Breaking in a new Rifle question...

[Randy]

Everytime I have broke in a new rifle I always fired one round and then cleaned the gun for atleast 20 rds. Is this the proper way and is this enough? Thanks.

[OJR]

That should take care of it!

After the first 20 rounds, I usually go up to 3 or 4 rounds and then clean.

After 100 rounds, I never shoot more than 10 rounds before I clean again!

[Randy]

Thanks Orlan!

[stevebeilgard]

orlan has it the old school way. my way.

[m gardner]

If you are breaking it in you are burnishing the barrel and it needs to be completely clean so the bullet will bear against the barrel metal and not ride over the fouling. Any small amount of abrasive material on the bullet will lap it also. (The softer of the two materials holds the grit.) There is no proper way to break in a rifle barrel. They vary so much that it's more of an art than a science.

Mark

[wtnhunt]

Read an interesting article the other day on barrel break in from Krieger Randy. Will see if I can find it for you.

Here you go http://www.kriegerbarrels.com/Break_In__Cleaning-c1246-wp2558.htm.

[csualumni21000]

You got it right

[Leo]

M Gardner has made a seriously valid point.

First and foremost, before you ever fire a single shot. You need to make sure that a brand new barrel is absolutely clean.

You're gonna need a PILE of patches so make sure you have them.

I'd soak a patch with brake cleaner and run it through the bore. Let that "eat" for about 5 minutes. Run a dry brass brush through the bore back and forth about 8 times. Wet another patch soaked with brake cleaner run it through the bore. Let that "eat" 5 minutes. Run dry patches through the bore in and out, one time only each, until they come out clean.

The point is absolutely make sure you've gotten every piece of grit and oil out of the barrel. Running a bullet past grit and oil on a new barrel will cause a change in the bore you do not necessarily want. It breaks my heart when people say, "It's a new gun, it should be clean."

After you've done that follow the directions on a bottle of this stuff here exactly as is written on the label.

http://www.shooters-choice.com/mc7.html

The Shooters Choice stuff is absolutely the best bore conditioner I've ever used. In my experience it really does improve the accuracy on guns. It is also the only bore cleaner I've ever used I didn't feel like I needed a "fouling" shot after using. If cleaning with this stuff moves POI, I've never been able to detect it. If you clean a gun with this stuff it's gonna hit right where you sighted it in at or you blew the shot. It's seriously good stuff. I highly recommend it for both "breaking in" and new barrel and regular cleaning.

As far as the clean after every shot for the first 20 shots break in method. I'll admit I'm not a big fan of it. Yes it works. But if you're honest with yourself and really can shoot tight groups, then only clean after every "flyer" for the first 20 shots. If you really don't know if it was you or the gun that caused the flyer, then clean the bore. The Shooters Choice stuff really doesn't seem to affect group size. This makes it awesome for barrel break ins. Concentrate on tight groups. Flyer = Clean bore, Flyer = Clean bore... remember that. You should have the gun totally settled in after about 40 rounds. After that the flyers are probably just you or something else you've missed.

Don't shoot Mono-Metal (ie. Barnes) or Moly-Coated bullets to break in a barrel. Both will foul the heck out of a new barrel in short order. Fouling the heck out of a new barrel is absolutely not what you want to do. Copper fouling takes a copper solvent to get rid of and Moly fouling takes acetone patches.

[m gardner]

The Kreiger barrel on my Weatherby Mark V in 338-06 shot like a dream from the begining. Beak in on such fine barrels is minimal. Cleaning is essential like Leo said. I've had to hand lap barrels on production guns like one Ruger 25-06 I had and a Rem. 7600 in 30-06. Both shot well for years afterwards. the 25-06 is still going. My buddies girls ended up with that one. They liked killing prarie dogs with it at long range and used it to kill lots of deer and elk. They are all different. Fine rifles are definitely easy to make shoot. Regular production rifles may take more effort. That's where fire lapping got it's start to smooth out raggedy bores quickly. A good rule of thumb is to keep the gun clean and just shoot it if the accuracy is acceptable. It may or may not improve with age (wear). My bet is that it varies throughout it's lifespan.

Mark

[Leo]

Let me add one more thing.

Do the break in with the heaviest bullets for that caliber you can get. The heavier bullets are longer and that means more straight bearing surface available for polishing the bore. The longer/heavier bullets will not only do the job faster, they will also do it better.

[Randy]

Thank you everyone! Looks like I'm going to have a little fun tomorrow!

[wtnhunt]

I believe the link I posted gives a good general cleaning and break in process not just for Krieger barrels. If you scroll down in the link, it pretty well goes right along with what Leo says, the barrel will tell you when it is broken in with its fouling pattern. Thought it might be useful information.

Here is another piece on barrel break in I found to be rather interesting http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/Barrel_BreakIn.asp.