Running in a new rifle

[Explosive]

Apparently they should be copper stripped at 1500-2000 rounds

A good friend of mine is a gunsmith and he reckoned it depended on the make of the barrel. He recommended removing copper after 500 rounds for the average factory barrel. Personally I have never broken a barrel in and I follow the copper stripping regime my mate suggested. To be really honest I have never noticed any drop off in accuracy in any of my rifles.

Old women can be gunsmiths too.

[ovenpaa]

Apparently they should be copper stripped at 1500-2000 rounds

A good friend of mine is a gunsmith and he reckoned it depended on the make of the barrel. He recommended removing copper after 500 rounds for the average factory barrel. Personally I have never broken a barrel in and I follow the copper stripping regime my mate suggested. To be really honest I have never noticed any drop off in accuracy in any of my rifles.

One thing about the S&L is it is cut rifled and then lapped with a hot tin lap to a taper and apparently this is why it does not need copper stripping. Personally I admit it shoots very well however I can also see copper at the muzzle end. Interestingly I have a Border (6,5x47) on an Accuracy International with 400+ rounds through it that displays virtually no copper when cleaned and has been like that from the first shot. It is also an extremely good shooter.

[Rab]

Old women can be gunsmiths too

.

Old women can also be know it all's

[Rab]

Ovenpaa, I really think it all depends on barrel to barrel. I have rifles that take not much time to clean from start to finish and others that seem to take forever. Could also depend on how bad the tooling marks in the throat are and how often the rifle is shot. The whole thing seems to be one of those never ending debates.

[Rab]

The link below is a link to Gale McMillan's take on barrel brake in.

http://www.6mmbr.com/GailMcMbreakin.html

[ovenpaa]

He has a very good point Rab,

[The Gun Pimp]

There are 'rough' areas in a new barrel - particularly the throat area just forward of the chamber. This rough metal will strip off copper from every bullet that passes over it - until it is smoothed out - usually 40 to 80 rounds. The copper gets spread thoughout the barrel.

Depending on the machining process - this 'roughness' can vary.

Shoot a couple of rounds down your new barrel - look in the muzzle in good light and you will probably see the streaks of copper. Remove this copper with a copper-solvent.

When the barrel stops picking up copper you can consider it run in.

[The Gun Pimp]

The answer to barrel running-in and cleaning is only provided by using a borescope.

The Hawkeye borescopes cost in the region of £750 but now you can buy the Lyman borescope for around £250 - from Hannam's Reloading or via your local dealer.

This is a great bit of kit for every shooter. It comes with it's own digital display and you can take a pic when you like just by pressing a button. For a full write-up see www.targetshooter.co.uk

[huntervixen]

I think it depends very much on the rifle and what you mean by running in. Certainly from a safety perspective you should carefully check a new rifle (new or just new to you), bore and action after its first range trip, look for anything that needs tightening, adjusting or anything out of place ... just common sense stuff really.

I would say most new barrels are "run in" , machining marks, minute imperfections etc after 100rds, depending on the barrel. It might benifit from a gunsmith chamber polish, but only if you have marks on the spent cases, or hard extractions where other potential cause's have been ruled out, always best left to a gunsmith to check in my opinion.

If its a rifle that requires extensive bedding, restocked, re-barreld service rifle for example, I tend to put 10 Rds through it, then leave it to settle/cool down. Those 10 rds complete the bedding process on a full bore rifle. Then re-tighten screws, clean the barrel and chamber, carefully check it and the spent cases for any sign of an issue, if all is well shoot it again and see if its grouping, if, hopefully it is, job done, zero and enjoy!

[ovenpaa]

Something else that can be missed in all the excitement is cleaning the bore of a new rifle prior to shooting. At best it will have had a couple of Proof shots through it, at worst it will be slavered with oil or worse and a cursory glance down the bore is not always enough.