Breaking in new barrel

[Gundog 64]

If your barrelis of good quality, go shoot it and forget the waste of time breaking it in.

John

[jim r]

i don't think you are going to be confinced one way or another. it realy dosen't make sense to read a differant barrel manfactures procedure for barrel break in unless you are using there barrel. with every new gun i have ever owned i just took them out and shot it and cleaned them when i was done.there are a lot of opinions on this subject, and for a bench rifle i still also just shoot it. as for copper , it will be back in there the next time you shoot it. and the next, and the next time and so on. just shoot it and then clean ,have fun. jim

[Redhand]

That clean and shoot routine can only breed familiarity with your weapon of choice. Whatever routine you follow can't hurt anything but a little elbow grease but the unintended consequences can be a great aide.

[Festus]

It is my considered opinion that aggressive cleaning is and always has been the largest single source of barrel wear.

Festus

[Mudcat]

That clean and shoot routine can only breed familiarity with your weapon of choice. Whatever routine you follow can't hurt anything but a little elbow grease but the unintended consequences can be a great aide.

Yeah, but exactly what are we breeding??

John

[Bob Womack]

Read a nice piece by a old barrel maker an his story goes like this. He helped a young barrel maker get started and later he ordered a barrel from this guy and in the wrap was instructions on breaking in his barrel. The old guy gets on the phone and says hey whats up with this, an the young guy says look I only sell so many barrels a year so if I get the folks that burn thur 3000 rds and want to rebarrel thier bench gun ,then I just got them to use up 200 or more rounds, then switch over comes quicker. So you think if it was so good why didn't it happen 60 years ago Mmmmmm. Planned obsolescents !

I was fortunate to be the fellow to whom that post was written by gale McMillan. I asked about barrel break-in on either CSP or the Firing Range ten years ago and got this reply:

The break in fad was started by a fellow I helped get started in the barrel business . He started putting a set of break in instructions in ever barrel he shipped. One came into the shop to be installed and I read it and the next time I saw him I asked him What was with this break in crap?. His answer was Mac, My share of the market is about 700 barrels a year. I cater to the target crowd and they shoot a barrel about 3000 rounds before they change it. If each one uses up 100 rounds of each barrel breaking it in you can figure out how many more barrels I will get to make each year. If you will stop and think that the barrel doesn't know whether you are cleaning it every shot or every 5 shots and if you are removing all foreign material that has been deposited in it since the last time you cleaned it what more can you do? When I ship a barrel I send a recommendation with it that you clean it ever chance you get with a brass brush pushed through it at least 12 times with a good solvent and followed by two and only 2 soft patches. This means if you are a bench rest shooter you clean ever 7 or 8 rounds . If you are a high power shooter you clean it when you come off the line after 20 rounds. If you follow the fad of cleaning every shot for X amount and every 2 shots for X amount and so on the only thing you are accomplishing is shortening the life of the barrel by the amount of rounds you shot during this process. I always say Monkey see Monkey do, now I will wait on the flames but before you write them, Please include what you think is happening inside your barrel during break in that is worth the expense and time you are spending during break in

posted by Gale McMillan 1999

I filed that one away.

Bob