Barrel break in

[Dusty Stevens]

I chamber my own rifles, that's the area I was referring to the throat...I use JB or lately Isso paste on the throat after chambering...I check with a borescope...no burrs, a nice even transition angle in the leade...and I polish down the bore and very little at the end of the bore. Then I go shoot ... no break in need as far as I'm concerned. My chamber and throat are new and already polished.
I haven't bought a new factory rifles 22 years except for the 50 BMG. I put new quality barrels on most of my old guns. Build my own for my liking...so basically we are doing the same thing if you call polishing off any burrs left by the reamer in the throat area, barrel break in... but I don't continue the process out at tbe range. Just on the bench one time, then inspect with borescope...and done. But that doesn't mean my proceedure is for you, or your factory barrel techniques, do what works for you...cause if I thought I'd gain something by doing the range time cleaning and shoot process, I might, cause I have for years in the past...now being older I do things differently, as to what matters, or what concerns me. Some of it is how you define it. Good input, on the proceedure here, defined as "barrel break in" so we're on the same page of understanding...barrel break in, is throat or lead break in, now defined as the same. That wasn't the case 20 plus years ago.

It was exactly the same thing 20 even 40 years ago to those who knew what was happening inside their barrel. There wasnt sub $100 borescopes in every garage back then.

 

[Ray123]

It was exactly the same thing 20 even 40 years ago to those who knew what was happening inside their barrel. There wasnt sub $100 borescopes in every garage back then.

I was around 40 years ago and most shooters were doing barrel break-in and so was I. We weren't concerned about the cartridge chamber for any break -in proceedure, as you are, but only where the bullet touches the bore throughout its length. Back then our concerns were where the chambering reamer also cuts the throat or leade in the Bore, plus the complete length of the bore all the way to the muzzle. So we worked the leade AND the bore all the way through, for the barrel break-in proceedure. This was because factory barrels were probably not as good back then, and it seemed to help. There were all kinds of throat matainence products, and barrel bore ideas to smooth out barrel imperfections...fire lapping, Tubb final finish, ceramic coatings all advertised in Precision Shooting magazine at the time...so everyone knows the orginal ideas of barrel break-in back in the day it was published for at least 40 yrs...but today it seems, some only are concerned about the throat area and work that area of the barrel only, as I understand their definition, of barrel break-in. Used to call that throat matainence, also done ofter barrel break-in through out the lifetime of the barrel...hence David Tubbs final finish was quite popular, not only for smoothing out barrel imperfections but later on for throat matainence. I never used it, but many did with reportedly positive results.