barrel break in

[baxsom]

i am breaking in a new shilen select match barrel. shilen suggests shoot one & clean for the first five. then shoot five & clean for the next fifty. after waiting four months for the barrel i am in no hurry. have plenty of time to clean it. scott

It is not a matter of time spent. It is a matter of necessity. I have read that some barrel manufacturers have suggested this but then admitted it was to get shooters to expend rounds through a barrel so they get shot out faster and replaced sooner, thus selling more barrels.

[helotaxi]

It is not a matter of time spent. It is a matter of necessity. I have read that some barrel manufacturers have suggested this but then admitted it was to get shooters to expend rounds through a barrel so they get shot out faster and replaced sooner, thus selling more barrels.

That was Gene McMillan's take.

I've lapped two barrels using JB's Bore Paste on a patch wrapped around an undersized nylon brush. Both were Savage factory barrels and in both cases it helped the barrel settle in a bit. Other than that, I've never followed any kind of shoot-clean process. I also can't tell you if my barrels copper foul because I rarely clean them and then it's rarely more than a couple passes with a bore brush and half a dozen patches.

[earl39]

it is a question that can't be answered because no two barrels are the same. My barrel was finished right behind yours and yours was broke in and I just shot the dog poo out of mine. Both shoot great. Now would they shoot like that if breakin was done differently? No one will ever know. Short answer is do what makes YOU feel good about the barrel.

[McGowenRifle]

We suggest that every barrel is "broke in". The reason to do this is not always to remove rough spots or tooling marks in the barrel as some would suggest. The reason mainly is to get the grain of the barrel all moving longitudinal. Our barrels are hand lapped so most of this work is done for you so there is little to no break in required. Always use a good copper cleaner when breaking it in to see if there is any copper fouling. As I always tell everyone who asks what a good copper cleaner is, I tell them "open the cap, smell it and if it brings tears to your eyes it is a good copper cleaner". But remember to remove this copper cleaner fully as it is very caustic and if left in too long can actually damage your barrel. Once a barrel is broke in it shouldn't foul.

[sharpshooter]

As I always tell everyone who asks what a good copper cleaner is, I tell them "open the cap, smell it and if it brings tears to your eyes it is a good copper cleaner". But remember to remove this copper cleaner fully as it is very caustic and if left in too long can actually damage your barrel.
Really? I've purposely filled barrel stubs with Sweet's , Montana Extreme and other ammonia based cleaners for weeks on end just to see what happens. I split the barrels and checked under a microscope against other stubs for a control and found absolutely no damage from ammonia.
If you treat a badly cooper fouled bore with an ammonia based copper remover and afterwards you find pits in the bore, they were there to start with and the copper covered them up. The pits are the result of galvanic corrosion and the copper cleaner only uncovers the truth.

[LabRat2k3]

I have a hard time buying the whole "Barrel makers want you to do it so you wear your barrel out sooner" argument. What does break in take 50 rounds? I would bet that it is a very small percent of casual shooters that have ever wore a barrel out, and for those that have I doubt 50 rounds made much difference either way. It just plays to the whole "They" are out to screw you over mentality.

[M.O.A.]

I have a hard time buying the whole "Barrel makers want you to do it so you wear your barrel out sooner" argument. What does break in take 50 rounds? I would bet that it is a very small percent of casual shooters that have ever wore a barrel out, and for those that have I doubt 50 rounds made much difference either way. It just plays to the whole "They" are out to screw you over mentality.

for most no it wont make much difference but for the big wild cats that might only get 1500 or 1000 rounds that 50 it a lot of wasted shots

[JCalhoun]

A retired engineer told me that the solvent will get weaker as it sits in the barrel and also that the strength of ammonia needed to etch steel is not normally available to the general public.

[82boy]

A retired engineer told me that the solvent will get weaker as it sits in the barrel and also that the strength of ammonia needed to etch steel is not normally available to the general public.

I would agree 100% as all ammonia products are cut/mixed with water, (100% ammonia is a gas.) and the consintation is never 100% or even close to it. I would also state that ammonia is a base, and as it comes in contact with salts, and acids (Such as what is left over after firing .) that it neutralizes, and turns to water. You look at Sweets 7.62's bottle and it says that it only contains 5% ammonia. Montana x-treams 50bmg copper killer has a harsher smell than sweets, (Montana doesn't disclose the ammonia content in there product but i would say it is close to sweets at 5%.) and if you look at thier instructions thay never say anything about not leaving the product in any certain amount of time, they acctualy recamend "For maximum results allow barrel to “soak” at least 15 minutes before continuing." (Taken from Montana's web site directions for copper killer.) Then after that use a brush, and more wet patches of the stuff, and even repeting as needed. (leaving it in the barrels far longer than 15 minutes.) I believe that Sweets is responsible for the rummers that ammonia based products cause problems if left in a barrel for long periods of time, there is a warning on the bottle of sweets that stated not to let sit in the barrel for more than 15 minutes. My personal beliefe is that this is a marketing ploy, they are tring to make people believe this cleaner is so stong it will eat the barrel. So in turn if you want the best buy sweets, because it is so powerful it has a warning on the bottle. With that all said, I find that these extream copper cleaners are not needed, copper is one of the easist types of fouling to remove, and you can use grocery store bought ammonia and remove copper just as well. The old military surplus ammo shooters will use windex to kill the crossive action of the old primers they fire, why does this work it is the ammonia in it, that causes the "steak free shine," they leave this tuff in the barrels for long periods of time and it dont hurt a thing. The fowling product that is difficult to remove is hard carbon, and will kill accuracy, and barrels if not properly treated.