Originally Posted by
barrel-nut
The first sentence is all you really needed to say.
Also, as we mature as shooters, and in life in general, the more enlightened of us discover that opinions of others, bubbas included, are not always "ignorant" just because they don't match up with our own. There are indeed many ways to skin the proverbial cat, and in the matter at hand, "breaking in" a new barrel, there's no real way to prove what's best for each individual barrel.
Some are finished as smooth as glass before they leave the factory. This is typical of the high-end custom makers that hand lap their barrels. With these, the tolerances are so tight, and the finish is so smooth that a little copper buildup is usually detrimental to accuracy.
Others may have a bore that's as rough as a back country gravel road. With a factory Savage barrel you are more likely to get the latter than the former. However, this does not mean that it can not be a shooter. I have barrels of both types, and all can be accurate. The rough ones just inherently trap more copper. To keep such a barrel copper-free, you'd literally have to clean after each and every shot for the life of the barrel. You will find many on this forum, myself included, who's experience has been that such barrels tend to shoot better with a certain degree of fouling. I believe this is the "copper equilibrium" theory that you so authoritatively poo-pooed on earlier. The OP asked about opinions on breaking in a SAVAGE factory barrel. In my experience, no amount of "breaking in"-and believe me, i've tried- will smooth out the rougher examples that sometimes leave the factory. That being said, even heavily fouled, mine are still capable of half-moa to 3/4 moa. Would they have been worse barrels had i not spent a whole afternoon scrubbing and shooting? In my ignorant opinion, no. Can i prove that? Again, no. But i can definitely say that after all that tedious scrubbing, there are still loads of reamer chatter marks down the bore. They'll never go away. But if it shoots half-moa, i feel that's good enough for a factory tube. Some barrels were just born to be foulers, and unfortunately the Savage factory puts out quite a lot of them.
With a quality hand-lapped aftermarket barrel, as i stated earlier, my opinion is that that's a different animal, and a little more care is in order, if nothing other than so that you're not left wondering "what if.." on something that costs more than many complete entry-level rifles. For those, I side more with Dennis' way of thinking. He's sold a few thousand of them, so his opinion should hopefully qualify on your scale as somewhere above "ignorant" or "bubba".
Bookmarks