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Barrel break in is a sham and a lie, go shoot your gun, clean it, repeat.
Agreed ^^^Barrel break in is a sham and a lie, go shoot your gun, clean it, repeat.
Like Rooster said what is it going to hurt? The above proceedure takes 50 rounds to do and probably a couple hours at the range. As long as you use quality cleaning gear you aren't going to hurt anything worse than simply firing 50 rounds through the gun anyways.What is the barrel break-in procedure? [Link to this answer]
Although there may be different schools of thought on barrel break-in, this is what Precision Shooting Magazine recommends:
STEP 1 (repeated 10 times)
* Fire one round
* Push wet patches soaked with a powder solvent through the bore
* Push a brush through the bore (5 times in each direction)
* Push dry patches through the bore (2 times)
* Push wet patches soaked with a copper solvent through the bore
* Push a brush through the bore (5 times in each direction)
* Push dry patches through the bore (2 times)
* Push a patch with 2 drops of oil through the bore
STEP 2 (repeated 5 times)
* Fire a 3 shot group
* Repeat the cleaning procedure from STEP 1 after each group
STEP 3 (repeat 5 times)
* Fire a 5 shot group
* Repeat the cleaning procedure from STEP 1
They recommend the use of a patch with 2 drops of oil after the cleaning so that you are not shooting with a dry bore. It is also advisable to use a powder solvent and copper solvent from the same manufacturer to be sure they are chemically compatible.
If you paid for a precision rifle, the barre should have been prepped and finished correctly at the manufacture, if not then it needs to go back and be replaced.If you are dealing with a precision sniper rifle, I could say that barrel break in would not hurt. Anything else, go out and shoot it.
I have gone through the lenghty process of breaking barrels in on some guns and not others. Some of my most accurate rifles did not go through the break in. In my opinion it is a waste of time and ammo and solvent. You also do lose something with barrel break in procedures. Barrel life. The number of rounds you shot simple reduces your barrel life by that number that could have been fired for fun.Before this devolves into the typical barrel break in thread, understand that practically nobody who advocates "barrel break in" means running an abrasive bore scrubber through the barrel. The anti's will use Gale MacMillan as an example, but MacMillan always addressed scrubbing the barrel with abrasive scrubber during "break in".
Most of us mean running solvent, brush, and a patch through the barrel between shots for an even burnishing of the new barrel. If you consider the burnish process, it makes sense. If you have a rough spot in the barrel that picks up copper from rounds, the subsequent shots will likely increase that area and prevent the entire circumference of the barrel from being evenly burnished. The idea is to let the entire inside of the barrel to wear and break in evenly.
Several barrel makers and rifle manufacturers advocate barrel break in. Weatherby is one that stands out in my mind. Weatherby is known for it's accuracy, and I can attest to that reputation. I would think there is a reason Weatherby advocates barrel break in.
IMO, why not? What will it hurt? It will cost you a little time and solvent, that's all. And you will never get the chance to go back to the newness of the barrel and start over. A chrome lined AR barrel probably won't benefit from it. IOW, better safe than sorry.
Every firearm I "broke in" is amazingly accurate. Even with a hot barrel.
Again, nobody is saying to run an abrasive scrubber through it. That will definitely speed up the wear. But as far as solvent, brush, and a patch, what does it hurt? It's a kind of cost vs. benefit thing. It costs very little, but could be a great benefit.
Who says you can't be having fun while breaking in a barrel, or testing velocity and accuracy of new loads?I have gone through the lenghty process of breaking barrels in on some guns and not others. Some of my most accurate rifles did not go through the break in. In my opinion it is a waste of time and ammo and solvent. You also do lose something with barrel break in procedures. Barrel life. The number of rounds you shot simple reduces your barrel life by that number that could have been fired for fun.
Pat