Barrel break in for a new 45-90 Hepburn

[country gent]

Looking for recomendations on breaking in the new 45-90 barrel. I am planning on black powder and paper patched bullets ( bore riding) Looked at badgers site and green mountain didnt find much info on them. Im betting you gentleman can take care of that for me. Thanks for the help.

[sharpsguy]

Just load it and shoot it. 85 grains of KIK 2f and a 500 grain patched bullet works just fine in all four of my 45-90s.

[johnson1942]

sharpsguy is right, just load and shoot. his recommendations are right on.

[country gent]

Had the rifle out Sunday 80 grns 2 f goex .030 card 3/16" lube cookie .030 wad and 500 grn BACO swaged 500 grn paper patched bullets wrapped with 9#0nion paper. Shot very good, cleaned every shot wet patch (balistol/water) 4 strokes with brush and wet patch then 2 dry. Could feel the diffrence in friction of dry patches every 5 rounds or so. Accuracy is lookiing good. I put together 2 loads to test next sunday 85 grns 2 f goex, 3/16 lube cookie .o20 wads and both 500 and 550 grn bullets.

[Don McDowell]

Glad you got that rifle in hand, and getting to run it a little bit.
Looking forward to your reports on it.

[country gent]

Don Put 30 rds thru it Sunday. 80 grns 2f Goex 500 grn Baco 332 swaged bullets wrapped with 9# onion paper. seated 1/4" into cases. 3/16" grease cookie. Cleaned every shot with wet patch of balistol / water 5 strokes with a brush and 2 dry patches. Accuracy was showing promise. Getting up and cleaning every shot isnt conductive to beat accuracy. Recoils was very managable. I put together 20 rds each as above with 85 grns 2 f goex and both 500 and 550 baco swaged bullets. Could just feel slight resistence when chambering these in it Sunday. I am well pleased with this project The rifle is really sharp. Feels and holds great. Rides the sticks very well. I dont think with sundays load it ever was a full inch out of the sticks under recoil. There are pics of it under the single shots heading

[fouronesix]

Given the number of paper patch shots and cleaning between shots, you've already run down the bore, I'd say like the others, it's already broken in/smoothed out as much as it should be. Shooting paper is a form of super fine lapping. Now it's a matter of getting the best out of it.

[country gent]

Sunday I am going to 5 and 10 shot groups Hoping to get solid 100yd and 200 yd zeros on the rifle. Load is Starline Brass 85grns 2f goex card wad .030 3/16 lube cookie card wad .030 Baco .442 swaged 500 grn bullet wraped with 9 # onion paper to .449-450 dis seated .200 into case. I also have 20 rds of the above load with Baco 550 grn swaged bullets. Will see what she likes and what my shoulder likes..

[fouronesix]

Oh ya, with those charges and heavy bullets, recoil is an issue. Some days I can handle it without problem and some days it just wears on me. I use some kind of pad when up in that recoil category. Thick and spongy is usually not the best. A fairly thin layer of something like Sobothane in a stiff leather lace up pad works well. One thing I've found with both heavy recoiling BP and even modern smokeless boomers is that there is a certain "way" to hold the rifle while relaxing a little during the recoil impulse really helps. The other thing that is overlooked when shooting for accuracy is that it's important to keep the geometry of the recoil and resistance of the body to the recoil the same shot to shot. (actually kind of hard to describe but it's a real phenomenon) There is enough bullet barrel time for variations in the recoil cycle to really be noticed on the target. It affects the accuracy of all rifles, but becomes especially noticeable with the heavy recoilers shooting slower bullets.

[country gent]

Being a squirely thing 6' 180 lbs I handle recoil a little better than my Buddy whos 6'6" and 285 lbs. Its just easier for me to "roll with it". Yes recoil is a factor. Last sundays loads with 80 grns and the same 500 grn bullet werent bad. I found setting up a higher position with the recoilers and a more straight up bench position helps as does a straight back pull on the pistol grip and down pressure induces fliers fast. The sharps at 12 1/2 lbs in 45-70 is a ***** cat with these same bullets. The Hepburn is around 11 1/2 lbs so it shouldnt be to bad. Laid down once behind a 30 378 long range rifle 18lbs. Seemed like Every 4-5 rounds I had to slide back up to the spotting scope. (A fellow ORPA member and friend asked me to fire a group with it.) I knew there was a reason my long range gun was a fast twist 243 winchester. LOL With that Boomer 60 rds for score plus sighters would make for a long day. Sundays going to be hot and dry so will show how my lubes working also.

[bigted]

paper really gets er done on new barrels. nice to hear you getting along so well with a new rifle...congrats.

[country gent]

Had the Hepburn out today, What an eye opener it turned out to be. Fired 30 rds of the 85 grn load with 500 grn patched bullets. Pretty much held the 10 ring on the src / shoot and see target.Was 90+ degrees temp today and fouling stayed soft. I was wiping every shot cleaning every ten, Left the blow tube at home. Was a great group at 200 yds. I then fired 20 rds of same load with 550 grn pached bullets. Held 10 ring / xring. leaked 2 9s out on call. Last 6 shots were 2 3/8" at 200 yds now cleaning blowing or anything just loaded and shot at a slow deliberate pace. Sun was keeping barrel very warm to touch. Was a great day. Am going to run up to cabellas later this week and pick up a past recoil shield or some sort of one. While not super heavy recoil is stout with the 550s. But all in all a great day. Barrel now has 80 rds thru it.

[Gunlaker]

It sounds like that rifle is working well for you.

I've been using a lace-on recoil pad from Buffalo Arms and it's been working really well for prone shooting. I've got a Shooters Friend pad as well but have yet to try it. It's just a lot uglier than the lace-up one, although I've heard good things about them

Chris.