M14 Forum

45.308

Key words are, can do more damage.

For me, I will not take the risk since my firearms do not require cleaning to function and be accurate. I basically do not want anything but bullets down the tube unless necessary. I cannot reason why it is necessary to break in a barrel; one round clean, 3 rounds clean, etc or after every 20 rounds or 50 rounds. While its good for the economy and cleaning supply companies, talking to some shooters that come in, they spend more money on cleaning supplies in a year than a new barrel would cost in how ever many years it would take to shoot it out, spend money on ammo. I have had customers come in and ask what is the best ammo for breaking in a new barrel, I want the very best ammo for breaking in my barrel, they walk out with 3 boxes of Fed GMM. I have handed some Fed classic, Rem Cor lok or AE will do just fine, they respond, nope, and will argue they must use the highest quality ammo to break in their barrel right.

I have 10/22 from 1966 that is impossible to count the rounds, been toted all over, killed many hoppers and cans. I doubt its been cleaned 10 times, got some rust, many dings and scratches. I passed it on to my eldest son and he still pops hoppers with it. When we go to plink, has a failure a couple times but what rimfire doesn't with cheap brick ammo. It is as accurate as my new .22 rimfire that replaced it. But I also have to say, handling that old beater 10/22 and a new 10/22, got quite a different feel.

bmcgilvray

I clean after each use and am attentive to copper fouling and it's removal but won't be subjecting myself or my rifle's bore to special break-in regimens which sounds completely hokey. I've not had a new barrel to "break in" since this type of information began floating around the 'net. Now that I'm aware of it I would ignore it completely on the next new barrel placed into use.

Charlene32

i just got a new bolt action myself. a savage 10fp-sr. i cleaned the barrel real good before i shot it. i then put 12rds down range with out all the "gun break-in" BS. it took me 6 shots to sight the scope in. the last 6 shots were a half inch group. i will be posting some pics of my new rifle. i love it.

valken

Here you go the barrel brake in explained

Charlene32

valken....that was freakin hilarious.....hahaha

BLACKTAIL 8541

That video was perfect!

hammonje

Yep,

Personally, I just take it easy with a new barrel until I get to 200 rounds or so. I don't take it out on the first try and shoot 200 rounds. Maybe 40 rounds and clean it well. Almost all of my rifles with new barrels really settled down after this period.

The only rational explanation for this phenomen, and not really having anything to do with most of the bore, is that there may be a small burr at the chamber end of the bore from cutting that needs to be smoothed and this is why barrels settle in after 200-300 rounds or so. This smooths or removes the burr. Sounds logical and this phenomenon has been pretty consistent with most of my new barreled rifles. Takes a while to settle in and really start placing tight groups. YMMV.

Barrel break-in is baseless to me.

Daves762

Super funny video's thanks....

I used a foaming bore cleaner and bore snake about every 5 rounds for first 50 just cause I was already waiting for it to cool so I might as well.....

Thanks.

valken

Here is some interesting reading for you too on barrel break in

http://www.snipercountry.com/Article...el_BreakIn.asp

armydogdoc

I just bought a savage 17hmr for dog blast in so I am wanting excellent accuracy from it so I was curious about this as well. I have never broken in a barrel yet so I was concerned that perhaps I was in error. After watching the video and reading your posts here I am not doing all that crap. Thanks guys!

losok

As a builder this is what I do with customer rifles, I shoot at least 20 rounds through the gun in almost every case. I shoot five bore snake after each one, then 5 straight and bore snake again. Then 10 straight and snake it one more time. I do this since most service rifle barrels are short chambered, and so are the barrels that many customers send me to use. Most of these barrel were lapped before I got them, so no need to repeat that, but the sharp edges from finishing the chamber will be cleaned up and smoothed out by the first few rounds. Often resulting in fouling being heavy for the first 20-50 rounds. This is also why you never check throat erosion on a brand new barrel until about 50 rounds or so, as sharp edges on a brand new chamber will give you a false tight reading. Check it at about 50 rounds and keep track form there, this is how I was taught by both the gunsmith that trained me, and also by a now deceased barrel maker that built many world record bench rest barrels. When I am done on the range that day, I clean with a good solvent and call it a day.

As far as routine cleaning, since most all mine are nitride treated, I just clean with a few patches of Hoppes #9 and then snake it. I then go foul the gun with five shots and put it away. You can never ever duplicate a clean bore shot, so dont start your group with one. Foul the gun and put it away, modern rounds will not cause you a corrosion problem. If by past training, you need to and cant just store it, do no more than snake it after fouling. In LE sniper training, I found my M14 and my bolt gun both shot better the dirtier I let them get, once they got good and fouled they really tightened up nice. I would not clean them more than every 500-1000 rounds. I just brushed out the bolt face, cleaned the action area with a brush, and called it good, not saying every gun is this way, but these two were pig guns, they liked it dirty. I had to document my groups and you could tell if my gun was clean, they were not as good.

valken

Interesting point I like it

BigBill

Barrel breakin, I benchrest a new rifle right away to zero in the scope and to see if its accurate. I shoot and wait a few minutes so the barrel cool down then repeat while sighting it in. After 5 rounds i may run the bore mop from the receiver out to the muzzle. But most of the time it takes 3 or 4 rds to get it zero'd in.

Now on my 30-06 i had all kinds of problems. I figured the bore had burrs from the rifling cutter/button being dull. I even tried the FMJ military ammo to smooth out the bore. I finally ended up reloading for accuracy.

I do leave my barrels fouled after a day at the range and going hunting soon with them. I clean the bores and oil them up after hunting season is all over.