Barrel breakin (while were on the subject)

Tailgunner1954

June 17, 2004 02:35

Clean the barrel and bolt lugs thourghly, before firing a single shot.
Personaly, at this point I fire 1 and visualy inspect the barrel for signs of copper. If I find any trace I clean until it's gone, if I don't find any trace (of copper) I fire another shot and inspect again. Continue this routine for the first 50 rounds or so.
Others, fire 1 & clean for the first 5, than fire 2 and clean for the next 10, fire 5 and clean, etc until 100 rounds have been fired.
Keep your rate of fire slow, do not let any part of the barrel get to hot (you should be able to hold your wrist, or the back of your hand, anywhere on the barrel).

Everyone aggrees on the first and last part, it's on the # of shots between cleaning that is the area of personal choice.

Whittemore

Some guys like a mag full of lead, I still prefer one round to the head.

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fugawe

June 17, 2004 04:43

Remington's site has their recommended breakin procedure.

I put my two cents in, but it's only a penny for my thoughts....someone's making a penny.

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nononsense

June 17, 2004 06:33

With factory barrels, I tend to agree with Dano. But if voodoo works for you then select one of the procedures and run with it!

Best.

Barrel Break-In Procedure

Non-Chrome Barrel Breaking procedure

A new barrel will shoot best if careful attention is given to proper break-in. Differing opinions exist as to what constitutes proper break-in, however, we recommend that no more than 20 rounds be fired at one time before cleaning the barrel - for the first 60 rounds. Each time the barrel is cleaned for the first 120 rounds, it must be thoroughly cleaned, removing all traces of copper and fouling.
Recommended procedure for thorough cleaning: In all cases it is vital that cleaning tools (brushes, patches, etc.) be pushed from the breech toward the muzzle and then removed from the rod at the muzzle end. DO NOT drag anything back through the muzzle.
Clean the bore with a good bore cleaner.
Decopper the bore with a copper solvent.
Clean the bore again with JB Bore Cleaner paste as follows;
1. Work the JB paste into a new patch.
2. Wrap the patch around a worn bore brush.
3. Push it through the bore for ten strokes. Replace the patch every five strokes.
4. Run a dry patch then an oil patch if storing the rifle.
After the barrel is broken in , clean the bore immediately after each shooting session.
Decopper the barrel every 300-400 rounds.
Clean the bore every 1,000 rounds with JB Bore Cleaner.
http://www.impactguns.com/store/ar15_barrel_break_in.html

I post this as a link since it is a scanned copy of an original article and takes a while to load. This, to me represents some bad information (patching through the muzzle) and some of the voodoo that gets involved with procedures like this.

http://www.centerfirecentral.com/lapbore1.htm

Here is a fairly common sense approach by Dan Lilja. Dan hand laps (not personally) every barrel before it leaves his shop, resulting in one of the finest interior finishes in any barrel available to the shooting public. That's why the break in is so minimal, he has done the smoothing (lapping) of the machining marks for you so that all you need to worry about is a little coppering.

Centerfire Maintenance

We recommend that your new Lilja rifle barrel be properly broken-in to obtain the best accuracy. A proper break-in will help ensure that your barrel will clean easily in the future and that you will achieve maximum accuracy potential. Please follow these important instructions.

We are concerned with two types of fouling: copper fouling, which is caused by bullet jacket material being left in the barrel, and powder fouling. During the first few round a lot of copper fouling will be left in the barrel. It is important to remove this fouling completely, after each shot, to help prevent a build-up later on. Powder fouling is ongoing, but easy to remove. Do not use moly-coated bullets during the break-in procedure.

Break-in Procedure
For an effective break-in the barrel should be cleaned after every shot for the first 10-12 rounds or until copper fouling stops. Our procedure is to push a cotton patch that is wet with solvent through the barrel. This will remove much of the powder fouling and wet the inside of the barrel with solvent. Next, wet a bronze brush with solvent and stroke the barrel 5-10 times. Follow this by another wet patch and then one dry patch. Now soak the barrel with a strong copper removing solvent until all of the blue mess is removed from the barrel. The copper fouling will be heavy for a few rounds and then taper off quickly in just one or two shots. Once it has stopped or diminished significantly it is time to start shooting 5 shot groups, cleaning after each one. After 25-30 rounds clean at a normal interval of 10-25 rounds. Your barrel is now broken-in.

Normal cleaning
For a normal cleaning (after a string of 10-25 shots) after break-in, the above procedure should be used, but stop short of soaking the barrel with the strong copper remover. A good rule of thumb is to stroke the barrel with a brush, one cycle for every shot fired.

Periodic cleaning
It is probably a good idea to use a strong copper removing solvent every 200 rounds, or so, to check the barrel for copper fouling. We do not recommend the routine use of abrasive cleaners for normal cleaning. However they can be used every 500-1000 rounds to remove the carbon build-up (caused by powder fouling) in the throat area of the barrel. To use, wrap a cotton patch around a worn out brush or a cleaning jag and liberally apply the abrasive cleaner to the patch. Short stroke the abrasive for 6" or so in the throat area and one or two full length passes through the barrel. Do not clean the barrel like this for more than 1-2 minutes.

Suggested equipment and solvents
It is important to use an action rod guide when cleaning. The guide aligns the rod with the bore and helps prevent uneven wear in the throat area. Be careful not to raise the handle end of the rod while stroking. This will put a "belly" in the rod that will wear the barrel. We suggest that plastic coated rods, like the Dewey and Parker-Hale, be used.

Our preferred cleaning solvent is Butch's Bore Shine made by BBS Industries (406-652-2495). This solvent is excellent at attacking both powder and copper fouling. We recommend it for both break-in and regular cleaning.

For occasional use only, abrasives like J-B paste, Flitz, or RemClean can be used.

Do not use a stainless steel brush in your barrel under any circumstances.

Do not apply a strong copper remover, like Sweets, on a bronze brush. It will ruin the brush and give the false indication that the barrel has copper in it.

For shooters wishing to use moly-coated bullets we do not recommend shooting more than 25 rounds or so without using the normal cleaning procedure outlined above.

And finally, my very favorite from Gale McMillan:

From: Gale McMillan <" gale"@mcmfamily.com>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Barrel break-in necessary?
Date: 7 Jan 1997 20:40:25 -0500

As a barrel maker I have looked in thousands of new and used barrels
with a bore scope and I will tell you that if every one followed the
prescribed break in method A very large number would do more harm than
help. The reason you hear of the help in accuracy is because if you
chamber barrel with a reamer that has a dull throater instead of cutting
clean sharp rifling it smears a burr up on the down wind side of the
rifling. It takes from 1 to 2 hundred rounds to burn this bur out and
the rifle to settle down and shoot its best. Any one who chambers rifle
barrels has tolerances on how dull to let the reamer get and factories
let them go longer than any competent smithe would. Another tidbit to
consider, Take a 300Win Mag. that has a life expectancy of 1000 rounds.
Use 10% of it up with your break in procedure for ever 10 barrels the
barrel maker makes he has to make one more just to take care of the
break in. no wonder barrel makers like to see this. Now when you flame
me on this please include what you think is happening to the inside of
your barrel during the break in that is helping you.

Gale McMillan
NBSRA IBS,FCSA and NRA Life Member

Consider this, every round shot in breaking in a barrel is one round off
the life of said rifle barrel. No one has ever told me the physical
reason of what happens during break in firing. In other words to the
number of pounds of powder shot at any given pressure, is the life of the
barrel. No one has ever explained what is being accomplished by
shooting and cleaning in any prescribed method. Start your barrel off
with 5 rounds and clean it thoroughly and do it again. Nev Maden a
friend down under that my brother taught to make barrels was the one who
come up with the break in method. He may think he has come upon
something, or he has come up with another way to sell barrels. I feel
that the first shot out of a barrel is its best and every one after that
deteriorates until the barrel is gone. If some one can explain what
physically takes place during break in to modify the barrel then I may
change my mind. As the physical properties of a barrel doesn't change
because of the break in procedures it means it's all hog wash. I am open
to any suggestions that can be documented otherwise if it is just
someone's opinion forget it.

Gale McMillan

And my very favorite response:

Arthur Sprague wrote:

# On 29 Jul 1997 22:50:26 -0400, whit@cs.utexas.edu (John W. Engel)
# wrote:
#
# #This is how (some) benchrester break in barrels, and it does work.
# #The mechanism is that the bore has pores in it (microns in size).
# #If you simply shoot a box or two through it without cleaning, the
# #pores fill up with gilding metal, and stay that way. If you
# #follow the above procedure (and they mean *clean* between shots!),
# #the pores are "smoothed over" with each successive shot. A barrel
# #correctly broken in is MUCH easier to clean than one that is
# #not. If it is a good quality tube, it will also be more accurate.
# #Regards,
# #whit
#
# Well, the range hours here are quite limited. On my first trip I
# managed to fire a whole fourteen rounds, with a thorough cleaning
# after each round. It couldn't hurt! Fun gun! Difficult to think of
# .223 as a battle round after experience with .30-06 and .45ACP, but it
# surely going to be a pleasure to shoot.
# Thanks to all for their advice.

This is total hogwash! It all got started when a barrel maker that I
know started putting break in instructions in the box with each barrel
he shipped a few years ago. I asked him how he figured it would help
and his reply was If they shoot 100 rounds breaking in this barrel
that's total life is 3000 rounds and I make 1000 barrels a year just
figure how many more barrels I will get to make. He had a point it
defiantly will shorten the barrel life. I have been a barrel maker a
fair amount of time and my barrels have set and reset bench rest world
records so many times I quit keeping track (at one time they held 7 at
one time) along with HighPower,Silloett,smallbore national and world
records and my instructions were to clean as often as posable preferably
every 10 rounds. I inspect every barrel taken off and every new barrel
before it is shipped with a bore scope and I will tell you all that I
see far more barrels ruined by cleaning rods than I see worn out from
normal wear and tear.I am even reading about people recommending
breaking in pistols. As if it will help their shooting ability or the
guns.
Gale Mc.

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gotstolefrom

June 17, 2004 06:43

Some folks say do nothing, some say 1, then 3, then 5, etc. with full cleaning between. I can't say who is right, but I do some of the latter...it takes a little time but it's a new gun, right...fun time. No harm done.

I CAN'T jump on the 'abbrasive bullet' band wagon. I know there are several available, but it seems extreme action for a new bore. If you 'have' to polish the bore for your own satisfaction, just use some of the mild bore paste once or twice in the beginning of your 1 then 3 then 5 shot/clean routine.

I would not run the abrasive projectiles through a bore that was not already a pitted POS.

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Barrel breakin (while were on the subject)

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