Barrel break in

[Rock Knocker]

I will be fireforming my brass and breaking in my barrel tomarow and i was just looking for a couple little pointers because i have never broken in a barrel with Sweets or Butches before.

First i have both butches and sweets available. I was justing going to break in by looking for copper, im not going to be super uptight about the prosses. I planned on using sweets bacuse it really takes the copper out, but then i figured i would have to really get the sweets out before the next shot otherwise it would just strip the copper out of the next bullet.

Would butches be better or should i try to get some of the sweets out with a couple oily patches?




Or put my big boy pants on and not worry about it so much. Thanks for any pointers.

 

[dreever]

Factory or aftermarket barrel?

 

[Rock Knocker]

30" Criterion button riffled .260, and sopposedly hand lapped.

 

[deadlyswift]

You will only need Butches for barrel break in. Not sweets! Butches will get rid of copper just as well as anything on the market. Espeacily if this is a custom barrel. I have no set regimen for barrel break in! It is what ever the barrel tells me it wants. (# of shots between cleaning.) Once past barrel break in pay very close attention to carbon fouling!!! Carbon is your enemy not copper! I've tried a lot of different liquids to get rid of carbon, but at this point it seems JB bore paste is the only thing to get carbon fouling out! I use a Hawkeye bore scope to confirm this. I believe more what my eyes tell me than anyone else. I highly reconmend the Hawkeye! They are costly, but you will find it to save you money and easliy pay for themselves long before one barrel is 1/4 of the way burnt out!
Thanks
Mark

 

[artbosco]

I will be fireforming my brass and breaking in my barrel tomorrow and i was just looking for a couple little pointers because i have never broken in a barrel with Sweets or Butch's before. Would Butch's be better or should i try to get some of the Sweets out with a couple oily patches?

Here is a regimen that will provide good results regardless of whether it's a factory or custom barrel.

You can modify where suggested, and it covers the use of both solvents you already have on hand: http://benchrest.netfirms.com/Barrel%20Break-In.htm

 

[Erik Cortina]

I have found German Salazar's break in procedure to work well for me.

http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2010/11/equipment-barrel-break-in.html

 

[Mark Walker in TX]

Still my favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRahHX9Zkg

 

[artbosco]

If you're breaking in a new high-end custom barrel, like a Krieger for example, you might try Tony Boyer's method which I followed recently:

1. Clean the new barrel, using your chosen method, before any shooting takes place.

2. Put Lock-Ease in the bore.

3. Fire 10 shots. Let the barrel cool. Shoot 10 more shots.

4. Clean again.

5. You're done!

Source: The Book of Rifle Accuracy by Tony Boyer, Page 188

 

[dogdude]

mark's favorite way to break in a barrel is the way my brother in law broke in MY BARREL!!

 

[Erik Cortina]

Still my favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRahHX9Zkg

He's right about the "bull" barrels, the "cow" barrels don't shoot that great, the POI mooooo-ves too much when they heat up! ;D

 

[Rock Knocker]

Like i said im not going to be following any strict procedure, i just have 60+ pieces of brass to fireform and being all day at the range i plan on cleaning up several times just to see what it looks like. Thanks.


BTW, those young fresh cow barrels make better steaks.

 

[Rock Knocker]

The main reason i was asking is because i have plenty of time, plenty of bullets, and put plenty of money into the rifle, so if there was something i should be doing i wanted to make sure i was doing it.

Some say breaking in a barrel is a waiste of bullets and barrel life but since i have to fireform my brass i figured i may as well take my time and take care of the new barrel at the same time.

That being said, i am packing up to spend the day at the range(or as long as it takes to fireform 60 pieces of brass and keep tabs on my new bore) so i will tell you how it went once i get back. Thanks.

 

[woolenmammoth]

like you say, since you are fireforming, try it and see what happens. I have hand lapped custom barrels on all the rifles I shoot now. Some I have followed crazy break in procedures, others not and I cant tell the difference in regards to their accuracy nor difficulty in cleaning. Im also not putting five 6mm bullets into a hole measuring .241, but thats not inspired me to shoot one and clean one for 100 rounds on the next barrel I get either...

 

[Rock Knocker]

What a nightmare, it went terrible and now i need a new rifle.


Actually it went just fine, i got next to no copper fouling but it was hard to tell because of all of the power fouling ???

I shot once then cleaned and was supprised by the powder fouling so i shot agian and cleaned then i took a five shot group and cleaned then another five shot group and cleaned then ten shots and clean and another 10 and cleaned. All had a lot of powder fouling but it cleaned up easy with next to no signs of copper. The barrel has next to a mirror finnish now.

The fireforming went great too exept that some of the loads were pretty hot and flattening primers and giving some signs of head seperation.
How it went: my first 20 no problem but i had the lid off of the box of 20 and its still chilly up here, around 35 degrees when i started. My next box of 20 were sitting with the lid on and almost in the sun and i was getting pressure signs on the first 8 so i took the rest of that box of ammo and the other 20 box of ammo and took the lids off and put them on the ground with snow on all sides, let them chill for a little while and didnt have the problem again. All and all things went just fine.

 

[RDavies]

Or you could do what I do with my new competition barrels. If you have 100 new cases with your new barrel, load 90 with 2/3rds of a case of Trail boss powder and the cheapest bullets you can buy, this will weigh about 1/5th of your normal powder charge and burns so cool and clean. I fire 10 shots and clean until 90 shots are fired. I can fire relativley quickly without getting the barrel hot at all, just plinking with a lot less noise than usual. After these 90 shots, the light load has not given any throat erosion but your barrel is fully broken in and more importantly, you have 90 fireformed cases exactly matching your head space, and with the light carbon residue on your case neck to give the same bullet pull as you will get during normal load work up.

Then use the existing 10 cases as fouling shots the next few times you shoot.

 

[boogershooter]

Whats the deal with the lock ease? I have heard this more than once. Can you elaborate please.

 

[Rock Knocker]

i was wondering about the same thing.

 

[Rock Knocker]

I dont understand the difference between a graphite coated bore and a moly or HBN coated bullet...

 

[steve 57]

That hand lapped barrel is already broke in.Meaning no tool marks,or edges to smoth up.they already did this for you.Breakngin a barrel is for factory guns.What your doing is polishing the barrel with your bullets in a since.Id just keep it clean with butches or shooters choice and go shoot.Remember to much cleaning is also bad.

 

[FroggyOne2]

The way I break a bbl in is to go shoot a match.