Barrel break-in, the truth.

Is there such a thing as barrel break-in? What is barrel break-in? How much do I clean my barrel and with what? All of these are questions that I’m sure you have asked if you’re a serious rifleman, I know I did. The problem is the amount of different answers I got from all of the guys at the range. Now I’m not taking anything away from anyone at my home range. There’s a lot of knowledge and experience there, but there is a lot of personal opinions that get passed along too. Kinda like the “Ford/Chevy” argument.

I decided to get to the bottom of the whole barrel break-in story. Over a couple of years and many hours of conversation with the worlds top rifle barrel manufactures I got my answer. I’m sorry to say it’s not a simple one, as a matter of fact it’s a very complicated answer that depends on the barrel you own. To get right to it, I’ll quote Mr. Shilen, “Either you have a quality barrel or you don’t”. What I found out is that barrel break-in keeps the barrel makers in business because it can ruin a barrel if not done properly (very few shooters do it right).

First I’ll tell you what a lot of shooters are told to do to break in a barrel and then I’ll let you in on the research I’ve done. I’m sure this will sound familiar to most of you and you might get a little upset with what you read here.

This process was taken from a sub-standard barrel maker’s recommendations of barrel break-in.

1. Run a solvent patch through the barrel a minimum of 5 times.
2. Run an oil patch through the barrel a minimum of 5 times
3. Run a dry patch through the barrel until bore is dry.
4. Shoot 1 round and repeat step #1as many times as it takes to get a clean patch, then repeat steps 2 and 3. Do this for 20 shots
5. Shoot 5 rounds and repeat step 4. do this 20 times

Now if you’re above a 1st grade math level you can see that you’ve just shot 120 times at the range and spent most of the day just to get ready to shoot at a target or go hunting. I was suspect of all of this shooting and that’s why I started digging for the facts. I not only found that this process is not correct, but it will damage you barrel! That’s right, it will damage you barrel. I refer to the Shilen quote here. What you’re doing by breaking-in a barrel is called burnishing. You’re putting a layer of protective fouling in the barrel. I know protective fouling sounds like Army Intelligence but there is proven facts from metallurgist backing me up on this.

The quality barrel maker will hand lap the barrel and this takes out all of the tiny burs in the bore that happen during the manufacturing process. They will then burnish the bore with their secret sauce. You get a great barrel with a bore that’s smooth as glass and ready for you to take to the range to put that protective fouling layer in it.  I’ll explain this true break-in process for a quality barrel.
1. Shoot 20 rounds nice and slow not allowing the bore to heat up too much (shoot for groups).
2. Clean your rifle with non-ammonia based cleaner being careful not to take it down to the bare metal.
3. Done, shoot and clean like you regularly do.

Sounds too simple don’t it. I know it did for me, I guess that’s why it took so long to do the research. I kept asking the same questions much like a police detective trying to catch someone in a lie. I asked so many questions to so many manufactures that I over heard one guy call out the name of the person I asked to talk to and say “it’s the barrel break-in guy again, you here?”. I did get to talk to the ballistics expert I asked for, but I tried to keep it short this time. What I wanted to get out of the last round of calls was what do we do if we have bought a factory rifle with a factory barrel? I knew that the same care was not taken with a barrel on a rifle that I spent $600.00 total for. Never the less a scope/rifle combo that is so popular at China-mart. These barrels do not get the hand lapping to remove all of the tiny burs from the manufacturing process; they can’t if the price is going to stay affordable to the masses.

I found that barrel break-in as a whole (at the most basic form) is the process of smoothing and burnishing the bore of a barrel. What does this mean to the regular hunter or shooter? What do we need to do with the rifle that we just picked up at the gun store? How do we make sure that our children will get a good shooting rifle when our time is done here? This is where it all gets complicated. There is no such thing as a 5 step process that will take care of all rifles. Not all rifle companies make their own barrels or get their barrels from the same place so the amount of “problems” are not the same. This obviously means that the break-in process will be different. After much discussion on this with the major barrel manufactures, who are not very willing to tell me how to take care of a barrel that they didn’t make. I have come up with a process that is simple and I feel is the best case for the masses. Keep in mind; this only applies to the “off the shelf” rifle.

1. Clean the rifle with non ammonia based solvent. This is because most barrels have the tool coolant, oil, and tiny metal shards from the manufacturing process left in the bore. This is a simple process that should include around 4-5 passes with a solvent patch, 1 pass with the oil patch and a couple passes with the dry patch.
2. Shoot 20 rounds with NON moly bullets and repeat step #1. Go ahead and shoot for groups, have fun and don’t let the barrel get too hot. This step should not feel like your breaking-in a barrel, just a day at the range.
3. Done!
After you have completed the “catch all” break-in process, you can shoot until you see the groups getting larger in your rifle. In some rifles this is up to 80 rounds down the tube. I have personally shot my rifles this much during a match with no problems and no damage.
I hope I’ve helped some and spurred others on to do more research. If you would like to read more on the products that the barrel Gurus recommend and better yet the products that will void your warranty stay tuned. You can also get helpful tips on how to better care for your firearms, how to get better groups at the range and how to be better prepared in case of a disaster (“man made” or not) in email form once a month. Just sign in and we’ll to the work for you.

Don Garmon
The Shooting Bench
www.TheShootingBench.com

Filed under: shooting

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