Breaking In a New Barrel

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345 DeSoto

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I just received the upper I ordered for the AR15 I'm building. It had a tag attached that said I need to do the following..."After firing one round, clean the chamber and bore...repeat for the next 25 rounds. Next, fire 10 rounds followed by chamber and bore cleaning...this should be repeated until 100 rounds have been fired." Is this necessary? If so, what is the reasoning behind it?...:confused:
 
There have been lots of arguments over this subject. On a factory rifle, I just clean it and shoot it normally. On a custom barrel, I'll shoot it once and patch it out. I'll do this until that one shot shows no copper fouling. In a Krieger barrel this is usually 6 or 7 shots. Your instructions sound excessive.
 
Yes, that barrel "break in" procedure was a long time practice that probably had little practice use or purpose. "Dad and his Dad did it so it continued. I think the barrels of today are so good it makes little to no difference. I suppose it can't hurt and if it makes you feel better than go for it.:)

Does the factory clean it after test firing??:D

Cars used to have established break ins also. Now the transmissions are sealed and you do not even change fluid.
 
That doesn't mean modern transmissions wouldn't benefit from fluid changes. It's because after the car mfg's advanced their products to last forever they realized that was bad business sense. Better to sell a car that gets "acceptable" lifespan with the minimum of maintenance.
 
I'm still breaking in a new barrel myself and am limited to five shots at this point. I believe that the cleaning regimen is designed to eliminate copper buildup on the tooling marks which would prevent them from being smoothed out by the following shots. I guess the idea is to expose the entire bore surface for every shot.
 
100 round break in does sound excessive.

Many barrel makers recommend some kind of break in. I figure they know enough about their products to back up what they say. Kreiger has a nice explanation as to why on their web site.

https://kriegerbarrels.com/faq#breakin

I don't know if its necessary or not. I don't buy new rifles or rebarrel that often that I can't spend a couple of extra hours to do a break in. 100 rounds? I might change my mind.

Laphroaig
 
eh, if you are building a target or bench rest rifle....ide say properly lap the barrel....

if you are building a hunting/ fun/ range gun...ide say just shoot and clean as normal.

either way, barrel "break in" procedures are useless.
 
Gale McMillan always said it was a gimmick dreamed up by some barrel makers to make them wear out sooner.

http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/Barrel_BreakIn.asp
The break in fad was started by a fellow I helped get started in the barrel business . He started putting a set of break in instructions in ever barrel he shipped. One came into the shop to be installed and I read it and the next time I saw him I asked him What was with this break in crap?. His answer was Mac, My share of the market is about 700 barrels a year. I cater to the target crowd and they shoot a barrel about 3000 rounds before they change it. If each one uses up 100 rounds of each barrel breaking it in you can figure out how many more barrels I will get to make each year.
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I've never bothered to do a thing other than shoot it normally and clean as infrequently as I normally do. The sub MOA rifle I have still shoots very well.
 
I think it is a little BS saying a barrel maker things he is making more money by having you fire 100 shots to break the gun in, out of 3000. Do the math on that. It doesn't move the needle or get the guy more money.

The Savage I just bought says to break a barrel in, though not with a 100 rounds. I cleaned shot after shot for a few, then after groups. Remington recommends to do it. Good enough for me. Took me a extra hour that day.

My reasoning, is it sure doesnt hurt, and keeps the barrel cool for sighting in.
 
I started centerfire in 1950. Had many and many a sub-MOA group. I never heard of "break in" until around 1999 on The Firing Line.com. Dunno how I ever managed!

Buy it. Clean it. Shoot it. Any improvement is more often found in tweaking the bedding than from any break in procedure.
 
So do you think that Savage, Remington, or Larry at Midway is getting there info from Firing Line? Odd connection.
 
Some barrels need break-in, and some do not. If you watch, your barrel will tell which it is. The purpose of break-in is to increase the number of shots you get before copper fouling starts to affect accuracy.

If you get blue patches with an ammonia based cleaner after a single shot, you'll probably be happier if you do a break-in. In order for the break-in to be effective, you must clean ALL the copper out of the barrel each time you clean it.

I have a 1917 Swedish Mauser that copper fouled pretty quickly. You'd think it would have been pretty well broken in by now, but it was not. I cleaned the copper very thoroughly and did a short break-in. Now I get many more shots before copper builds up to the point I have to clean.
 
If a 100 round break in is good, maybe you should do a 200 round break in and it'll be twice as broken in. Or twice as good. Or something.
 
Building on Post #10: I figure that somebody who fell in to the break-in deal went to work for a gun company. Talked about break-in. It came to be believed there, so break-in was added to the instructions. Other companies found out about it and said, "Hey, good idea!"

And now for some it's Gospel. :)

After all, the idea had to come from somewhere, and I knew gunsmiths back in the 1950s who in talking about target shooting never mentioned break-in. I never heard it mentioned in the 1960s and 1970s in my very-active gun show table daze.

Where I can see utility is with a barrel that was cut in the late-life stages of the rifling tool. Shooting burnishes barrels, so the increased cleaning aids the smoothing process. It likely isn't needed with new rifling tools or higher-quality tools.
 
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Seems to me that at start-up most factory barrels will have certain areas that tend to collect copper more than others. If the barrel is cleaned of copper and a shot or two fired the bullet tends to polish the rougher surfaces of the barrel thereby making for a more uniform surface throughout. If you don't clean the copper fouling out of those certain rough areas you have a longer time to obtain a more uniform, I'll call it polished, barrel. Is this not one of the purposes of lapping a barrel? So how does laying more copper on top of copper fouling be more of a benefit on a new barrel?
 
Art Eatman said:
Building on Post #10: I figure that somebody who fell in to the break-in deal went to work for a gun company. Talked about break-in. It came to be believed there, so break-in was added to the instructions. Other companies found out about it and said, "Hey, good idea!"

And now for some it's Gospel. :)

.
Click to expand...
So one guy on the Firing Line convinced Remington, Savage, Weatherby, Winchester,


One thing I read is some say this left over from when machining was not as good, and that does make sense. But then I read that this is something that started recently.

I don't know if makes a difference, but I also not arrogant to think I know more then the manufacturer.

Doesn't hurt to clean a gun.
 
I don't know if makes a difference, but I also not arrogant to think I know more then the manufacturer.
Click to expand...
Gale McMillan was a "manufacturer" who said it was pointless, and you're disagreeing with him

Just because some companies still suggest doing it doesn't mean it serves any real purpose.
 
1) Make sure the barrel is clear.
2) Order a case of 1000 rounds.
3) Shoot all 1000 rounds.
4) Clean it if it really, really bothers you... or just repeat Steps 1-3.
 
I break in my barrels by shooting them and cleaning them annually...;) Seriously, I dont clean my guns, they only get rust prevention. If they wont function dirty, then I wont own them.
 
Berserker said:
Does it hurt to run a few patches through?
Click to expand...

It is a huge waste of time. If you can go to your range on a daily basis...knock yourself out. Those of us who have to drive an hour or so to our range and only get there once a month or less usually want to spend our time with load development, sight in and actually shooting our guns....instead of spending 8 minutes between every shot cleaning the barrel.

The OP hasn't come back, but I sure would like to know what AR manufacturer is suggesting a break in for their barrel and the barrel material.
 
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