How To Break In A New Barrel..........

[Kman]

Bergara B-14 HMR in 308.I shot it 9 times tuesday and swabbed it after each shot with a cool down period between each shot.Will shoot it next week again. Just curious if there is a correct way. Thats the way I have done my new guns.

I have seen them at Wilson Shoals shooting/pre-qualifying each of the rifles they sell. No cleaning or breaking in procedures at al. This is from a review of your gun and words straight from Bergara.

Bergara’s instruction manual suggests a barrel break-in procedure of cleaning between each shot for the first five to 10 shots, then every five shots until you reach a total of 50 shots. When asked about the procedure considering the guns come pre-qualified and guaranteed to shoot 1-MOA groups or better, Fleming confided that it’s just a suggestion for those people who think they need to do a break-in. “Some folks still insist on doing it,” he says, “so that is the process we recommend.”

 

[lostchild]

Begin with a quality barrel,

 

[JSoko]

can't belive all the WRONG answers, where do you guys come up with this stuff
swab barrel with Bear Tallow
leave in bore
makes bullet come out faster
enuff said

 

[GFB]

Go to manufacturers' websites and find their recommended procedure. You're going to find some drastic differences. For example:

Lilja recommends a break in and lists a procedure.

Hart does not recommend a break in procedure, says it's unnecessary.

Like most people, I just clean, shoot until complete, clean.

 

[JDS556762]

My favorite!

“Now this is a Bull barrel. Most rifles come with a Cow Barrel, make sure you get a Bull Barrel.”

 

[10thmountain]

I broke ina .308 criterion barrel and it was a pain but worth it.

 

[cmshoot]

A barrel break-in procedure will not hurt a barrel, and may very well pay big dividends in the end. All it will cost you is some time and cleaning kit. Why not do it?

 

[jglenn]

barrel break-in really deals with the throat area of the barrel. rifling is what it is from the maker.. chamber reamers will leave sharp edges and those are the issue.. some custom smiths will attempt to remove them after chambering and others will leave it up to the shooter. I'm not in favor of lapping a barrel after it's been installed.. Custom lapped barrels have at a minimum the first 1-2" cut off the front and the rear is removed also in setting up the barrel... those areas tend to get larger than the rest of the bore due to the reversing of the lap during the process.

as long as you go slow with your first 30 rounds or so(don't get the barrel overly hot) you'll smooth the throat out.. some folks(myself included) have used loaded round with embedded lapping compound to do this. It works just don't use anything but very fine(1200-1800) grit and don't shoot more than a couple of rounds followed by extreme cleaning. I personally only do this on factory barrels. Custom barrels get the shoot and clean routine although I don't go crazy with the every round cleaning for the first few rounds.

worth the effort sometimes and not other times but you never really know if it helps if your the average shooter, so why not. No two barrels are ever the same no matter what.


endless topic

 

[poopdaddy]

I wasn't agreeing with you. I forgot to add my sarcasm font.

yes you are. you know its true. you just like telling people you must do this,then do that then finally clean it with XXX product. otherwise you wont hit your target.
never mind the person you are telling has a drinking problem,they get the shakes so bad,they could not hit a wall from inside a barn...

 

[GFB]

This is probably in the top 10 for recurring contentious topics on rifle forums. Not in the same ballpark as AR recommendations but it's up there.