Originally Posted by
frank1947
As I read all the different comments people have made , it occured to me no one really knows, ... the only way anyone would know is if you had two identical barrels in everyway, then if one shot better then the other you then could say, maybe the one that was cleaned everyshot , shot better but with all other factors you can't really say that , so it is a matter of build up of fouling is the only reason for breakin to make sure on a new barrel until it has a bit of carbon build up to make sure that it does not build up copper fouling in barrel or even brass. ... Would I have had problems if I had not? impossible to know.
Actually it would take more than that. To start, no two barrels are identical. The only way to truly know would be to take the same action, in the same stock, using the same brass, powder, and bullet lots, and take a large sample say 60 barrels from x maker chamber with the same reamer, and fired in a controlled laboratory setting. (Say inside a warehouse shot at 100 yards.) All the barrels would have to be fires the same amount of rounds, (say 500 each barrel.) Then you would have to do a break in on 30 barrels and the other 30 would have no break in. The you would truly tell if one way worked better than the other. The problem is the cost you would be looking at a fortune to do this, and I doubt you would ever find conclusive evidence to prove one way or the other.
To dig deeper into the subject, there is other arguments that throws everything for a loop, and that is that use of cleaning rods, bore bushes, and that cleaning put more wear on a barrel than not, or using patches.
Here is my thought and observation. I have tried both ways of break in and have never seen an advantage to it. Some would argue that the best rounds fired out of a barrel are the first one, and each rounds fired is a bit worse.
On cleaning this is my observation of benchrest shooters. I have gone to hundreds of matches, and there is many different ways to clean a barrel, but from what I have seen is the majority of shooters clean their barrels after each target. (about 5 to 15 rounds)
They use a bore guide and a one piece brush, and bronze brushes, and they clean with two wet patches, and 10 strokes of a brush, and patch out dry then use some kind of lubricant. Now if there was a argument that cleaning kills a barrel it would show there, but heck these guys can get 3000 rounds to a barrels, and some ever re-chamber and get another 3000 out of them. So if excessive cleaning could kill a barrel it would be seen there. These guys require the utmost accuracy from a gun. Now you have Jackie Schmidt doing the complete opposite with his 30br, he shot a record group aggregate and never once cleaned between rounds. Is one way better than the other?
In closing I would say what ever make you feel good do it, if you feel good about break in then do it, if not then don't. If you like cleaning with a brush and rod then do it if not then don't. All in all it doesn't matter either way we are just splitting hairs here.
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