Breaking in your rifle barrel
- Thread starter DocPain
- Start date
bluegrassDan
6 pointer
- Dec 17, 2008
- 246
Just to clarify my statement. If you shoot an aftermarket, quality barrel, that barrel should have been lapped before it left the factory. This is done to remove any tooling marks from the rifling process and get everything smooth and running parallel to the bore. In the chambering process, you introduce radial marks that run perpendicular to the axis of the bore. A good, sharp reamer minimizes this. So, if you already have a smooth, lapped barrel and the chambering process never touches the rifling in front of the throat, which was cut for clearance around the bullet at full diameter anyway, what are you trying to accomplish by "breaking In" a barrel? The lead into the rifling starts to degrade as soon as that first bullet gets sent down range, no amount of shooting is going to change that, only make it worse, same for the first 4-6 inches of rifling in the barrel. It flame cuts and cracks and erodes, sometimes at a predictable rate depending on the load. In a .284 Winchester with H4831sc you can expect that throat to erode about .001" every 100 rounds. What you will notice, and it has been documented and I always take it into account, that about 50- 100 rounds (sometimes it takes longer), all the sharp edges on the lands are starting to wear a bit and you will notice an increase in velocity. This does not mean it's going to stay there; it just means that you're going to see an increase and you have to adjust you're zero.
This DOES NOT apply to all factory barrels! In my experience, these are really hit and miss and getting that barrel smooth may take a lot of rounds, but you don't need to clean it after every shot. Removing all of the copper just puts you back at square one, if there are pits that are filled with copper, you are going to have to shoot a LOT of rounds to wear the steel down enough to make them go away (and now you have a loose spot in your barrel). If it's that bad, instead of wasting your time and money, get a new barrel put on. Just shoot it, let those spots fill with copper jacket material. When the groups start to open up, then clean it back to bare steel and start over. Better yet, get a TUBBs fire lapping kit (if you reload) and shoot the two finest grits and you should be good.
Bottom line, these days ammo is very expensive, go shoot your rifle and see what you get. If it does not group, 99% of the time it's the hero pulling the trigger, not the rifle. The money wasted by just breaking in a barrel is better spent on more ammo and more time practicing...unless you just feel the need to spend a lot of time running patches down the barrel.
This DOES NOT apply to all factory barrels! In my experience, these are really hit and miss and getting that barrel smooth may take a lot of rounds, but you don't need to clean it after every shot. Removing all of the copper just puts you back at square one, if there are pits that are filled with copper, you are going to have to shoot a LOT of rounds to wear the steel down enough to make them go away (and now you have a loose spot in your barrel). If it's that bad, instead of wasting your time and money, get a new barrel put on. Just shoot it, let those spots fill with copper jacket material. When the groups start to open up, then clean it back to bare steel and start over. Better yet, get a TUBBs fire lapping kit (if you reload) and shoot the two finest grits and you should be good.
Bottom line, these days ammo is very expensive, go shoot your rifle and see what you get. If it does not group, 99% of the time it's the hero pulling the trigger, not the rifle. The money wasted by just breaking in a barrel is better spent on more ammo and more time practicing...unless you just feel the need to spend a lot of time running patches down the barrel.
JR in KY
12 pointer
I agree with what @bluegrassDan Is saying especially about the chambering. The Remington VSSF I bought for Cheap and replaced the factory barrel had a Boogered up chambering job. There was even a burr left in the throat, BUT the barrel had messed up rifling also. A Lilja barrel Fixed That. I only have 1 remaining factory barrel on a Remington VSS 204. It will suffice....maybe.
bluegrassDan
6 pointer
- Dec 17, 2008
- 246
Sam is a great shooter and very knowledgeable (his son is a VERY good shot!), however, I have to disagree with most of the "experts" after 40 years of competitive shooting and several hundred thousand rounds down range. I can say I and pretty much everyone I shot/shoot with have never broken in a barrel because most of the time our barrels were good quality, hand lapped aftermarket barrels or if it was a crappy factory barrel, it was swapped out quickly for a good barrel. They just did not need it.
Cornpile
12 pointer
I once seen a guy shooting a 22-250, shoot a tic tac off the top of
a post shooting off a bench rest at 100 yds. I watched it with a
spotting scope,never touched the wood.
a post shooting off a bench rest at 100 yds. I watched it with a
spotting scope,never touched the wood.
