Break in?

[wisconsinteacher]

I shot my new 6mmBR today. I shot it 5 times and cleaned it after every shot with Sweets 7.62. I was shocked by the amount of blue that came out after each shot. It took 4-5 patches to get it close to clean. It is a Criterion 28" barrel. I am shooting Varget and Sierra 107gr bullets. I hope that doing this a few more times smooth things out. My question is, is this the standard way to break in and is it normal to have that much blue after only one shot?

 

[A j shooter]

I say yes I did the same yesterday with a Kreiger . I did not use sweets that a little to harsh for me I use butches bore shine it works good for me. I got fouling for about ten to fifteen rds then it stated cleaning up great . Some barrels are different . I have two kreigers and one hart and they clean up real easy.

 

[Bob3700]

The answer to the blue question is YES. You are using the bullet to lap the tooling marks that the chambering reamer made in the throat of the bbl.

The tooling marks are stripping jacket material off each bullet that is shot.

Once those are smoothed out, you will see the blue diminish dramatically.

Bob

 

[dkhunt14]

Now that you have five shots through with cleaning I would go to 2 or 3 shots and it will come around quicker. It is usually the throat that needs smoothed out. Matt

 

[TimP]

The answer to the blue question is YES. You are using the bullet to lap the tooling marks that the chambering reamer made in the throat of the bbl.

The tooling marks are stripping jacket material off each bullet that is shot.

Once those are smoothed out, you will see the blue diminish dramatically.

Bob

+ 1
The last barrel I broke in was a Kreiger. Cleaned after each round until the copper fouling stopped. It took eleven rounds for this to happen. Although this method is rather time consuming IMO it is worth the time spent as the barrel is very easy to clean at least until it starts to fire crack. After break in I clean after every 50 rounds sometimes 100. The copper fouling is minimal after 50 rounds but the carbon fouling especially after 100 rounds always seems to be more of an issue.

 

[fdshuster]

TimP: My thoughts exactly. Every barrel is dfferent including those made by the same manufacturer. I've had new Kriegers that were copper free from the first shot fired (only a very few), coppered heavily for the first 20 to 25 rounds fired ( only a very few), and the majority, as yours, around 8 to 12 rounds.

I also follow a break-in procedure, like you, based on the amount of copper fouling, also verified with my borescope.

 

[johara1]

I use the break in to fire form at the same time, i did 5 barrels for this year and fire formed a hundred rounds. I fire one and clean till it quits making copper, the worst one this year took 9 round before it quit, one took 4 and three were done in one round. I still run 3 shot strings to get 10 rounds down them so they are ready to go. I had one Kreiger that never made copper and one Bartlien 5r that took 50 round to quit and both were junk never did shoot so that is both ends of the spectrum. One shot at a time and clean and bore scope is the way to do it till you don't see copper, running over copper with more rounds doesn't do anything to help the problem it has to be cleaned………. jim

 

[Shynloco]

Over the years, I use a 40 rd break in process regardless of who makes the barrel. That has given me my best results in the long run. I shoot the first 5 and clean after each of those shots. I then increase the groups to five shots each and clean. Personally, I wouldn't be using Varget as I've found that to be a dirty powder. I usually use some extra VV powders that I've found to be clean and complete burning for the breakin process. Just my system for your consideration.

 

[LCazador]

I use the break in to fire form at the same time, i did 5 barrels for this year and fire formed a hundred rounds. I fire one and clean till it quits making copper, the worst one this year took 9 round before it quit, one took 4 and three were done in one round. I still run 3 shot strings to get 10 rounds down them so they are ready to go. I had one Kreiger that never made copper and one Bartlien 5r that took 50 round to quit and both were junk never did shoot so that is both ends of the spectrum. One shot at a time and clean and bore scope is the way to do it till you don't see copper, running over copper with more rounds doesn't do anything to help the problem it has to be cleaned………. jim

I'm with Jim on this. In my opinion, I don't think that a copper jacket from a bullet is going to smooth out a barrel made of much harder stainless steel. IMHO, it's the pressure and powder gases that do. If there is a layer of copper, the gases are not going to smooth that area out. Some barrels are going to take four or five shots for this layer to develop, some only one. A bore scope is the only way to know. Clean after each shot is the best way. The throat has more to be smoothed out depending on chamber work and steel.

 

[johara1]

I know this will open a can of worms, all my barrels now are frozen and the chamber throat is smoother. The rings and shadows from them are less or none at all. So after a few shots they are smooooth………less break in …. ….jim

 

[4xforfun]

I did 7 tubes in the last couple of years. 4 Kriegers, 2 Brux, and one Lilja.

The four Kriegers and two bruxs' were all EXACTLY the same.
1) Clean before 1st shot.


2) Shoot 1 and clean; Lots and lots of copper...took about an Hour to 1 1/2 hours to clean..of course lots of the time is spent letting the Sweets soak. I used Butches, Iasso, Sweets and lots of brushes and patches.

3) Shoot one more and clean;....Cleanup was very quick with very light brushing and no IASSO.

4) Shoot one more and clean; Pushed 6 wet patches(Butches) through...CLEAN. Tested with a 15 min soak with Sweets....CLEAN...not a lick of blue...DONE!!!

The Lilja (338 Edge) is a much different story. It belonged to a friend of mine and I had high hopes after my last six projects. We had limited time because he had to head back home. I used the same process as above. After the sixth shot it STILL was a chimney. But, Since he was there he saw my process and was going to finish himself.

I don't know if that was a cut vs button rifling thing or what, but there sure was a difference!!!

 

[dkhunt14]

I iosso before the first shot and usually don't see much fouling even on the first.

Tom

YEP Tom I usually Iosso the throat pretty good before I fire a shot.

 

[WyleWD]

Each to their own on this, but I always follow the barrel manufacturer's recommendation for break in. A few years back a partner of mine went to break in a new barrel and followed some weird methodology to break it in.

Long story short, it never did shoot well and was a SOB to try to clean. When he called the barrel maker to send it back for a new one, the first thing they asked him was "what was your break-in method?" When he answered... "some guy on the internet told me to...." that was pretty much how it ended too. He had to pay for his next barrel too. They basically told him they put the barrel break in methodology on their website and sent a copy with the barrel for a reason. WD

 

[johara1]

WD, Sounds more like they were trying to get of replacing the the barrel, i had them go as far as to tell me they didn't make the barrel. They are just looking for any reason not to replace it……. jim

 

[WyleWD]

WD, Sounds more like they were trying to get of replacing the the barrel, i had them go as far as to tell me they didn't make the barrel. They are just looking for any reason not to replace it……. jim

;D ;D That could be I guess. But my partner sure left the gate open with that response about how he broke the barrel in.

So when this happened to Mike, I put a "note to self" in my notepad to always break the barrel in by the MFG's instruction. WD

 

[LCazador]

I left something out in my post and that is: clean the barrel and bore scope before you even fire one shot. If you don't have a bore scope then follow the break-in procedure suggested by the barrel maker to " the letter " otherwise you don't have a leg to stand on. While a bore scope will not reveal tight spots, or a loose muzzle, you will be able to see that after a few shots. Over the last 20 years, I have had 2 bad barrels and both manufacturers gladly replaced them. That's a lot of barrels too! I think Wyle covered this quite well.

 

[Area Man]

Another POV from Shilen.

How should I break-in my new Shilen barrel?
Break-in procedures are as diverse as cleaning techniques. Shilen, Inc. introduced a break-in procedure mostly because customers seemed to think that we should have one. By and large, we don't think breaking-in a new barrel is a big deal.

 

[WyleWD]

Another POV from Shilen.

How should I break-in my new Shilen barrel?
Break-in procedures are as diverse as cleaning techniques. Shilen, Inc. introduced a break-in procedure mostly because customers seemed to think that we should have one. By and large, we don't think breaking-in a new barrel is a big deal.

Above is just the first 2 sentences in several paragraphs of instruction.

And there is some good reading and instruction in "the rest of the story". See link below.

http://www.shilen.com/faq.html#question10

 

[Area Man]

The point I was attempting to make was that Shilen doesn't think breaking in a new barrel is a big deal.

Obviously, many disagree, but I was just putting it out there.

 

[johara1]

What Shilen states is basically what i do, single shots and clean and check with a bore scope till it doesn't make copper, then move on…. No set number of shots because this will change barrel …….. jim