Barrel break in

[tvc15]

What is your method? Just bought a new 700 and want to do it right.
     thanks, TVC15

[DDelle338]

 
  I'm a believer that to get the barrel smooth you must have the bullet running on the steel rather than a coating of copper. Clean after each round for at least the first five shots. Look for copper after each shot. If there is allot of it, then I continue the cleaning after each shot until the residue is reduced. Then clean after 3 shots, and then clean after 5 shots, then after each 10.

[Dave in WV]

Barrel break in is a big controversial topic. I've done it and agree with the previous post as to what you are trying to accomplish. Whether or not your barrel needs breaking in is determined by how rough it is. If you need to lap your barrel, my son Chad posts as "High Brass" has done it with sucess. You could PM him. He has a rifle that was difficult to clean. The lapping took care of that.

[beemanbeme]

clean the rifle good. wrap a cotton patch around a bronze bore brush, saturate it with JB paste and give your bore 500 --yup 500-- strokes. You can do it at the kitchen table or whilst watching TV.
Be sure and have a good one piece cleaninng rod and a bore guide. I run the cleaning rod thru the barrel and then screw on the bore brush and wrap the patch around it.  I then dob on a good amount of JB paste and work it into the patch and brush.  When I pull it thru the barrel for the first time, a good bit of excess is gonna wipe off on the crown. That's why I pull it thru for the first go so I don't have to clean that stuff out of the chamber.  I work the patch back and forth thru the barrel, occasionally using my finger to dob some of the JB paste that collects on the crown back on the patch.  You don't have to do it all at one go. If I get tired, I push a oily patch thru the barrel and before I begin again, I push a dry patch thru and start again. 
It's a form of barrel lapping and it works for me.  I do it to custom barrels and factory barrels. And I have yet to have one that didn't shoot better and CLEAN better after having this done.  Even rifles that I had for a while before I got onto this. 

[Catfish]

1 st. what is cleaning? When you start I would clean after every shot for at least the 1 st. 5 shots. I mean powder solvent, then copper solvent and then JB`s bore past and then powder solvent to get the JB`s out.  If you are getting any blue on your copper solvent patches keep shooting and cleaning. After 1 shot and clean try 3 shots and see how it cleans. After you have done a few you`ll be able to tell by the feel on the rod as the barrel gets easier to clean. All barrels are different and they break in at a different amount of shoot and clean. Breaking in a barrel in more to make it easier to clean than to make it shoot more accurately. I don`t feel that the breaking in is near as important as I used to think it was, but you do need to do some.

[Varmint Hunter]

Beeman - " I do it to custom barrels and factory barrels."

Custom barrel manufacturers would CRINGE if they heard what you were doing to their hand lapped barrels. If you could improve a custom match barrel with a brush & patch on your kitchen table, you should go into the business. You would become very wealthy.

Many benchrest shooters will push a brush through the barrel and then unscrew it at the muzzle so that the brush doesn't scrap against the crown when the rod is retracted. 500 strokes of a bronze brush could have a profound effect on a quality crown job. Walt Berger, of Berger Bullet fame, was so concerned about the negative effects of brushing a custom match barrel that he refused to run a brush through the barrel even once. He said that brushes were good for cleaning case necks and that was about all. 

Just my 2 cents

[beemanbeme]

Let's just say I'm not impress by Berger nor his bullets.  Nor do I think there is any magic in a  "bench rest"  crown.  A crown is merely to protect the rifling.  As long as it is concentric to the bore, it's a good one.  FYI  I have seen about a gazillion bench shooters clean their rifles and the next one I see unscrew the brush after running it thru the bore will be the first one.  Where are you getting this goofy info? 

Whether they cringe or not is of little moment to me, if any of them would like to return my money and pay for the return shipping, I'd be happy to send their barrels back to them.  Or better yet, don't take my money in the first place. Maybe put it in their ads: "We don't sell to folks that use JB"

I'm kinda of the opinion that when I buy the barrel, it's mine.  If I want to use it for a tomato stake, that's my business.  If anyone doesn't think the barrel should be scrubbed out with  JB paste, then don't do it.  Burn out your throat instead for no reason with that silly-assed shoot one, clean one routine.  Maybe your rifles are smarter than mine but mine can't count.

As I said, it works for me and I've yet to have a rifle that it didn't improve in accuracy and cleaning. 

[KN]

I agree with beemanbeme.  For starters, If I just lay-ed out big bucks for a match grade barrel it better not need "breaking in". As for factory barrels, I have used JB to smooth them out with terrific results. I did it to a Contender 223 barrel that had a rough spot in it and now it is a real tack driver.   KN

[EsoxLucius]

Clean a new rifle thoroughly to rid the factory lubricants and rust inhibitors and then just shoot it and clean it.  Various barrel breaking in regimes are unnecessary for the typical hunting rifle.