paragraph.

Good luck with that new barrel!

[JSnover]

Clean it. Then clean it some more. Worry most about burrs or other debris scratching your new bore. "Conditioning" will take care of itself as you shoot it.

[tomme boy]

You guys have must not ever seen a new Savage factory barrel if you think it does not need a break in. The last one would shred patches when pushed through. I know have over 500 rounds of jacketed through it and it still fouls like crazy, but it does not tear up patches anymore.

[geargnasher]

A little polishing of the throat area of a brand-new barrel can sometimes be in order, just shooting a few copper-jacketed bullets through it with frequent cleanings with copper solvent in between (like every 2-3 shots) tends to smooth things right up. Like 303Guy said, it's tough to beat the job that paper jackets do for smoothing up a barrel that needs it. Savage barrels are terrible when new because they trap gobs of copper fouling and about the worst thing you can do is shoot a few hundred rounds through it without cleaning fastidiously between short strings. I can't tell you how many rifle barrels I have prepped for cast by spending hours alternating with an Outers Foul-Out III and bronze brush getting layers of copper and powder fouling out only to expose the un-burnished metal beneath which STILL needs fire-polishing. I prefer to start with a new barrel and not muck it up with copper in the first place.

The last brand-new rifle I bought had a black coating in the bore and a lot of roughness as TommeBoy described above. I ran about 80 paper-patched rounds through it with frequent solvent cleanings and it was smooth as silk after that, even fired some factory j-word ammo through it and discovered I had a 3/4 MOA rifle that hardly copper-fouled at all in 20-shot strings.

Once I get a barrel where I want it for cast (which I shoot almost exclusively), I stop cleaning it. With a good lube, alloy, and suitable load I find that my bores preserve themselves indefinitely without any assistance from me.

Gear

[nemesisenforcer]

bore pastes/polish (even just conventional metal polish) on a bore mop.

[krag35]

When I bought my Winchester 94 BB 444 Marlin, I shot Hornaday 300 GR XTP's through it, about 400 of them. Cleaning about every 25 or so. Now all I shoot is cast in it, and have no leading issues, of course the boolits fit the throat, and I lube with Lyman Super Moly.

I need to try paper patching for a '98 Krag of mine with a "frosted" bore.

[44man]

Guns vary a lot but almost every new gun I have bought or shot lately has shot cast right off.
TC used to have some pretty rough bores and would copper and lead foul fast. I still got cast to shoot very well. I just shot jacketed and cleaned a lot.

[tomme boy]

I'm getting tired of cleaning this Savage. I'm almost to the point of loading up about 100 PP lead bullets and go shooting.

[GhostHawk]

ShooterAz nailed it IMO.

Bought a pair of Mosin's, both had good rifling but dark bores. Cleaned then shot, cleaned and shot, cleaned again after our last outing and noticed that the bores are both bright and shiny now.

I have been alternating Hoppes #9, couple dry patch's with some home made cleaning fluid. That being probably 80% Dextron III ATF and a good dollop of GooGone. Things are lubricated well, my pistols seem to love the stuff. Leave virtually none of it, yet it feels like it is dripping in grease. And a couple of passes with a tight patch soaked with this seems to loosen up a lot of stuff that I didn't know was still there. Followed by a couple of dry patch's of course.

I don't have the recipe down pat as far as quantity's, but I noticed the GooGone was REALLY slippery and a great cleaner for gum, gunk, labels etc. So I decided I'd try it.

I guess you could call it an Ed's Red variant without the acetone/kerosene.

[popper]

Ed's Red less acetone for cleaner, just clean & shoot. GC boolits as an aid also before PB. Enjoy.

[dnepr]

I have only broke in one barrel . I did this by shooting 60 unlubed paper patched boolit through it . Definitly helped on the copper fouling ,

[HangFireW8]

For most barrels, clean it with your favorite cleaner, make sure it's dry, then run a patch through with a light coating of the same lube you're going to use when you go shooting. (Keep the lube out of the chamber).

For old military barrels, I do multiple runs with my old Outer's Foul Out alternating with scrubs with a bronze wire/bronze brush and lots of copper solvent. Then the lube patch.

For Savages, Adams&Bennett, ER Shaw and other cheap barrels, the "proper" break-in procedure is in order- shoot, clean, shoot a few, clean, repeat, until it is easy to push a patch through. That's with Jacketed, I guess Paper Patch would work too.