Your thoughts on "barrel break in"?

[Varmintmist]

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1006409224
tubb lapping kit

[shotgunshooter3]

I don't think about it at all.

[Freezer]

Loincloths are on the dudes. Chipmunks don’t wear clothes. So, that’s kinda silly. There’s no skirts or kilts involved.

Unless it's Zorba breaking in the barrel.....or drinking from it

[12th Man]

I wrote a very extensive piece of barrel break in twenty some years ago on Snipers Hide. I believe it's still a sticky there. I asked a few questions up front. What is wrong with the barrel, what are you trying to fix/correct. How do you know what's wrong with it. What is a cotton patch and bore cleaner going to do to fix high/low points. How will it smooth out a rough area or what ever else is perceived wrong with the barrel. Nothing, nodda, zilch or most anything else you can come up with. I sought perspectives from some of the top barrel makers and ballistic people/engineers in the industry and named them in my write up.

If you have a rough cut throat, only polishing it or putting rounds down the barrel will smooth it out. Some copper in the bore is a good thing as it fills in the micro grooves from the machining process.

Do what you feel is best, but know, breaking in a barrel is waste of time and effort. If you're shooting a barrel burner caliber such a 22-250. You're just taking rounds off the barrel by shoot and clean process.

Note, some of the top barrel makers are going away from hand lapping barrels. KP barrels who dominates the .50 cal world have never hand lapped a barrel. They'll tell you once that lapping compound it in the barrel, how do you get it out? You can't get it all, and shooting bullets down the barrel is like shooting fire lapping impregnated bullets. Those were found to round off the edges of the rifling. Barrel manufactures quickly came out and said if you use them, they would not warranty the barrel.

Shoot your gun, after a certain amount of rounds it will settle in. When accuracy starts to go, clean it.

[breamfisher]

Some barrels need a bit of burnishing, others don't, it seems. I think that the reason most guys who insist on "breaking-in" a barrel show good results is that they're burnishing the barrel to get rid of high spots (and the cleaning is removing copper particles that are impeding the burnishing) and in the process they're just getting used to the new barrel and getting things settled in.

[12th Man]

You nailed it. A good burnishing is all you need. That was part of my write up as well!

[breamfisher]

I think it was Pegasus? who said his "break-in" comes from load workup for his rifles. By the time he's got a new load worked up, everything's settled.

[breamfisher]

BTW, I don't do break-in. My rifles are either bought used, or for my purposes MOAish will be acceptable.

[Freezer]

I had problems with a new Mossberg Patriot Bantam chambered in 6.5 Creedmoore that I bought for my wife. First, the scope was bad out of the box. I installed an old Redfield on it and though it shot better it wasn't acceptable about 4 moa. Mossberg said they don't guarantee the accuracy of their barrels, the Patriot is an entry level gun. I wasn't happy with that answer, and eventually they relented. I got the rifle back with a new (junk) scope and a new barrel. My son also had a NHF Handi-Rifle that didn't settle down until he had one hundred rounds through it. My point is for every cent the manufacturer spends on a gun, they charge 6 cents more. They don't have the best QC or cleaning procedures because they're trying to keep the costs down. If you buy a budget rifle, clean it before shooting it, then go through a couple boxes and cleaning procedure to smooth out their lack of QC.

[Ernie]

Take your new barrel out over a good pdog town at 8AM. By 8:30ish or so.....it's broke in.

Mike

That sounds better than "Browning" the barrel any day.

This just made me smile, even if it wasn't intentional

[mitdr774]

I break in barrels like I break in engines. Do the first clean or oil change earlier than normal and then drop into a routine based on what its telling me and how its been used. I have a few rifles that have been tack drivers right out of the box or right after a new barrel was fit, and I have a had a few that were mediocre at best out of the box without some other fine tuning. I have yet to come across a barrel that isnt in some way capable of holding an acceptable 100 yard group for my typical hunting needs. For context, im not a competition shooter so what is great to me might be utter garbage to someone else. Sure, I really do try to get my groups as small as possible but my needs and wants are not the same.

[Justsomedude]

It's just knocking down burrs with the fired bullets and cleaning off the copper that's stuck to those same burrs as they get smaller and smaller. There's a reason that the patches will start showing less and less copper with each following shot.

[JunkCollector]

Take your new barrel out over a good pdog town at 8AM. By 8:30ish or so.....it's broke in.

Mike

That sounds better than "Browning" the barrel any day.

This just made me smile, even if it wasn't intentional

I'm hoping it was intentional Ernie
Linefinders thread is a fond memory

Some of his finest work ....you might say.

[Ernie]

Pure silliness on my part.
“Browning a barrel”…. getting so hot you can almost see the barrel turning brown.
“Browning” “Friends don’t let friends buy Browning”
Multiple things went through my mind…
Sustained shooting with a 6.5-284 trying for a mile plus dog.
Sustained shooting with my first 7 Dakota shooting off a bipod taking a pd at around 1450 yards.
FYI I was not referencing the older browning rifles.
Well, that’s some of the things that was going through my mind

[Ernie]

Aaron broke in/cooked his almost new 7mm Dakota XP trying for a 2K+ pd. I had fun spotting!
“He was so close” & “Just missed it” quite a few times-But No Joy!

[Linefinder]

I wore out my 1st .223 Rem barrel after, best I could estimate, 14K rounds. It still shot pretty well, but when it decided to sling one it was like 5 feet at 400 yards. When I got home and cleaned it, my Tipton rod would go 8"down the breech before it started rotating. LOL!

Mike

[Ernie]

That is stewardship of a barrel beyond what most would ever do.
And here I thought that a 2" of basically shotgun smooth throat/barrel on my 7mm SAUM XP was long...I am Not EVEN in YOUR League!

[Ernie]

I wore out my 1st .223 Rem barrel after, best I could estimate, 14K rounds. It still shot pretty well, but when it decided to sling one it was like 5 feet at 400 yards. When I got home and cleaned it, my Tipton rod would go 8"down the breech before it started rotating. LOL!
Mike

What bullet weight with the 223?

[Linefinder]

Started with moly-coated 55 grain VMax over Varget. Finally quit Moly. Switched to uncoated 45 grain VMaxes over Ramshot Xterminator. Holy gosh....those things were fast. 3,700 FPS extends the range of the .223 Rem by a large margin. It wasn't a benchrest rifle, but it was routinely a 700 yard pdog rig.

Mike

[Ernie]

Moving Out!!!

[Linefinder]

I had posted about bopping pdogs at 700 yards with a .223 Rem rifle. Dan Johnson opined that wasn't possible. So the next day I went out and busted 4 out of 4 with 5 shots at 720-725 yards. That ended our conversation. The way I figured it...he could have an opinion or I could have pdogs for lunch.

Mike

[Diver43]

Started with moly-coated 55 grain VMax over Varget. Finally quit Moly. Switched to uncoated 45 grain VMaxes over Ramshot Xterminator. Holy gosh....those things were fast. 3,700 FPS extends the range of the .223 Rem by a large margin. It wasn't a benchrest rifle, but it was routinely a 700 yard pdog rig.

Mike

Mike, how did you keep those 45gr pills in a straight line?
I find the slightest breeze moves them all over.
The faster the better?

[Linefinder]

Diver,

Scooter taught me at least one thing. 300-400 more FPS over your standard overcomes a lot of the winds' sins. Took me quite awhile to get onboard. At extreme range, usually heavier is better. But, inside of 1K.....fast is where it's at. My 2 .223 Rems launch 45 grainers at +3700 FPS. My 6mm Rem launches 75 grainers at the same speed. Unless the wind is EXTREMLEY tough, I can barely tell a difference.

As witnessed by JerryBobCo.....My longest witnessed shot was on a pdog at 790 yards. I did that with my 6mm Rem. As Jerry drove to the deceased to verify the range, he radioed me back that he'd ranged another dead one at 740. And several more were scattered closely around him. I'd killed those much earlier in the day with a .223 Rem.

Speed kills.

Mike

[Diver43]

Thanks
About those dogs, maybe use them instead of chipmunks?

[Linefinder]

I've probably killed 50,000 pdogs. I poked one with my finger...once. Nasty little bastards. Chipmunks are a better option.

Mike