Breaking in a barrel

[mag41uk]

Just picked up my new 260 rifle that is fitted with a Border barrel.
Border say to fire one round,fill with borefoam for 24hrs,clean, and repeat for another few rounds.
They say that the first round down the barrel could leave copper residue that you dont want a second round going over.
I guess the idea is to burnish the bore.
The only down side is that two rounds are fired at proof!
This surely cocks up the breaking in?
The bore on this rifle was obviously dirty, as you may probably expect.
I ran a patch through it using Robla Solo Mil and it was dark blue when it came out.
The next two patches were paler and I have now plugged the barrel and filled it with Robla for a couple of hours.
I plan on going to Bizzers on friday aft to put another 3 rounds through then clean again.
Has to be ready for Sennybridge on sat!
What do you all think about the breaking in regime?
Tony

[Steve E]

Loads of opinions on breaking in barrels. Go to the Krieger Barrels website and see what they recommend. By the way, the material spec for Border/Kreiger/Bartlein etc are all the same.

Re the Border way, OK if you live somewhere where you can pop out the door and fire one round a day but most people live in the real world and have to break a barrel in, in minimum visits to a range.

[DaveT]

You will get as many answers to this as you could wish for!

I don't think the precise method is that critical and some will say that its not even needed.

For myself I do a few (3-5) single rounds of shoot 1 & clean.... then up it to 3 or 5 rounds for a few cycles and finally 10 rounds a couple of times before I regard the barrel as 'good to go'.

If it looks like any serious fouling is resulting then extend the break-in........not a precise science but worth a little up-front effort.

[John MH]

I don't hold with it personally. It depends on the quality of the barrel and the chambering cut, a match grade barrel should not need a great deal of breaking in. If I feel I need to break in a barrel I usually fire one round, then clean for the first 5 rounds and then leave it at that. At then end of the day it’s your barrel and if you’ve invested lost of money in it then you may feel that the time and ammunition spent breaking in a barrel is worthwhile. Lots of people just get on and shoot the barrels right from the off with no breaking in.

I did have an online chat with a chap who was having trouble with a barrel that would not group at all for several hundred rounds before it settled down, he told me of another shooter whose same manufacture barrel took 800 rounds to settle down. It maybe that these ‘Military’ grade (essentially machine gun barrels) given a specific heat treatment to increase there life under the extreme stresses experienced during full-auto fire required a longer break in as advised by the OEM.

There are products available to assist in the break in such as the Tubb ‘Throat Management System’ and ‘Final Finish’ but with a quality barrel and a professionally cut chamber with a sharp reamer these products are probably not required.

[Steve E]

Remember, when you are breaking a barrel in, it is not the barrel but the Leade that is being broken/run in. That is where all the rough spots should be. Personally I use the Krieger method and can break a barrel in, in the morning and shoot a National Match or Queens 2 in the afternoon.

[Sim G]

They say that the first round down the barrel could leave copper residue that you dont want a second round going over.

Do they not fire two, over pressure rounds in the proofing process? Where does that leave their advice?

[dromia]

For new barrel break in I find half a dozen good fitting cast lead boolits with some lapping compound on them fired down the barrel with just enough powder to get them out of the barrel is usually enough to settle down any new barrel, then if you must spoil it by getting it all coppered by using jacketed then it will be in a sound state for that as well.

[Hauptman]

Boresnake, fire one, boresnake, fire one, boresnake, fire one, boresnake, fire one, boresnake, fire one..............good to go.

Clean every 40-50 rounds thereafter with Rhino p!!ss.

H/man

[Mattnall]

Shoot it until the burr's gone, then go shoot it some more.

:goodjob:

[Blu]

I use these, they do the job and never had a problem afterwards. http://www.davidtubb.com/final-finish-tms
BTW if interested Midway UK sells them but by feck they're pricey over there.


Blu