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Hi , just got new barrel on a 303 no4 , ive been told not to go mad with it until its broke in so to speak, maybe 20 rounds then clean , then same again ? any advice would be great thanks.

Stand by Mark - you are about to hear 50 different theories on how to run in a barrel. Basically, it will probably pick up copper in its early life.

If you clean after 5 rounds you will get the copper out in about half an hour with a good solvent. If you clean after 20 shots it will take you a lot longer.

As The Gun Pimp has pointed out, there is no set standard. If you look at recommendations set by barrel/rifle manufacturers you'll get differences between them. I included links to Lilja, Shilen and Bartlein below who are reputable barrel manufacturers as an example. The principle is the same, shoot some, clean some, shoot more, clean more, but the number of shots between cleans isn;t consistent. There's lots of talk about why you should clean early into a barrels life (i.e. to remove any burrs from machining/reaming the barrel) and no doubt a particular badger will drop by and comment on why this is a myth no doubt.

Either way, I personally follow the barrel/rifle manufacturers recommendations. At the end of the day, it's their product and they've obviously given some thought to not screwing your barrel up early into its life. Just my thought.

Lilja
http://riflebarrels.com/support/centerfire-maintenance/

Shilen
http://www.shilen.com/faq.html#question10

Bartlein
http://www.bartleinbarrels.com/BreakInCleaning.htm

Out of interest who did the barrel work?

Hi thanks for that il check out the links , the person who done the work was Richard stork of devizes gunsmith with a Criterion barrel , I didn't send him the rifle I bought it with this work just done.

marko686 wrote:Hi thanks for that il check out the links , the person who done the work was Richard stork of devizes gunsmith with a Criterion barrel , I didn't send him the rifle I bought it with this work just done.

He would have been the best person to ask then. He is well known for his work on Enfield .303 rifles.

true I can always drop him a email see what he says :)

Use h and n high speed plated bullets...you will break in your barrel and the high speed coating will prevent any copper fouling...good to 2000fps.

Mike95