Breaking in a new Rifle

[Ncb2734]

Do I or do I not need to break in the barrel on a new rifle. I have read both sides of the argument, but am still on the fence whether it is needed.

HOWA 1500 in .308 I have found a PDF form Howa about barrel break in but not sure if it is old or no longer relevant.

Any advice most welcome before I get to the range a week Friday....

[Daryll]

You'll read both sides on here too.. :-)

I've done both.... shoot one then clean and repeat, shoot 5 then clean and repeat, etc, etc, and i've also given one a good clean then shot the cr*p out of it...

To my mind theres not much difference, but then i'm not a precision target shooter trying for V-bulls at 1k.

I will say that the one i "broke in" properly is very easy to clean now, but that could have been luck of the draw in getting a relatively smoothly rifled gun.

[Geek]

All I can advise is what do the instructions advise with the rifle? the manufacturer should know best!

When I purchased my AI AT, there was a recommended breaking in procedure within the instruction manual, so I followed that, why wouldn't you? Also, when I have the rifle re-barreled in 6.5CM, I will follow the same procedure.

[Mattnall]

It can never be proved either way is better but if you have lost confidence in your barrel because of break in then that will affect your shooting.

So; do what you think is best and it will be.

[Airbrush]

I’ve done both, used the fire & clean & just shoot it methods & in all honesty couldn’t tell the difference.

I personally think the only advantage to ‘breaking in’ a barrel is psychological, you won’t have any nagging doubts.

[The Gun Pimp]

The main problem with a new barrel is copper build-up. If you do the 'shoot one, clean' method you are creating only a small amount of copper and removing it as you go. If you just shoot it, you will (could) get a much greater build-up of copper which can literally take days to remove. In fact some shooters probably never get their barrel copper-free. Only the use of a borescope will tell you.

However, the latest thinking is to shoot about 25 rounds without cleaning/de-coppering. This (apparently) has the effect of burnishing the barrel -rather than constantly deep cleaning it back to virgin metal every few shots. There is a good paper on this written by a shooter/metallurgist. PM me on targetshooteronline@icloud.com ncb2734 I'll be happy to forward it. I now use this method but it does take some time to get all the copper out.

[WelshShooter]

I have a border barrel on my Remington 700 and have fired around 1,000 rounds through it from new (6.5x47 Lapua). I didn't observe any barrel break in method other than giving it a full clean after each range session (between 20-50 rounds). The last inch of the barrel has copper fouling which I've never been able to remove.

The rifle is still extremely accurate to this day. When I say accurate, I mean 0.5 moa at 100 yards using known good loads. For me, this is more than good enough.