Breaking in a barrel question.

[Pa.Mike]

I break in all my barrels with the shoot one round, clean and repeat for 10 shots. My question is this. I was told after cleaning to run a lightly oiled patch followed by a dry patch before firing the next round in the process. Others say after cleaning with the solvent run dry patches down the bore and shoot with a dry bore. Who is correct ? On a $350.00 barrel I would like to get the best result for my efforts. Thanks for any advice forwarded!

Mike

 

[Fast14riot]

I break in all my barrels with the shoot one round, clean and repeat for 10 shots. My question is this. I was told after cleaning to run a lightly oiled patch followed by a dry patch before firing the next round in the process. Others say after cleaning with the solvent run dry patches down the bore and shoot with a dry bore. Who is correct ? On a $350.00 barrel I would like to get the best result for my efforts. Thanks for any advice forwarded!

Mike

Personally, I do not like to shoot on a wet bore. All it takes is some oil in the chamber and you can have some bigger problems.

 

[jelenko]

Definitely no liquid in the bore.

That said, if the barrel's been lapped, there are many, including myself, who don't break it in.
I.e., if it's been lapped, why lap it again?

 

[JayHHI6818]

Eric Cortina did a YouTube interview with Ken from Brux barrels. They discuss barrel break in

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Im a shoot it and clean it when you would any other time type guy

 

[davidjoe]

Definitely no liquid in the bore.

That said, if the barrel's been lapped, there are many, including myself, who don't break it in.
I.e., if it's been lapped, why lap it again?

John Krieger seemed to agree that a new lapped barrel doesn’t benefit from extra cleaning. The throat’s machining marks smoothing out usually prevent optimal accuracy for a number shots, but cleaning between shots won’t change that issue much if any on barrels in that category.

 

[butchlambert]

What needs to be broken in on a custom lapped barrel?? Only the throat from the reamer fluff from chambering. That can be taken care of without shooting.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I break in all my barrels with the shoot one round, clean and repeat for 10 shots. My question is this. I was told after cleaning to run a lightly oiled patch followed by a dry patch before firing the next round in the process. Others say after cleaning with the solvent run dry patches down the bore and shoot with a dry bore. Who is correct ? On a $350.00 barrel I would like to get the best result for my efforts. Thanks for any advice forwarded!

Mike

If you've got a quality barrel where it's been properly lapped (like, no machining marks left), there's really no need for any break in. But certainly, you'll want to make sure the chamber and bore are clean before you first fire it. Then just shoot it. Barrels with machining marks in the bore, like one typically find with factory barrels, should be broken in.

 

[tobnpr]

How to Break-in a Barrel

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[Dusty Stevens]

What needs to be broken in on a custom lapped barrel?? Only the throat from the reamer fluff from chambering. That can be taken care of without shooting.

Shhh

 

[AlNyhus]

What needs to be broken in on a custom lapped barrel?? Only the throat from the reamer fluff from chambering. That can be taken care of without shooting.

Butch and Dusty are spot on.

The reamer fuzz in the throat area gets taken care of at home w/o sending a bullet down the barrel.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[HTSmith]

Butch and Dusty are spot on.

The reamer fuzz in the throat area gets taken care of at home w/o sending a bullet down the barrel.

Good shootin' -Al

Do tell how to do this? Thank you.

 

[AlNyhus]

Do tell how to do this? Thank you.

Rather than do that, think about what actually happens when bullets pass over the reamer fuzz. -Al

 

[std7mag]

I do the clean between shots for the first 3. Then clean after 3 shots for 3 cycles. Then call it good.
But i don't own any custom lapped barrels, either.

Just remember NOT to run a borescope down a factory Savage barrel!
Just accept that it shoots!

 

[DaveTooley]

When I start out with a new barrel I'll put 3 or 4 drops of oil on a patch and work it back and forth after cleaning. If you were on motorcycle and had to lay it down on pavement, which I've done. Would you rather slide on wet pavement or dry? We lube our bolt lugs, bolt cocking ramp. Why not the bore? Now with being said if you don't over clean you will get layer/a build up/dusting of carbon fouling, which you can manage, that eliminates the need for additional lubrication.
Every barrel that has come through my shop for at least 25 years has left here "broken in"

 

[AlNyhus]

Every barrel that has come through my shop for at least 25 years has left here "broken in"

Dave, it was about that time frame that I did my first one this way. Stan Ware had just chambered up a Lilja 3 groove 1:17 .30 for me and I told what I wanted to do. He thought about it and said "Why wouldn't it work?" I brought the gun and my loading stuff over, did the break in on the work bench, screwed the barrel on the gun, set the seating depth to .020 'jam-seat' and ran one patch with a few drops of Hoppe's #9 down the barrel. Shot one and cleaned...just because. No copper. Next five shots measured .168. Cleaned normally after that group and there was z-e-r-o fouling.

I've done it that way ever since and every barrel that Stan chambered from that day forward got the same treatment.

Some years later, 'Humble' Henry Rivers and I were talking and I mentioned it to him....we found out we'd both been doing the same thing, the same way!

 

[jimmymac]

I wish one of you guys would enlighten the rest of us about this ancient Chinese secret.

 

[Ggmac]

50,000 lbs plus 5,000-6000 degrees has a way of eliminating small pieces of metal .

 

[Bob3700]

I don't know about Chinese secrets, but once a bbl. is chambered, the tool marks in the throat area are from the reamer. These marks are 90 degrees to the bore line. With your borescope you can see the radial lines in the lead area of the throat. Our group of amateur pipefitters now take a patch over a worn brush and put a fine diamond lapping paste on the patch. The patch fits snuggly in the bore. Work the patch in the throat area and inspect frequently. You can see the "Fraze" from the reamer begin to disappear and feel the smooth throat. We also work the patch up and down the bore a couple of times and you can feel the bore really smooth out. The diamond paste is a mild abrasive so we don't get too aggressive with it. Just clean up the tool marks. The bbl is now broken in and you can begin shooting with shot 1.
Your one shot and clean method is doing the same thing thing. It is using the hot gasses and the lapping effect of the bullet to smooth out the throat. That is why between shot 5 and 10 (on your bbl. break in ) the blue on your patches disappears. The radial scratches in the throat are smoothed out and no longer stripping the jacket material off your bullet.
The above method gets you to shooting instead of cleaning. That is what we do and it works for us, YMMV.

 

[jelenko]

Even in a barrel that's already been lapped?

ETA: As someone pointed out, the chamber is created after the barrel is lapped.