Wondering how many shooters here believe in following one of the recommended break-in rituals for new rifles and barrels. Shoot a round, clean, shoot another round, clean again, for the first five or ten rounds (depending on who you listen to), then clean every five rounds, and so on.

The two most accurate rifles I've owned never went through a barrel break-in. I didn't know better, I guess, because I just started shooting them, and cleaned every dozen rounds or when I got to it.

Does a break-in improve accuracy of factory rifles, or are we talking a few hundredths of an inch in custom barrels only?

Break-in is a pain in the butt, and I'd just as soon not bother unless it really helps accuracy or barrel life.

Jim

How would you know? Unless the improvement is significant. You can gain a little by changing loads or brands or whatever of ammo but two identical consecutive serial numbered rifles, one may shoot just a little better than other . Especially if the same reamer is used on both. Or if two different ones were used. I dont shoot 100 rounds without cleaning anyway. Usually its a whole lot less. I never put away a rifle without cleaning it, or oil it if it wasn't fired. I dont clean thoroughly when shooting a new gun but I do run a few patchs through after 4-5 shots just to help with velocity consistency. Fouling increases pressure. I dont get out the bottle of sweets and soak the rifling for 15 minutes making sure every atom of copper is removed. Not till Im done shooting anyway.

I have always thought barrel "break in" was something a gun writer invented to sell another story.

In my opinion after talking with a very reputable custom rifle maker here in WV the gain is less fouling which leads to consistently, but to Danny’s point how would you really know?

Most highly reputable custom rifle/barrel makers hand lap their barrels/action so I really don’t see much value in break.

Of the shelf production rifles are not hand lapped to get the cost down that is why the action smoothness and slight accuracy gains happen over time as natural wear and shooting assist in the final “lapping” process.

I have followed the process on a few rifles but then gave up as there was no real way to measure whether it was worth the hassle or not.

I think it depends on the intended use. Strictly hunting=whatever. Competition with friends= I'd even try voodoo!

If you buy an off the rack , button or hammer rifled barrell, yeah, maybe. If you get a custom rifle, it should have been hand swagged .

Have done it both ways and couldn't say it made a nickels worth of difference.

Never tried breaking one in. Have tried many different loads and manufacturers though to get a good pattern

make cleaning easier faster and not as often . Is all I heard .
But it's your rifle do as you see fit.

often those break in procedures are designed to be the lowest possible round count barrel break in

on guns where your counting every round of barrel life it does get you to break in faster and not use up any more of your precious rounds of life or if your buying factory ammo and cringing at pulling your wallet out for every round.

these are the guys shooting calibers with 1700-2300 round burn out rates before they loose their Itty bitty groups or guys who want to buy as little ammo as possible

for something like 223 you can go a lot more rounds , your not going to damage the barrel shooting 50 rounds

many manufacturers got asked about it so much they put out a plan and said here it is quit asking.

I can feel the copper constriction in a brand new barrel after 40-50 rounds I am sure it depends on the barrel , the more lapped they were at the factory the less you might feel it .when I go to clean it it is tighter until you get the copper out of that first 8 inches or so.

once that is out it takes a lot more rounds to feel it again when cleaning 300-500 before I worry about copper again I am not a high level competitor on the national PRS either but then again neihter are you.

service rifle shooters I have known would just shoot and then clean when done , it takes longer cleaning.

do you have more time at the range or the house

I have more time at home I can clean after dark having electricity and light bulbs.

50 is a nice number for a shooting session with a rifle , I enjoy shooting , I set up to enjoy it and be able to do it regular and intentionally didn't buy barrel burner calibers my range isn't so long that I need any super calibers to get to the end 223 and 308 is just fine.

I do a barrel break-in on all my rifles. Always figured it really cant hurt anything. Makes me feel better.

Go over to accurateshooter.com and search barrel break-in. You'll have more info and opinions than you can shake a stick at. Some of the guys on there are world class / record holders and custom builders.

i havent met many men that could shoot accurate enough to even tell the difference anyway. Ive met alot that said they could. They all kill plenty of deer either way.

When I was a young man I met several older men who told the story "dad gave me four 22 shorts. I had to bring back 4 rabbits or face his wrath. I can shoot rabbits running through a plum thicket with a 22" , but I never seen it done. Not consistently anyway.

Havnt heard that old tale in a while

I chalk this up to rifle/shooting minutia. We have it here in trapping as well. Guys just like to fiddle with the things they love. After that, we love to talk about it. Two gun nuts can have hours long debate about what kind of material to use for cleaning patches. I cut up old underwear and socks!

Bought most all my rifles used so no idea how they were broke in. They do what I bought then to so I am happy.

Generally speaking, I don't clean mine until the bullet doesn't come out of the muzzle unless shaken.

I followed the recommended break-in procedure on my Bergara... Don't know if it made a difference or not. Lol

I have to wonder if someone has a problem if manufacturers will ask if you followed their established procedure... and blame the problem on you if you didn't. I'm guessing it would be hard to prove either way.

A lot of the high end barrel makers will tell you it's not necessary because their barrels are hand lapped. But that is just the bore... Once you or your gunsmith cut the chamber and throat you're going to have some burrs/tooling marks present.

I can see both sides... And I've seen it argued by adherents of both sides.

If you use a bore guide, quality rod, and aren't heavy handed, I can't see it hurting anything... other than "wasting" ammo and adding to the round count if you shoot a barrel burner chambering.

Mike

The last two rifles I bought got the recommended break-in. The first is a Remington 700 Long Range in 300 wm. The second is a Christensen Ridgeline in 7mm Rem Mag. The first thing I did with both was run a couple wet patches thru the bore to get any crud out. Then a couple dry patches to dry the bore. The Remington got ten shots cleaning between each shot. The next ten were two shots and clean. After that I went thru 30 more shots, three at a time and clean. That gave me 50 shots. The Christensen recommendation was a little different using three shots and clean using a nylon brush and wet patches for 48 shots. I don't consider the break-in rounds to be wasted rounds as I used them to fire form the cases. I used a start load with the bullet touching the lands. The bullets were ones that I had accumulated that I had no intention to use as hunting or target loads. The first thing I noted was the difference felt in running a patch thru the bore. After break-in it was much smoother. Also now I rarely use the brush, just patches and Patch Out. Both guns will shoot half inch groups at 200 yards on a regular basis with a slight edge going to the Christensen 7mm. At the present time the 300 gets 168 grain Bergers and the 7mm gets 150 grain Swift Scirroco. This might change as I am always trying something new.

This should help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRRahHX9Zkg

Choot it James. Clean as you would normally.
Dont beat it with heat and have fun. Is this a sniper rifle
or a shooter? Don't overthink it.