breaking in new barrel
- Thread starter Raygun
- Start date
Here we go again. 
This is very nearly a religious subject. Except for very high end extreme long range rifles I'm on the no side. I will say that it's not a good idea to over clean your bore with wirebrushes and solvents tho. It's needs to have some copper build up.
See this and the following few videos at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJUaiRIEduNXoal2_PkBZi0vDCIcEPxUn
This is very nearly a religious subject. Except for very high end extreme long range rifles I'm on the no side. I will say that it's not a good idea to over clean your bore with wirebrushes and solvents tho. It's needs to have some copper build up. See this and the following few videos at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJUaiRIEduNXoal2_PkBZi0vDCIcEPxUn
I broke in my MVP Predator using the copper fouling method. Didn't take long and it shoots MOA and below depending on the ammo and the shooter.
ScottyB
.270 WIN
This is just scuttle butt, but I've heard that the whole "breaking in the barrel" thing was started by a guy who made barrels and needed to ensure that he kept his business afloat. If he told people they needed to break the barrel in, the barrel burnt out that much faster. Sounds far fetched, but so does the idea of shooting/cleaning/shooting/cleaning
not sure how I'd burn out a barrel by cleaning the barrel about 15 times within the first 30 shots. And I'm just talking about 5 passes of a brass brush and some Hoppes 9 solvent each time. After that its just solvent and a cloth patch to get out the loose stuff.
To each his own. I've had good success with the method I used.
To each his own. I've had good success with the method I used.
Tuflehundon
.270 WIN
From what I have been told by people who understand this way more than me, is it's not really nessasary. If you are a long range bench shooter spending thousands of dollars on gear, then you will see a difference. But these guys also hand load and tune a round to the gun, and will only shoot 1000 rounds through a barrel before they consider it "shot out". We aren't doing any of that, so I wouldn't worry to much about it.
The main thing you are doing in the 1st 100 rounds is breaking in the barrel throat. That can have burrs that will go away within the 1st 100 rounds. Even hand lapped barrels can have that issue. That's why many barrels will "shoot better" after being broken in. Same smoothing out of the throat will happen no matter how you shoot that 1st 100 rounds.
The main thing you are doing in the 1st 100 rounds is breaking in the barrel throat. That can have burrs that will go away within the 1st 100 rounds. Even hand lapped barrels can have that issue. That's why many barrels will "shoot better" after being broken in. Same smoothing out of the throat will happen no matter how you shoot that 1st 100 rounds.
Use your own judgement, shoot 10 or 15 rounds, then safety check the firearm, and take a glance inside the barrel, if the copper fouling looks heavy, brush and swab it. shoot another 10-15 rounds, and have another look. I agree that "proper" break in is utterly unnecessary for a recreational shooter. A tad bit of copper buildup may be beneficial in that it smooths minor imperfections in the rifling of the barrel, but its pretty obvious when its too much, and that will affect accuracy.