[TonyB]

Anybody ever hear of it?A friend and new shooter was asking me about it....he read that Barstow says to break in a barrel by shooting a couple rounds then cleaning and repeat a bunch of times....I never heard of it and I never did it.Am Imissing someting I should be doing??:(

[Erich]

If you owned a gun with a (highly specialized target) barrel that required breaking in, you'd know it.

The fact that you asked makes me think you're probably okay not worrying about it.

[10-Ring]

I have seen threads on the subject re: long guns, but I don't recall seeing any re: handguns. Besides, if it's a matter of shooting 50-100 rounds, cleaning & repeating, isn't that basically a range seesion anyway? Go to range, shoot 50+ rounds, take home, clean & repeat next weekend? In modern handguns, I wouldn't worry about it.

[bpisler]

If i buy a new handgun i put 150-200 rounds of jacketed ammo thru it before using any of my cast bullet
reloads.This will "iron" out any burrs that you can't see.I read this in a gun rag a couple years ago so it could be false.

[Quartus]

Well, if you want the advice of a lifelong professional barrel maker, you can tap into The Wisdom of Gale McMillan (http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=60102) over at TFL.

The thread is a little confusing at first, until you realize that someone (dz) is posting a collecton of Gale's material.

[Jeeper]

To add more confusion to this.

I have read articles on some barrel makers websites that talk about not using solvents to clean barrels now.

[M1911]

Complete waste of time, especially for a pistol.

[blades67]

Barstow doesn't think it's a waste of time. They know it's a waste of barrel service life which means they'll be selling you another barrel sooner that way.:banghead: