AR Barrel Break-In

A typo perhaps, supposed to be 20? That would be a more typical recommendation.
Some believe barrels need a break-in some do not.
I'm not convinced it's does anything.

Most premium barrels will arrive hand lapped and smooth inside which will need little in the way of 'break-in'. Most mass produced barrels end up being a tad rough inside and will foul quickly and excessively until they smooth out and it's this tendency that I think the recommendation of cleaning after every round is trying to deal with. If you fire a round down a copper and powder fouled bore it'll layer on top and you soon have many layers of copper and carbon to deal with which can be tedious to remove completely.

Rather than shooting two hundred rounds with all of that cleaning....I'd rather spend some time with a tight fitting jag and JB Bore Paste to polish it up before shooting it. Once you feel it smoothing out.....and some take more time than others, it 'should' then be able to be fired in a normal manner and also cleaned the same way. My last Remington 700 308 heavy barrel was rough as a cob inside and fouled like the devil and could have used the 200x200 shotsxcleaning regimen but I worked on it after 5 shots with the Bore Paste and it became a very accurate and easy to clean rifle afterwards.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1006409224/tubb-final-finish-bore-lapping-system

This is the easiest way to do it if you reload. Note it is only 50 bullets, not 200. The JB idea is good, too, Recoil Rob.

I suspect they mean after ever round at the range... meaning after each time you go to the range, NOT after each shot.

I've seen recommend break-in periods but it's normally incremental such as 5 rounds, then 10 more rounds, etc. Never seen it per round for a basic semi-automatic weapon.

Here is my uneducated take on barrel break in. Barrel break in is just wearing off the burs and edges from manufacturing, and uniformly coating the inside of the barrel with fouling. Some new barrels will copper foul like crazy when new, and others don't. If the barrel fills up with copper then your not smoothing anything out anymore and the copper just builds up on top of itself. So shoot a few times and see if it copper fouls or not. If cleaning with copper solvent comes out blue then keep shooting small increments and cleaning until it stops fouling. Once it stops fouling its broken in. If your patches are coming out clean right away with just a little powder fouling on them your wasting your time as your not doing anything. I've done the polishing the bore with abrasive paste on really rough bores and it worked great, but I wouldn't do it to a new match barrel for no reason.

Oh and every round for 200 rounds is absurd and would do more harm from the cleaning rod than good. That must be a misprint.

D.B. Cooper said:

What are the negative ramifications of not doing it?

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Some users report sudden loss of appetite, dry mouth, rash, and heart palpitations. Most common side effects were headache, nausea, and fatigue. Consult your doctor if symptoms worsen.

Firstly cleaning does not wear out barrels. Improper cleaning methods can and does damage barrels. How often you clean relates to multiple factors: how dirty the ammo is, how fouled the barrel becomes, your geographical location, and when it shoots best (when clean, after 10 rounds, or after 125 rounds, etc.)

Because some of these factors are unknown with a new barrel I’d suggest an initial cleaning to remove any residue placed in it from the factory. During your first range session, start with 10 rounds, run a patch and see what comes out. Fire 20 more and do the same. 30 and repeat. If the patches are exponentially dirtier, level off for a bit or do a thorough cleaning and continue. If not, increase your round count between intervals. Clean everything at the end of the day and oil lightly.

Second session, patch the oil out and see what 100 rounds looks like without cleaning. Mine will run 200 or so before I feel the need to attend to grime, but your barrel is unique.

200 rounds? Criminently, I "broke in" two good aftermarket barrels according to the vendors' recommendations. 13 rounds in one, 33 in the other.

Break in an AR barrel? What are your expectations? Is this a NM rifle to be shot at 200-600 yards with score kept?

Walkalong said:

Serious overkill. Maybe they want you to wear it out cleaning it so you need to buy a new one.

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Absolutely right. I don't believe in doing anything other then shooting, I just go easy and do not over heat the barrel for 100 rounds.

DPMS told me to do a similar process regarding a custom-built AP-4, with M4 barrel. No. I do break-in my bolt-action barrels, but that 200 mark would be absurd regarding any barrel.

For my own AR15s, AR10s, I clean out the factory packing grease, fire 5 rounds, cool, fire 5 more, etc to 20 or 30 rounds. Then I bring it home and clean thoroughly. After that, I simply clean it after each range session.

JMHO,

Geno

Wouldn't it stand to reason that a barrel would break in over the course of regular shooting and cleaning routines? I tried the shoot, clean, shoot, clean business years ago.....It didn't take long to figure out that it was a waste of time and ammo......if a barrel is going to smooth out somewhat it'll happen in due time.....no reason to go through any special routine.

You must have bought it on April 1st.

My barrel break in procedure for $69-$499 barrels: Take it out, shoot the **** out of it, clean it once and done. Seriously, you put more wear on a barrel by over cleaning it than shooting it.

The product description for your barrel says the bore is chrome lined. I question whether any break in procedure would make a difference on such hard material.

Chrome lined barrel? Yeah, don’t bother with a break in. Just clean it after your first range trip.

Ballistic Radio torture tested a Knights Armament SR-15 for 20,000 documented rounds and cleaned the carbine zero times. It was still shooting around 1.0 MOA at the end of the test. Chrome lined cold hammer forged barrel. If memory serves they had no parts breakages, or weapon related malfunctions either.

http://ballisticradio.com/endurance-tests/kac-sr-15-mod-2/

Damon555 said:

Wouldn't it stand to reason that a barrel would break in over the course of regular shooting and cleaning routines? I tried the shoot, clean, shoot, clean business years ago.....It didn't take long to figure out that it was a waste of time and ammo......if a barrel is going to smooth out somewhat it'll happen in due time.....no reason to go through any special routine.

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This^^^^.
Just shoot the thing and clean it when you are done. Repeat. By the time you have practiced a bit and shot from each position used in Service Rifle matches and are confident with the gun and your zeros, the thing will have broken in.
Pete

Coal Dragger said:

Chrome lined barrel? Yeah, don’t bother with a break in. Just clean it after your first range trip.

Ballistic Radio torture tested a Knights Armament SR-15 for 20,000 documented rounds and cleaned the carbine zero times. It was still shooting around 1.0 MOA at the end of the test. Chrome lined cold hammer forged barrel. If memory serves they had no parts breakages, or weapon related malfunctions either.

http://ballisticradio.com/endurance-tests/kac-sr-15-mod-2/

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Holy cow

Yeah, it is amazing what you can learn on the internet.
Short barrels are good for long range.
Barrels last a long time and don't need to be cleaned.
I've got to tell my Creedmoor friend he is wasting time and money.

Well, that and if one manufacturer’s barrel can do it they all can. QC, raw materials, even the rifling itself varies considerably between vendors and what a Knights Armament can do is not what you should expect from brand B. Whether break in makes a difference or not may forever be debatable but a clean rifle also gives the owner a chance to inspect for wear and damage.

I’m not actually suggesting you shouldn’t ever clean your boom stick. Just pointing out that getting all axle wrapped about keeping it spotless isn’t really necessary either. As pointed out earlier a chrome lined barrel has a hard enough interior surface finish that breaking it in by shooting and cleaning will be a pretty tough proposition. If your chrome lined barrel is of good quality it will shoot well out of the box and if it’s not the surface is so hard no amount of “break in” cleaning between shooting is likely to help.

Personally I try to clean my AR’s after each range session. I toss the bolt carrier group, stripped down, into an ultrasonic tank. Spray some MPro 7 and brush out the upper with a big round crud brush (Iosso kit) followed by a microfiber towel. Hit the barrel extension and chamber with the Iosso chamber brush with some MPro 7, follow up with the microfiber to get excess solvent out of the barrel extension. Then spray the solvent down the barrel and run a nylon bore brush on a Dewey coated rod for a few passes to loosen up crud, the wet patch it with a jag. I don’t even go until perfectly clean patches emerge. Once they’re clean enough run an oiled patch and call it good. Relube generously and reassemble.

I also know that if I have time for only the most brief of cleaning that I can totally get away with a bore snake with some CLP on it a few passes, scrub off the BCG and interior of upper and lower real quick, and lube generously.

Skylerbone said:

Well, that and if one manufacturer’s barrel can do it they all can. QC, raw materials, even the rifling itself varies considerably between vendors and what a Knights Armament can do is not what you should expect from brand B. Whether break in makes a difference or not may forever be debatable but a clean rifle also gives the owner a chance to inspect for wear and damage.

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What? You mean not all AR’s are the same? Someone will be along shortly to tell you that a PSA or Rock River is just as good for a fraction of the cost.

Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding and suicide are right for you.