Barrel break-in: How To? Should I?

From: Gale McMillan <" gale"@mcmfamily.com>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Barrel break-in necessary?
Date: 7 Jan 1997 20:40:25 -0500

As a barrel maker I have looked in thousands of new and used barrels with a bore scope and I will tell you that if every one followed the prescribed break in method A very large number would do more harm than help. The reason you hear of the help in accuracy is because if you chamber barrel with a reamer that has a dull throater instead of cutting clean sharp rifling it smears a burr up on the down wind side of the rifling. It takes from 1 to 2 hundred rounds to burn this bur out and the rifle to settle down and shoot its best. Any one who chambers rifle barrels has tolerances on how dull to let the reamer get and factories let them go longer than any competent smithe would. Another tidbit to consider, Take a 300Win Mag. that has a life expectancy of 1000 rounds. Use 10% of it up with your break in procedure for ever 10 barrels the barrel maker makes he has to make one more just to take care of the break in. no wonder barrel makers like to see this. Now when you flame me on this please include what you think is happening to the inside of your barrel during the break in that is helping you.

Gale McMillan

NBSRA IBS,FCSA and NRA Life Member

***************************

From: Gale McMillan <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Good barrels for Rem 700 in .308?
Date: 10 Feb 1996 12:50:53 -0500

Consider this, every round shot in breaking in a barrel is one round off the life of said rifle barrel. No one has ever told me the physical reason of what happens during break in firing. In other words to the number of pounds of powder shot at any given pressure, is the life of the barrel. No one has ever explained what is being accomplished by shooting and cleaning in any prescribed method. Start your barrel off with 5 rounds and clean it thoroughly and do it again. Nev Maden a friend down under that my brother taught to make barrels was the one who come up with the break in method. He may think he has come upon something, or he has come up with another way to sell barrels. I feel that the first shot out of a barrel is its best and every one after that deteriorates until the barrel is gone. If some one can explain what physically takes place during break in to modify the barrel then I may change my mind. As the physical properties of a barrel doesn't change because of the break in procedures it means it's all hog wash. I am open to any suggestions that can be documented otherwise if it is just someone's opinion forget it.

Gale McMillan

***************************

From: Gale McMillan <" gale"@mcmfamily.com>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Remington 700 break in
Date: 8 Aug 1997 00:01:07 -0400

Arthur Sprague wrote:
# On 29 Jul 1997 22:50:26 -0400, [email protected] (John W. Engel)
# wrote:
#
# #This is how (some) benchrester break in barrels, and it does work.
# #The mechanism is that the bore has pores in it (microns in size).
# #If you simply shoot a box or two through it without cleaning, the
# #pores fill up with gilding metal, and stay that way. If you
# #follow the above procedure (and they mean *clean* between shots!),
# #the pores are "smoothed over" with each successive shot. A barrel
# #correctly broken in is MUCH easier to clean than one that is
# #not. If it is a good quality tube, it will also be more accurate.
# #Regards,
# #whit
#
# Well, the range hours here are quite limited. On my first trip I
# managed to fire a whole fourteen rounds, with a thorough cleaning
# after each round. It couldn't hurt! Fun gun! Difficult to think of
# .223 as a battle round after experience with .30-06 and .45ACP, but it
# surely going to be a pleasure to shoot.
# Thanks to all for their advice.

This is total hogwash! It all got started when a barrel maker that I know started putting break in instructions in the box with each barrel he shipped a few years ago. I asked him how he figured it would help and his reply was If they shoot 100 rounds breaking in this barrel that's total life is 3000 rounds and I make 1000 barrels a year just figure how many more barrels I will get to make. He had a point it defiantly will shorten the barrel life. I have been a barrel maker a fair amount of time and my barrels have set and reset bench rest world records so many times I quit keeping track (at one time they held 7 at one time) along with HighPower,Silloett,smallbore national and world records and my instructions were to clean as often as posable preferably every 10 rounds. I inspect every barrel taken off and every new barrel before it is shipped with a bore scope and I will tell you all that I see far more barrels ruined by cleaning rods than I see worn out from normal wear and tear.I am even reading about people recommending breaking in pistols. As if it will help their shooting ability or the guns.

Gale Mc.

I tend to break in my barrels on a new rifle, although I really haven't done any testing to determine if it is beneficial or not.

Gut feeling is that group size seemed to shrink. In other words, the first five shots (cleaning between each shot) was substantially larger than with the next five shots (also cleaning between each shot). Would the same thing have happened just by firing five shots, then the next string without cleaning? Beats me.

Cleaning the barrel became noticeably easier and faster after a few firing/cleaning cycles. Again, would that be the case with just firing as much as I wanted and then cleaning? Beats me.

I checked Armalite's site about break in a while back, and they specifically state that using Moly coated bullets greatly helps the break in process. Others will specifically state DO NOT use moly coated bullets for break in. The logic both use seems sound, but no idea who is right. Personally, I use moly bullets whenever possible.

I guess the biggest question is: If you do NOT break in a barrel, can you ruin it? I have heard it stated that yes you will ruin a barrel if it is not properly broken in. But I can't say for certain it is the truth. Maybe a barrel that will only shoot .5 MOA groups is ruined in some people's eyes if it would have been capable of .25 MOA groups. Personally, for me, it wouldn't make a bit of difference. But it does give you pause to think about buying a used rifle, depending on what your attitude is about this situation.

Then on the other hand, I have had a cleaning rod that flexed too much but a mark on the rifling inside a barrel. So obviously due care is needed. This little incident has led me to look harder at using boresnakes exclusively, and ONLY using a rod when there is no other reasonable choice.

Again, buying a used rifle and having the previous owner tell you he cleaned the barrel religiously might not really be good news either.

Re: since nobody can hit 1MOA in the field

223 fan said:

and only rarely can they hit better than `1.5 MOA, it's completely irrelevant if a rifle is "only" 1MOA capable, and it probably will never matter at ALL if it's only" capable of 1.5 MOA. A deer's vital zone is at least an 8" crcle, which would be a 500m shot for a 1.5 MOA rifle and an 800 yd shot for the 1 moa rifle. Both are bs, irresponsible SLOB hunter type shots to take. Men are even bigger marks, basically. unless you are taking out a hostage holder, which requires a sub 100m brain shot, basically, for enough likelihood of success, ANY hit on the man's torso suffices, and if it's shtf, any serious hit to the limbs is highly likely to EVENTUALLY result in his death. It might TAKE a week or so, but what do you CARE, hmm?

Click to expand...

My idea is that you want the rifle itself as accurate as possible (at least 1 MOA capable), because this helps reduce the effect of one variable that can hamper accuracy, and is something that can be controlled by quality manufacture, unlike wind, breath control, trigger control, mirage, temperature, etc, which may change from shot to shot. It's simply a way of starting with the best equipment. In other words, a 1 MOA rifle fired in a light breeze will place the rounds closer together on the target than a 2 MOA rifle in the same breeze. Another example: a 1 MOA rifle might just have that little bit of extra accuracy potential that makes the rifle a little more forgiving of your less-than-perfect breath control.

True, the targets you mention are all larger than 1 MOA, but I am not a "sniper" nor am I a deer hunter, and so the ability to hit small targets even at great ranges is a part of my "sport." Knowing your rifle is more inherently accurate to begin with is a "confidence builder" that let's you know that a flyer is YOU and not the rifle.

So does this count as shooting in the field? It should because I'm shooting using my field gear.

I can certainly get damn close to 1 MOA shooting this way consistantly.

Sometimes closer to 1/2MOA and that's even at 600yds.