# what's the best method for breaking in a barrel



## ccfrb (Jun 23, 2007)

just buying my first brand new gun. howa hogue stainless in 25-06. can anyone give me some advice on how to break in the barrel properly? any advice would be helpful. thanks


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## squirrelshooter97 (Mar 20, 2007)

theres so many different mehods about how to do it we could type all day. Some debate if its even neccessary. it all depends on who your grandaddy is and what side of the mountain you live on.


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## People (Jan 17, 2005)

Here is what I do.
1 shot clean to check for copper. If there is a bunch of copper do this about 10 more times. If there is not too much I shoot five or 10 more rounds then clean and check for copper. I do this until it copper fouls very little. I had a 223 that would take copper fouled so bad I decided to just shoot it until accuracy went bad. It started out at 10 shots then worked its way to 50 shots to foul enough where it would not shoot good any more. So I cleaned every 50 shots. I fired about 3,000rds like this toward the end of the next 1,000 rds I could go over 500 before I needed to clean. Now can fire well over 1,000 rds threw this tube before I need to clean. I only clean this 223 barrel at the end of the summer. I clean the action every day or after every trip. I had a other 223 that I got rid of  for some reason. Any way the break in was one shot and no copper at all. So I fired 20 shots and cleaned no copper. So I just shot it like normal.

Your mileage may very. The better the barrel you have the less you will have to clean because of copper fouling.

Many just clean after a shooting session and that is all the break in they do.

Here is what the pros say

http://www.riflebarrels.com/support/cen ... enance.htm
Break-in Procedure
For an effective break-in the barrel should be cleaned after every shot for the first 10-12 rounds or until copper fouling stops. Our procedure is to push a cotton patch that is wet with solvent through the barrel. This will remove much of the powder fouling and wet the inside of the barrel with solvent. Next, wet a bronze brush with solvent and stroke the barrel 5-10 times. Follow this by another wet patch and then one dry patch. Now soak the barrel with a strong copper removing solvent until all of the blue mess is removed from the barrel. The copper fouling will be heavy for a few rounds and then taper off quickly in just one or two shots. Once it has stopped or diminished significantly it is time to start shooting 5 shot groups, cleaning after each one. After 25-30 rounds clean at a normal interval of 10-25 rounds. Your barrel is now broken-in.

Normal cleaning
For a normal cleaning (after a string of 10-25 shots) after break-in, the above procedure should be used, but stop short of soaking the barrel with the strong copper remover. A good rule of thumb is to stroke the barrel with a brush, one cycle for every shot fired.

Periodic cleaning
It is probably a good idea to use a strong copper removing solvent every 200 rounds, or so, to check the barrel for copper fouling. We do not recommend the routine use of abrasive cleaners for normal cleaning. However they can be used every 500-1000 rounds to remove the carbon build-up (caused by powder fouling) in the throat area of the barrel. To use, wrap a cotton patch around a worn out brush or a cleaning jag and liberally apply the abrasive cleaner to the patch. Short stroke the abrasive for 6" or so in the throat area and one or two full length passes through the barrel. Do not clean the barrel like this for more than 1-2 minutes.

http://www.kriegerbarrels.com/RapidCat/ ... anyId=1246

BREAK-IN & CLEANING

With any premium barrel that has been finish lapped -- such as your Krieger Barrel --, the lay or direction of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, so fouling is minimal. This is true of any properly finish-lapped barrel regardless of how it is rifled. If it is not finish-lapped, there will be reamer marks left in the bore that are directly across the direction of the bullet travel. This occurs even in a button-rifled barrel as the button cannot completely iron out these reamer marks.

Because the lay of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, very little is done to the bore during break-in, but the throat is another story. When your barrel is chambered, by necessity there are reamer marks left in the throat that are across the lands, i.e. across the direction of the bullet travel. In a new barrel they are very distinct; much like the teeth on a very fine file. When the bullet is forced into the throat, copper dust is released into the gas which at this temperature and pressure is actually a plasma. The copper dust is vaporized in this gas and is carried down the barrel. As the gas expands and cools, the copper comes out of suspension and is deposited in the bore. This makes it appear as if the source of the fouling is the bore when it is actually for the most part the new throat. If this copper is allowed to stay in the bore, and subsequent bullets and deposits are fired over it; copper which adheres well to itself, will build up quickly and may be difficult to remove later. So when we break in a barrel, our goal is to get the throat polished without allowing copper to build up in the bore. This is the reasoning for the "fire-one-shot-and-clean" procedure.

Barrels will vary slightly in how many rounds they take to break in because of things like slightly different machinability of the steel, or steel chemistry, or the condition of the chambering reamer, etc. . . For example a chrome moly barrel may take longer to break in than stainless steel because it is more abrasion resistant even though it is the same hardness. Also chrome moly has a little more of an affinity for copper than stainless steel so it will usually show a little more "color" if you are using a chemical cleaner. (Chrome moly and stainless steel are different materials with some things in common and others different.) Rim Fire barrels can take an extremely long time to break in -- sometimes requiring several hundred rounds or more. But cleaning can be lengthened to every 25-50 rounds. The break-in procedure and the clearing procedure are really the same except for the frequency. Remember the goal is to get or keep the barrel clean while polishing out the throat.

Finally, the best way to break-in the barrel is to observe when the barrel is broken in; i.e. when the fouling is reduced. This is better than some set number of cycles of "shoot and clean" as many owners report practically no fouling after the first few shots, and more break-in would be pointless. Conversely, if more is required, a set number would not address that either. Besides, cleaning is not a completely benign procedure so it should be done carefully and no more than necessary.

CLEANING

This section on cleaning is not intended to be a detailed instruction, but rather to point out a few "do's and don'ts". Instructions furnished with bore cleaners, equipment, etc. should be followed unless they would conflict with these "do's and don'ts."

You should use a good quality straight cleaning rod with a freely rotating handle and a rod guide that fits both your receiver raceway and the rod snugly. How straight and how snug? The object is to make sure the rod cannot touch the bore. With service rifle barrels a good rod and guide set-up is especially important as all the cleaning must be done from the muzzle and even slight damage to the barrel crown is extremely detrimental to accuracy.

There are two basic types of bore cleaners -- chemical and abrasive. The chemical cleaners are usually a blend of various ingredients including oils and ammonia that attack the copper. The abrasive cleaners generally contain no chemicals and are an oil, wax, or grease base with an extremely fine abrasive such as chalk, clay, or gypsum. They clean by mechanically removing the fouling. Both are good, and we feel that neither will damage the bore when used properly.

So what is the proper way to use them? First, not all chemical cleaners are compatible with each other. Some, when used together at a certain temperature, can cause severe pitting of the barrel -- even stainless steel barrels. It is fine to use two different cleaners as long as you completely remove the first cleaner from the barrel before cleaning with the second. And, of course, never mix them in the same bottle.

Follow instructions on the bottle as far as soak time, etc. . . Always clean from the breech whenever possible, pushing the patch or swab up to the muzzle and then back without completely exiting the muzzle. If you exit the muzzle, the rod is going to touch the bore and be dragged back in across the crown followed by the patch or brush. Try to avoid dragging things in and out of the muzzle. It will eventually cause uneven wear of the crown. Accuracy will suffer and this can lead you to believe the barrel is shot out, when in fact, it still may have a lot of serviceable life left. A barrel with a worn or damaged crown can be re-crowned and accuracy will usually return.

The chemical cleaners may be the best way to clean service rifle barrels that must be cleaned from the muzzle -- i.e. M1 Garand, M14, etc. . .-- because this method avoids all the scrubbing necessary with the abrasive cleaners and the danger of damaging the crown. But again, as long as the rod doesn't touch the crown, abrasive cleaners should be fine.

Abrasive cleaners work very well. They do not damage the bore, they clean all types of fouling (copper powder, lead, plastic), and they have the added advantage of polishing the throat both in "break in" and later on when the throat begins to roughen again from the rounds fired. One national champion we know polishes the throats on his rifles every several hundred rounds or so with diamond paste to extend their accuracy life.

Again, as with the chemical cleaners, a good rod and rod guide is necessary. A jag with a patch wrapped around it works well. Apply the cleaner and begin scrubbing in short, rather fast strokes of about two to four inches in length. Concentrate most of the strokes in the throat area decreasing the number as you go toward the muzzle. Make a few full-length passes while avoiding exiting the muzzle completely, but do partially exit for about six strokes. You can avoid accidentally exiting by mounting the rifle in a vise or holder of some sort and blocking the rod at the muzzle with the wall or something to keep it from completely exiting.

This sheet is intended to touch on the critical areas of break-in and cleaning and is not intended as a complete, step-by-step guide or recommendation of any product.

The following is a guide to "break-in" based on our experience. This is not a hard and fast rule, only a guide. Some barrel, chamber, bullet, primer, powder, pressure, velocity etc. combinations may require more cycles some less!

It is a good idea to just observe what the barrel is telling you with its fouling pattern. But once it is broken in, there is no need to continue breaking it in.

Initially you should perform the shoot-one-shot-and-clean cycle for five cycles. If fouling hasn't reduced, fire five more cycles and so on until fouling begins to drop off. At that point shoot three shots before cleaning and observe. If fouling is reduced, fire five shots before cleaning. It is interesting to shoot groups during the three and five shot cycles.

Stainless Chrome moly 
5 one-shot cycles 5 - 25 - one-shot cycles 
1 three-shot cycle 2 - three-shot cycles 
1 five-shot cycle 1 - five-shot cycle

Thank you for choosing a Krieger barrel.


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## Alaskan Brown Bear Killer (Feb 22, 2005)

ccfrb said:


> just buying my first brand new gun. howa hogue stainless in 25-06. can anyone give me some advice on how to break in the barrel properly? any advice would be helpful. thanks


I just site it in then clean it after the day of shooting weather it's 1 or 200 rounds, seems to be working great for me. I think all that break-in cleaning is a bunch of crap...but to each his own, that my $.02 worth and I had several new rifles and they all continue to shoot just fine.


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## ccfrb (Jun 23, 2007)

thanks for the tips. i'm getting two sides of the coin, some don't, some do. i figure it can't hurt to do it and at the same time enjoy getting to know the rifle a bit. :beer:


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## huntin1 (Nov 14, 2003)

Ever hear of Gale McMillan? One of this countries premier barrel makers. Here is what he says about breaking in a barrel.

From this site: http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/B ... reakIn.asp



> Gale McMillan
> posted September 25, 1999 10:10 AM
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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. If you will stop and think that the barrel doesn't know whether you are cleaning it every shot or every 5 shots and if you are removing all foreign material that has been deposited in it since the last time you cleaned it what more can you do? When I ship a barrel I send a recommendation with it that you clean it ever chance you get with a brass brush pushed through it at least 12 times with a good solvent and followed by two and only 2 soft patches. This means if you are a bench rest shooter you clean ever 7 or 8 rounds . If you are a high power shooter you clean it when you come off the line after 20 rounds. If you follow the fad of cleaning every shot for X amount and every 2 shots for X amount and so on the only thing you are accomplishing is shortening the life of the barrel by the amount of rounds you shot during this process. I always say Monkey see Monkey do, now I will wait on the flames but before you write them, Please include what you think is happening inside your barrel during break in that is worth the expense and time you are spending during break in.


Ya'll want to spend a crap load of time and ammo doing something that really don't need to be done, have at it.

Since Mr. McMillan is by far more experienced than I, I'll be taking his advice and just shoot it and then clean it when I'm done.

:beer:

huntin1


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## Alaskan Brown Bear Killer (Feb 22, 2005)

huntin1 said:


> Ever hear of Gale McMillan? One of this countries premier barrel makers. Here is what he says about breaking in a barrel.
> 
> From this site: http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/B ... reakIn.asp
> 
> ...


What he said,..... it only makes sense :beer:


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## squirrelshooter97 (Mar 20, 2007)

yeah i didnt break in my barrels either lol figured it was too much cleaning.


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## beartooth (Feb 18, 2007)

McMillian is right, I use to not think so, but know better now. :sniper:


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## iwantabuggy (Feb 15, 2005)

squirrelshooter97 said:


> theres so many different mehods about how to do it we could type all day. Some debate if its even neccessary. it all depends on who your grandaddy is and what side of the mountain you live on.


looks like People did write all day.  No offense. :beer:


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## People (Jan 17, 2005)

Nope I can type really fast and can look stuff up very fast. Once you find it highlight it then press the Ctrl+c key. Then a quick alt+tab then Ctrl+v presto a ultra quick copy and paste. It gives the impression you did type all day. 

I think the only thing that really has to be addresses with barrels is no two are the same. When accuracy goes south clean. You may notice that your cleanings are getting farther and farther appart.

If you start with a very good tube you do not need to an extended break in.


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