barrel break in

[baxsom]

I have been looking around here for a while trying to get a consensus on this topic. I have a new McGowan barrel coming and their site has a very specific break in recommended but the only range close will not allow any flammable liquids on the range so I would have to go, fire a round, take it home, clean and then go back another day etc etc.

I have read a few times that a fire/clean/fire/clean type break in was a regiment designed to sell more barrels. Any facts around saying one way or another that I can look to for a definite answer.

Thanks

[darkker]

There is no consensus, because there is no spoon.
I was widely reported to have gotten a start that way yes.

What does it do? Why is it needed? These are the questions to root out.
IF, and until you fire it you won't know, you have a rough barrel, It will copper foul badly. Those machine marks/burrs/whatever are what you are trying to "Iron-out" by the "break-in".

What I find odd about it, is why the obsessive cleaning during this process. There are ALWAYS exceptions to any rule. But I have never found a barrel that was SO BAD, that it grabbed half the jacket....The barrel would probably burst...
So, does SOME fouling stop ALL wear? No, if it did then NO ONE would ever clean a barrel; NOR wear one out.
The theory is that it will "wear down the imperfections, faster". Do whatever lets you sleep at night, you will not HARM your barrel whichever way you do it, or don't do it.
I have done everything under the sun, and nothing has been worse for the wear.

[baxsom]

There is no consensus, because there is no spoon.
I was widely reported to have gotten a start that way yes.

What does it do? Why is it needed? These are the questions to root out.
IF, and until you fire it you won't know, you have a rough barrel, It will copper foul badly. Those machine marks/burrs/whatever are what you are trying to "Iron-out" by the "break-in".

What I find odd about it, is why the obsessive cleaning during this process. There are ALWAYS exceptions to any rule. But I have never found a barrel that was SO BAD, that it grabbed half the jacket....The barrel would probably burst...
So, does SOME fouling stop ALL wear? No, if it did then NO ONE would ever clean a barrel; NOR wear one out.
The theory is that it will "wear down the imperfections, faster". Do whatever lets you sleep at night, you will not HARM your barrel whichever way you do it, or don't do it.
I have done everything under the sun, and nothing has been worse for the wear.

Thanks,
That is what I was concerned over. I would hate to ruin a new nice barrel because I got impatient.

[M.O.A.]

my thoughts too

[nsaqam]

Wot&m imo.

[rattfink]

I have been looking and asking the same question and I haven't gotten the same answer twice from anyone or any source. I'm shopping rifles at the moment and when I scrape together the cash and make my choice I plan to shoot to my hearts delight right out of the box, and clean as necessary.

I did find a very informative video in my search:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRahHX9Zkg

[baxsom]

I have been looking and asking the same question and I haven't gotten the same answer twice from anyone or any source. I'm shopping rifles at the moment and when I scrape together the cash and make my choice I plan to shoot to my hearts delight right out of the box, and clean as necessary.

I did find a very informative video in my search:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRahHX9Zkg

The only thing better than the video are the comments afterwards. I guess theoretically shoot your fill, scrub until no more copper comes out when you get home, shoot again another day. If there are rough spots, it may just take longer to smooth them out.

[rattfink]

The only thing better than the video are the comments afterwards. I guess theoretically shoot your fill, scrub until no more copper comes out when you get home, shoot again another day. If there are rough spots, it may just take longer to smooth them out.

That's my thinking. And after awhile you probably won't even need to clean the barrel other than a few passes with a patch after every session unless it is a long course.

[memilanuk]

My general approach... clean it thoroughly when I first get it. Then every time I come back from the range, whether it was five rounds or 25, for the first 200 rounds or so. Then I start stretching the intervals out.

[5spd]

Take Wipeout liquid & use that at the range. It is NOT flammable & is better than any other cleaner IMO.
Barrel break in is way over rated.
My McGowan did not need to be "broke" in & 4K rounds later its still printing sub moa small holes in paper and dropping coyotes in 4 states.

[JCalhoun]

Barrel break-in is one of things where you can ask 10 different people and get 11 different answers.

It was explained to me by more than one barrel maker as a gimmick. The logic being that if the barrel is good it doesn't need break-in and break-in won't help a bad one.

[Dennis]

Take Wipeout liquid & use that at the range. It is NOT flammable & is better than any other cleaner IMO.
Barrel break in is way over rated.
My McGowan did not need to be "broke" in & 4K rounds later its still printing sub moa small holes in paper and dropping coyotes in 4 states.

I agree with the above statement. Any good barrel doesn't require much breakin. I have several McGowen barrels and broke in a new 6.5x47 last weekend.

We shot it twice to get a 100 yd zero, cleaned the barrel normally.

Then we went to the 600 yard range and shot two 20 shot strings. 40 shots total. One the second string the barrel shot a perfect 200 with 15 x's!

When cleaning any of my McGowen barrels, I get very little copper deposits when cleaning.

Please note I have several other brand barrels that are just as good! JMO

[helotaxi]

The only "break in" required on a lapped barrel is working out any spots in the throat and leade from the chambering process. If it's picking up a lot of copper down the barrel, they did a lousy job of lapping it.

[BoilerUP]

When I got my first Criterion barrel (260), I followed Krieger's barrel break-in procedure.

When I got my Criterion 223AI barrel last week, I did the following:

Single pass with clean boresnake down new barrel
5 shots, then nylon brush (four times, or first 20 rounds)

Shot another 30 rounds without touching it. Accuracy got slightly but noticeably better the 'dirtier' it got.

Got home, ran boresnake down it again.

Next day, went and shot 12 rounds.

Figure I'll give it a proper cleaning today, and probably won't touch it again for another 100 or so rounds.

[Texas Solo]

I love this topic because it's never resolved. I figure it can't hurt to do some sort of break in procedure as you only get one chance to do it. However, I was reading a Howa owners manual at work the other day, and it was insistent that their break in procedure was followed. I don't recall it exactly, but it was something like shoot one, clean and repeat for 10 rounds, the 2 shots and clean 10 times, ...etc.

Here's what was interesting....the manual said that their procedure was essential to accuracy because the barrel develops a "memory". Never heard that before. You can read it here:


http://www.legacysports.com/pdf/Howa...0Procedure.pdf

[baxsom]

I love this topic because it's never resolved. I figure it can't hurt to do some sort of break in procedure as you only get one chance to do it. However, I was reading a Howa owners manual at work the other day, and it was insistent that their break in procedure was followed. I don't recall it exactly, but it was something like shoot one, clean and repeat for 10 rounds, the 2 shots and clean 10 times, ...etc.

Here's what was interesting....the manual said that their procedure was essential to accuracy because the barrel develops a "memory". Never heard that before. You can read it here:


http://www.legacysports.com/pdf/Howa...0Procedure.pdf

how can the lands develop a memory? So from all of this, all these questions etc. The only thing I have been able to determine is that break in is basically using the bullet to polish the machine marks from cutting the rifling. so If I fire a shot some copper is picked up by these machine marks. If I shoot too many without cleaning these machine marks will become clogged with copper and will no longer get polished by the bullet. BUT if I scrub all of the copper out then I am back to square one. So it could theoretically take years to fully polish up these so called marks depending on how much you actually shoot.

[M.O.A.]

Does anyone lap the bore before they first shoot.

I tried it on one rifle and it seemed to speed things up considerably

[baxsom]

Does anyone lap the bore before they first shoot.

I tried it on one rifle and it seemed to speed things up considerably

The McGowan barrel that I have been patiently waiting for is supposedly hand lapped during production. Im sure I would screw something up royally if I tried to go back and redo it.

[JCalhoun]

Some times factory barrel accuracy can be helped a little bit from lapping the bore. Aftermarket barrels are normally hand lapped and should not need anything but initial cleaning and then shooting.

[scoeri]

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

[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.