Breaking in a New Stainless Barrel

[Stan Taylor]

I will only say one thing to the OP of this post don't believe a word that I told you just go with the methods all the guys told you on here they obviously know more than I can give you sorry about leading you in the wrong way to break in a Douglas button rifled barrel.

 

[South Pender]

I called them , and they sent me a e-mail with their recommended instructions for barrel break-in . It's a sequence of shoot one , clean , for three cycles . Shoot three , clean . Shoot five , clean . Etc....Hope that helps .

Thanks for that. So, is it shoot one, clean, shoot another one, clean, shoot a third one, clean. Then shoot 3 clean, shoot 3, clean, shoot 3, clean, and then shoot 5, clean, and so on?

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

I've read that it matters and that it doesn't matter. I think that if you have a barrel that's only going to see 1000 rounds or so before it goes south, it wouldn't matter. If your barrel will see a longer life, you may see a difference after so many cleanings with the brush being pulled back through the bore. as far as patches, let them fall off after clearing the muzzle. imho.

I think Boyd did a wonderful job of describing how he cleans his bore and it mirrors what I do pretty much spot on.

I have seen shooters that remove the brush before pulling the rod back, at br matches. I also believe that a bronze brush WITHOUT grit and dirt will never hurt a bore or unlikely, a crown either. I do think a dirty brush is hard on the crown and the barrel too, to a lesser extent. I've seen it under magnification and it's, imho, indisputable.

That said and as gambleone also very well said, the wear is greater over 10,000 rounds and subsequent cleanings than one of significantly shorter lifespan. I've reviewed the crowns on many of my own barrels over time. I use to and still do a fair amount, shoot a 30 Major which is very similar to a 30br in terms of barrel life. I believe that it was worthwhile to touch up the crown at about every 2000 rounds on those and I somewhat commonly touch up the throat at the same interval. But a lot of the top group shooters swap out barrels well before even 1000 rounds on a 6ppc. In that case, I agree with gambleone, that they are unlikely to see much if any benefit. Crown wear from brushing is something that happens with time from both the brush and likely about equally...the flame and heat at the muzzle with a sharp edge, or crown.

A factor in my results and findings vs. others may be that that I don't clean nearly as often as a lot of the top shooters in the br world. I clean when the barrel needs it. I do use ws2 but have won multiple aggs with way more than a single two yardage agg between cleaning....so I believe in the stuff. YMMV

 

[JFrank]

I will only say one thing to the OP of this post don't believe a word that I told you just go with the methods all the guys told you on here they obviously know more than I can give you sorry about leading you in the wrong way to break in a Douglas button rifled barrel.

^^^ This is great

 

[divingin]

In the second link Gail goes on to explain
"Have you ever noticed how fishing line will wear out the guides on your fishing rod?"
I can certainly tell you for sure that it does

I'm not disputing anything here, but I wonder how the guide would look if you used bronze fishing line.

 

[divingin]

Thanks for that. So, is it shoot one, clean, shoot another one, clean, shoot a third one, clean. Then shoot 3 clean, shoot 3, clean, shoot 3, clean, and then shoot 5, clean, and so on?

FWIW, I just started shooting my long range 6mm barrel. One shot, clean (2 or 3 patches with Boretech C4, followed by patches with CU+ until they came out with little blue after a 5 min soak), repeated until the first copper patch was showing about 75% less color. In this case, that took 6 or 7 shots. Fired the 3 to get to an even number, cleaned again. Subsequent 5 shot groups showed very little copper to the end of the 1st 50 rounds.

Been cleaning every 25 rounds since then and seeing just a trace of copper after a 5 minute soak with CU+.

 

[redrockranger]

Nobody knew more about rifle barrels than Gayle McMillan.

ED Shilen and G R Douglas maybe ?

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

ED Shilen and G R Douglas maybe ?

But I'll venture a guess, that with premium lapped barrels, 95+% of fouling originates in the throat, cut by the reamer and that is out of the barrel maker's control.

 

[Ccrider]

But I'll venture a guess, that with premium lapped barrels, 95+% of fouling originates in the throat, cut by the reamer and that is out of the barrel maker's control.

Strange. The copper I am seeing is at the muzzle end. Very little at the throat/breech.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Strange. The copper I am seeing is at the muzzle end. Very little at the throat/breech.

I can't validate this but I've read it a few times, that at the temps involved while the bullet is in the bore, the copper becomes displaced and is redeposited as pressures and temperature drops. This would explain why copper wash at the muzzle is fairly common, and frankly, I can't think of another reason why that nice, pretty uniform layer of copper would develop at the muzzle so prevalently when it doesn't do the same elsewhere down a barrel in the same way.

IME, once the throat is broken in, fouling rapidly drops off and may even stop completely for long strings. When that drop off occurs, the copper wash at the muzzle does too. A bore scope tells lots of truths regarding where copper is in a barrel...and where it's not.

 

[nicholst55]

Don’t think they distribute in the U. S.

There is a listing for a Milfoam in Hamden, CT, but I can't get their website to open - www.milfoam.com

 

[Ccrider]

There is a listing for a Milfoam in Hamden, CT, but I can't get their website to open - www.milfoam.com

Supposedly Outers is the same labeled for the U. S.

 

[Old Navy]

And "soft" carbon is far easier to remove than hard carbon.

Ain't that the truth. Had to remove one carbon ring. That was a lot of work.