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Barrel Break-In

Mike in Oregon

Mike in Oregon

Gold $$ Contributor
How do YOU break your barrel in? I've read all the different barrel manufactures ways and so forth and to me it seems to be just a matter of opinion. To me, most of these processes seem extreme and very time consuming. What exactly is the objective here when breaking in a barrel?
 
You are going to get a variety of answers depending on the discipline of the shooter. In the final analysis, you are going to have to decide for yourself. However, I can offer my experience.

I am not a competition shooter so I can only tell you about my experience from a precision varmint hunter's perspective where precision is also critical due to the small vital area of the critters.

I have never done any of the so called "break in" procedures in 50+ years of precision shooting. I have put thousands of rounds in precision shooting through many different calibers and brands of rifles, and I have been able to meet all my precision requirements.

My experience has been the about the same as post # 2 with factory rifles, after about 25 to 50 rounds I have noticed that group size becomes more consistent. I believe this may be due to the copper filling the tooling imperfections in the bore thus "smoothing" out the bore.

I believe because I do not use aggressive copper removing solvents thus not stripping the bore down to bare metal, I have been able to maintain first shot clean and cold barrel POI consistency. I have several thousands of rounds through several different brands of rifles, and this approached has worked for me, a simple solvent, a brush bronze, and cleaning every 50 to 60 rounds.
 
K22 said:
You are going to get a variety of answers depending on the discipline of the shooter. In the final analysis, you are going to have to decide for yourself. However, I can offer my experience.

I am not a competition shooter so I can only tell you about my experience from a precision varmint hunter's perspective where precision is also critical due to the small vital area of the critters.

I have never done any of the so called "break in" procedures in 50+ years of precision shooting. I have put thousands of rounds in precision shooting through many different calibers and brands of rifles, and I have been able to meet all my precision requirements.

My experience has been the about the same as post # 2 with factory rifles, after about 25 to 50 rounds I have noticed that group size becomes more consistent. I believe this may be due to the copper filling the tooling imperfections in the bore thus "smoothing" out the bore.

I believe because I do not use aggressive copper removing solvents thus not stripping the bore down to bare metal, I have been able to maintain first shot clean and cold barrel POI consistency. I have several thousands of rounds through several different brands of rifles, and this approached has worked for me, a simple solvent, a brush bronze, and cleaning every 50 to 60 rounds.
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This is what I'm talking about. You having years of experience with thousands of rounds down range, you keep it simple and get great accuracy!
 
SKWERLZ said:
I fireform brass to new barrel with a moderate load and shoot it at distance.
Clean it every 50 shots or so till all brass is done.
Basically I’m just kinda nice at first before I get sporty with
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My thoughts are if your reloading, your first initial firing of your brass is fireforming. And the second time around your accuracy will improve even more. Just my .02 cents.
 
I break in barrels with the Krieger 1 shot, clean, then repeat for 5 shots.
Then repeat if necessary, Then a 3 or 5 shot group, then clean.

The purpose is to get the copper fouling out that is caused by the cross lands scratching from the reamer, and the copper that is deposited in the bore.

The last Krieger barrel I did this to took 7 shots total, before there was no more copper fouling.
So it's really not a big deal. it happens as I am re-zeroing the rife after reassembly.

This may or may not apply to factory barrels, I have never tried to break in a factory barrel.

Krieger reference on break in. BREAK IN and CLEANING
 
powderbrake said:
I break in barrels with the Krieger 1 shot, clean, then repeat for 5 shots.
Then repeat if necessary, Then a 3 or 5 shot group, then clean.

The purpose is to get the copper fouling out that is caused by the cross lands scratching from the reamer, and the copper that is deposited in the bore.

The last Krieger barrel I did this to took 7 shots total, before there was no more copper fouling.
So it's really not a big deal. it happens as I am re-zeroing the rife after reassembly.

This may or may not apply to factory barrels, I have never tried to break in a factory barrel.

Krieger reference on break in. BREAK
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butchlambert said:
This comes up about a couple times a year. Tell me, what in the barrel are you breaking in? I'm speaking custom barrels.
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Benchmark, Lilja and Pac-Nor. Here's a good question, are blanks hand lapped?
 
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My 204r barrel was a pac nor and since it was my first time ever getting a custom aftermarket barrel I followed their procedures using a bronze brush.
Shot 1 clean for 10 rounds
Shot 3 clean for 5 sets
Shot 5 clean for 5 sets

I will say that the barrel cleans up really good and fast compared to other barrels I have
 
So can you start load development at the same time as barrel break-in and have a pretty good idea on what it's going to like?
 
K22 said:
I have never done any of the so called "break in" procedures in 50+ years of precision shooting. I have put thousands of rounds in precision shooting through many different calibers and brands of rifles, and I have been able to meet all my precision requirements.
Click to expand...
Me too. One exception. 65 years.
 
For hunting rifles, you can shoot/clean--fire form/rough zero scope and probably get a pretty good idea about bullet compatibility ( barrel speed if you have a chrono)at the same time. Call it your break in period.
 
Mike in Oregon said:
How do YOU break your barrel in? I've read all the different barrel manufactures ways and so forth and to me it seems to be just a matter of opinion. To me, most of these processes seem extreme and very time consuming. What exactly is the objective here when breaking in a barrel?
Click to expand...
Most Barrel Mfgr's have all agreed
There is no need for a barrel break in procedure -(custom barrels anyhow)
One Mfgr. (and I forget who).... to summarize what they said....
"got tired of people asking for one so merely came up with one to appease people"
As in, if ya won't listen to me and keep asking then
There, theres a break in procedure, (rolls eyes) ya happy?
-----------------------
I would assert however, a factory, rough, hammer forged, rifling, non-lapped barrel
will benefit from a break in.
Think of it more like burnishing the surface more than seasoning or something along those lines
Youre removing/ smoothing rough edges and surface imperfections, so more burnishing
-not removing material as one would with sandpaper to smooth something.
A custom barrel does not have such rough edges and surface irregularities like a factory barrel does.
if it is hand lapped, it is already smoothed out
 
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I dont bother with barrel break in. I use kreiger and bartlein barrels. 20 shots or so with a previously proven load to see (roughly) how the barrel shoots. Then straight into load dev.
My theory is that by using mild abrasives after every session, I dont find I experience barrel speed up as reported by others.
 
Here's the problem with this issue. You can't prove or disproved it. In other words, you can't take a specific individual new barrel then break in then not break it in or vice versa. This issue then becomes a theoretical discussion.

One thing that can be verified is that after shooting a new barrel a few times, a layer of copper is laid down in the bore. This does, over time, fill in the tooling mark in those barrels that have them. When you strip it out to bare metal, the imperfections are re-exposed, thus the need for fouling shots. It seems counter-productive to fill in those imperfections, then expose them again by removing the copper layer, then repeating the process over and over.

Also, the idea that a copper jacket is somehow going to "burnish" steel imperfections with a break-in procedure does not seem reasonable given the considerable difference in hardness between the two.

But what do I know, I just shoot groundhogs and predators these days. If you want to spend the time and components to feel better about it, then "break it in". Don't stress out about it.

This issue like routine cleaning is a never-ending debate.
 
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