Breaking in a new gun

[fly2cast]

I don't own many rifles and have never bought a new one until now. I would like to start shooting and I know there are many different opinions on how to break in a new gun. What do you guys recommend?

 

[Kurtr]

clean your bbl and shoot it. Then shoot it some more. when it quits shooting as good clean it. then after a few thousand rounds put a new bbl on it.

 

[SupressYourself]

What did you get?
You definitely want to clean it before you shoot it at all. After that, opinions vary widely.

IMO: Off-the-shelf factory guns should probably be cleaned a bit more often during the first 50 rounds or so. The manufacturer probably has recommendations.
Premium / custom barrel: like Kurtr says, Just go shoot it.

 

[Stan's Dad]

Barrels are probably hurt more from excessive cleaning than actually shooting

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I’ll wait for gst and fritz to chime in though to get the correct answer

 

[Lycanthrope]

I always polish the bore before shooting. Using some non embedding cleaner, forget the name. Do about 100 passes, changing cloth every 25 with new compound, then a cloth with lube and a dry cloth.

 

[Big Iron]

Have I been breaking in rifles WRONG my whole life? Copper Bore Solvent every 10 shots for the first 50 shots?

 

[Kurtr]

Barrels are probably hurt more from excessive cleaning than actually shooting

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I’ll wait for gst and fritz to chime in though to get the correct answer

i agree 100 %

I always polish the bore before shooting. Using some non embedding cleaner, forget the name. Do about 100 passes, changing cloth every 25 with new compound, then a cloth with lube and a dry cloth.

why ruin the bbl right off the bat

Have I been breaking in rifles WRONG my whole life? Copper Bore Solvent every 10 shots for the first 50 shots?

yes

 

[Lycanthrope]

Cuz I hate an accurate rifle and love to clean my barrels as often as possible...

 

[labhunter66]

For what it’s worth:

https://forum.snipershide.com/threads/objective-research-on-barrel-break-in-procedures.27321/

 

[sierra1995]

I was researching this too when i bought my new AR this spring. Seemed like most competition shooters have a barrel breaking procedure, similar to what Big Iron said. Others said that a cheaper barrel can benefit more from break-in than a custom/high quality barrel will, like Suppress said.

At the end of the day, when i actually get to the range to shoot my AR, i will clean it before i get there, then fire 5-10 rounds through it, clean it copper solvent, and repeat several times. I ordered my upper from CBC Industries for $300, so i want to help it out as much as possible. Now if it were a WOA barrel, may not need to break it in.

There are so many opinions both ways on this topic, and it varies for every shooting discipline.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I should mention I suppose that custom barrels I own I just polish lightly with flitz or whatever. Factory barrels tho I will be a little more aggressive with, usually giving them 25-50 strokes of JB and then 50 or so more strokes of flitz...

https://shop.brownells.com/gun-clea...WQflLJ_9ZAJSLczBD8CU-J_ctLNC_VDBoCUL8QAvD_BwE

 

[Kurtr]

what is being polished the tooling should not be leaving any markings if it does a little polish is no going to do any thing. I dont know how many machine shops you have worked in but in the few i have if tooling starts leaving any marks it is changed out and some one is getting an as chewing as you just wasted a bunch of time and money. Call and ask bartlien, rock creek, lija, or any other bbl maker and see what they say about the goop in the bbl polish method. For the average person who shoots a few hundred rounds a year it probably does not matter either way as the bbl will last the rest of your life.

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explained alot better than i can

 

[Lycanthrope]

what is being polished the tooling should not be leaving any markings if it does a little polish is no going to do any thing. I dont know how many machine shops you have worked in but in the few i have if tooling starts leaving any marks it is changed out and some one is getting an as chewing as you just wasted a bunch of time and money. Call and ask bartlien, rock creek, lija, or any other bbl maker and see what they say about the goop in the bbl polish method. For the average person who shoots a few hundred rounds a year it probably does not matter either way as the bbl will last the rest of your life.

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explained alot better than i can

So first you say polishing the bore will 'ruin' the barrel and now you are saying it wont do anything at all?

 

[Stan's Dad]

what if you buy a shitty remington 700 adl with the crap stock and the first 3 shots after sight-in are touching? Should you still "break it in"? Sounds dumb and a waste of lead, time, and cleaning solution.

 

[Kurtr]

So first you say polishing the bore will 'ruin' the barrel and now you are saying it wont do anything at all?

Its is a waste of time. You are taking metal off the bbl which in turn will make its life shorter so you are not ruining it per say but you are making it wear out faster. On average how many rounds would you say you shoot a year through your bbls?

 

[Zogman]

what if you buy a shitty remington 700 adl with the crap stock and the first 3 shots after sight-in are touching? Should you still "break it in"? Sounds dumb and a waste of lead, time, and cleaning solution.

Then you need to sell it...................... To me. Sending you a PM.

 

[AR-15]

Shoot it, then clean it when you want to, have fun

 

[USMCDI]

What Kurtr said, shoot the piss out of it and clean it when you get a flyer or two. When you do punch the bore be careful with the crown.

 

[Petras]

The last barrel I broke in was my Browning Hells Canyon Long Range Hunter in 6.5 creedmoor. My break in procedure was pretty simple. I took 10 rather quick shots to get the barrel warmed up to make sure the stock was properly free floated. Once I slid a dollar bill between the barrel and stock and saw it was all good I went ahead and cleaned it with some hoppes number 9 until the pads came out clean. After it was clean I went ahead and shot another 10 rounds, cleaned it again, and then called it good. It's probably not the right way to go about it, but it has always worked well for me and that gun shoots less than 1/2" groups at 100 yards with factory ammo. My longest kill on a coyote with it is 452 yards while actually dialing up the scope so I must not have jacked up the barrel.

 

[espringers]

The whole idea of breaking in a barrel makes little sense to my limited scientific mind.