Do You Run In Your Barrel?

[bimbo]

I do what Glen and James have said, clen a few times while sighting in or load development. Especially for hunting rifles I doubt it makes any differance. Just clean it and shoot it

[mn1863]

I know when I had a rifle built by Keith Hills, he strongly recommended running in the barrel. But he builds guns to win matches at a 1000 with.

Shooting that distance I guess every little thing might help.

[WhiteMeat]

I have done this experiment a few times with different manufacturers and different calibers.
I usually purchases my barrels in pairs,sometimes threes.
Same reamer same gunsmith same day.
I really hate the slow process of shoot one clean etc but it was how i was taught so i decided to test it on a pair of barrels.
I broke one in the traditional way i was taught and the second i cleaned before use and then shot it.
Two things were apparent by five hundred rounds, the the broken in barrel was way easier to clean and was marginally more accurate,.The second barrel still shot well but always fouled and after a good clean took much longer to settle back down.

I have had similar results in 308,223,257weatherby,7mm mag 300 win mag. 22-250 and 220 swift. 6.5mm swede.

The advent of borescopes showed me some interesting things about fouling and copper deposits.
My experience has been that if you clean more often early the barrel retains less copper through out its life then one where you allow it to build up early.
Carbon well that has a lot of influences and cleaning it out is a good thing.

Moly and other coatings have some good and bad things and I don't use them any more.

It all gets down to the level of accuracy you are willing to except and the amount of work verses the return you can measure.
I really don't care whether people break them in or not. If you get good results with your method good luck and more power to you.
To me I have seen a measurable return in accuracy,clean ability and longevity, so I will break mine in. I don't use many factory barrels but given my rem police put down a sub 0.150 as its first group I made an exception and treated it like a match barrel.

My thoughts and experience for what it's worth.
cheers

If you clean more often, there won't be more copper build up as it's been cleaned out more regularly though... ?

[Rinso]

mmmmm all very familiar really.

1. Barrels that have been run in properly will retain less copper and be easier to clean through their life ... this is proven during the run in process as the barrel will stop coppering.

Yet those who disagree with running in always claim its a waste of time running in, yet it will reduce cleaning time later .... strange hey.

2. The great debate really started when some people decided to interpret Gale McMillan to suit there own needs. Gale McMillan never said "don't run in a barrel" Gale disagreed with the one shot and clean method. He preferred a 5 or 10 shot and clean method but still run barrels in.
The argument that the one shot clean was developed to wear out more barrels is also a myth a comp gun has a life of between 1000 and 3000 rounds as an average over calibres .... 10 shots isn't going to make any real difference to that when you need more shots than that to tune the barrel.

3. Factory barrels will take hundreds of rounds to stop coppering properly, custom barrels usually achieve this in under 20. So factory barrels probably are best cleaned before firing and then regularly cleaned after use. Match barrels need to be run in to ensure quick effective cleaning during a match and best possible accuracy is available.

4. Poor cleaning techniques and cheap cleaning equipment kills more barrels than anything else. Spend some money on a quality one piece cleaning rod and jags, decent solvent and a bore guide and learn how to use them.

5. Fact a clean barrel will out shoot a dirty barrel 99 out of 100 times.

6. Fact a clean barrel will last longer than a dirty barrel

7. Fact barrel run in is not performed by the best target shooters around the world because they have nothing better to do or because of some voodoo based belief.

[Brad Y]

Yes I do on my match barrels. I use a borescope while doing it and to me there is a difference in how quickly a barrel that is run in properly starts shooting well and when one that isnt starts shooting well. My maddco came right very quickly and fireforming loads shot very well before I had a match load sorted out. My old krieger took alot longer to run in, Im not sure why. It copper fouled heavily from the start and shot poorly to the point I lost faith in it. It took a fair bit of scrubbing with autosol and in the end firing with trefolex cutting oil swabbed down the barrel to get it going. Once the bore started getting smoother with the treatment, the copper fouling reduced and it suddenly started shooting very well at long range. In the end I sold it due to concentrating on another class of shooting, the person who bought it got it fitted to his action and it has shot brilliantly since then.

Will have a new krieger 7mm to run in shortly. The last one I saw run in only took 15 shots before the copper dissapeared and shoots very tight at 900m.

My hunting guns I just oil it, fire and clean a few times before shooting for groups. But my hunting guns dont have factory barrels either.

[macca]

If you clean more often, there won't be more copper build up as it's been cleaned out more regularly though... ?

Meant after the break in process when both barrels are clean one will pick up more copper then the other after the same number of shots.
cheers

[birdnesta]

I had never run a barrel in until this year (sako 204). Will I do it again ? Bloody oath. It is the easiest rifle in the safe to clean without dought ! I even sort of run-in a new 7615rem, It's 10mins out of my life , if it works great ,if it don't who cares.

[mistit]

I have done this experiment a few times with different manufacturers and different calibers.
I usually purchases my barrels in pairs,sometimes threes.
Same reamer same gunsmith same day.
I really hate the slow process of shoot one clean etc but it was how i was taught so i decided to test it on a pair of barrels.
I broke one in the traditional way i was taught and the second i cleaned before use and then shot it.
Two things were apparent by five hundred rounds, the the broken in barrel was way easier to clean and was marginally more accurate,.The second barrel still shot well but always fouled and after a good clean took much longer to settle back down.

I have had similar results in 308,223,257weatherby,7mm mag 300 win mag. 22-250 and 220 swift. 6.5mm swede.
Macca all the way , in my opinion his right
The advent of borescopes showed me some interesting things about fouling and copper deposits.
My experience has been that if you clean more often early the barrel retains less copper through out its life then one where you allow it to build up early.
Carbon well that has a lot of influences and cleaning it out is a good thing.

Moly and other coatings have some good and bad things and I don't use them any more.

It all gets down to the level of accuracy you are willing to except and the amount of work verses the return you can measure.
I really don't care whether people break them in or not. If you get good results with your method good luck and more power to you.
To me I have seen a measurable return in accuracy,clean ability and longevity, so I will break mine in. I don't use many factory barrels but given my rem police put down a sub 0.150 as its first group I made an exception and treated it like a match barrel.

My thoughts and experience for what it's worth.
cheers

[mistit]

Not sure what happened there but macca is spot on in my opinion