Breaking in a Barrel

[regnar]

Just wondering how you guys go about breaking in a new barrel?

[whitetail71165]

Try this.

Start by cleaning the barrel as well as possible. Then shoot a round and clean, shoot a round and clean for 10 shots.

Then shoot 3 rounds and clean, 3 rounds and clean for 20 shots.

They say what your doing is lapping the barrel with the bullet.

I've done this with several of my rifles and it has made cleaning easier and helped accuracy.

[b4rifle]

I break in very simular to whitetail. 10 single shots with cleaning between each shot. five 3 shot groups, cleaning after each group. Last five five shot groups with cleaning after each group. That should take out all of the inperfections out of the barrel.

[regnar]

Thanks

That is what I do as well just thought I would ask. What do you guys use for a slovent? ANything special or just bore cleaner?

[whitetail71165]

I use a bore cleaner from Remington called 40-X but i don't think it matters. As long as it's a quality bore cleaner.

[soccerref]

forgive the stupid question, but why does a barrel need to be broken in?? What does it do?

[dano]

Thanks for asking Socceref, I was wondering the same thing myself.

[whitetail71165]

When a firearm is produced in the factory the barrel is bored out and not finished in any way so there may be burrs and other such abnormalities that can effect the accuracy of a firearm. Also there could be compounds or coolant that they use during machining that can be left in the rifling. Breaking in a barrel is a way of "seasoning" a barrel to eliminate as much of this as possible. Many gunsmiths will have you do this if you bring a weapon to them that has accuracy problems. It's a good starting point.

This can also be done with used weapons that weren't cleaned properly by the previous owner.

[regnar]

I was going to try and explain this but I found this on the web. it is from www.kriegerbarrels.com/

Look on the left for the link under Break in & Cleaning plus lots of other neat stuff


BREAK-IN & CLEANING

With any premium barrel that has been finish lapped -- such as your Krieger Barrel --, the lay or direction of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, so fouling is minimal. This is true of any properly finish-lapped barrel regardless of how it is rifled. If it is not finish-lapped, there will be reamer marks left in the bore that are directly across the direction of the bullet travel. This occurs even in a button-rifled barrel as the button cannot completely iron out these reamer marks.

Because the lay of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, very little is done to the bore during break-in, but the throat is another story. When your barrel is chambered, by necessity there are reamer marks left in the throat that are across the lands, i.e. across the direction of the bullet travel. In a new barrel they are very distinct; much like the teeth on a very fine file. When the bullet is forced into the throat, copper dust is released into the gas which at this temperature and pressure is actually a plasma. The copper dust is vaporized in this gas and is carried down the barrel. As the gas expands and cools, the copper comes out of suspension and is deposited in the bore. This makes it appear as if the source of the fouling is the bore when it is actually for the most part the new throat. If this copper is allowed to stay in the bore, and subsequent bullets and deposits are fired over it; copper which adheres well to itself, will build up quickly and may be difficult to remove later. So when we break in a barrel, our goal is to get the throat polished without allowing copper to build up in the bore. This is the reasoning for the "fire-one-shot-and-clean" procedure.

Barrels will vary slightly in how many rounds they take to break in because of things like slightly different machinability of the steel, or steel chemistry, or the condition of the chambering reamer, etc. . . For example a chrome moly barrel may take longer to break in than stainless steel because it is more abrasion resistant even though it is the same hardness. Also chrome moly has a little more of an affinity for copper than stainless steel so it will usually show a little more "color" if you are using a chemical cleaner. (Chrome moly and stainless steel are different materials with some things in common and others different.) Rim Fire barrels can take an extremely long time to break in -- sometimes requiring several hundred rounds or more. But cleaning can be lengthened to every 25-50 rounds. The break-in procedure and the clearing procedure are really the same except for the frequency. Remember the goal is to get or keep the barrel clean while polishing out the throat.

Finally, the best way to break-in the barrel is to observe when the barrel is broken in; i.e. when the fouling is reduced. This is better than some set number of cycles of "shoot and clean" as many owners report practically no fouling after the first few shots, and more break-in would be pointless. Conversely, if more is required, a set number would not address that either. Besides, cleaning is not a completely benign procedure so it should be done carefully and no more than necessary.

[whitetail71165]

Now thats a mouthful. Didn't i just say that? ;D OK so mine was a little lacking in information ;D

[soccerref]

Sorry to dig up an old topic, but since I will hopefully be doing this Saturday!

Regnar's description makes sense, shoot/clean until no more fouling. Great. But how does one tell when there's no fouling?

Once I shoot, the cleaning is going to show a dirty gun, happens after 1 shot, so what's teh visual difference between "normal" dirty and fouling?

[regnar]

For me it was easy. First patch cleans the powder residue, after that it is fouling that is coming off.

I followed this for two rifles since then and it seemed to work as both guns are/ were shooter.

good luck

[soccerref]

Well the gun is in, picking it up Friday afternoon, so I will be shooting it this weekend.

I always use more than 1 patch to clean a gun, first one comes out black, each after that comes out less black. Hmmm, not sure, but I will give it a shot!