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Posted: 8/25/2009 12:57:34 PM EDT
I've searched through here and can't really find anything specific. I have no problem cleaning my guns in the past but now I'm building a new AR with a WOA stainless match barrel and don't want to mess it up. Would someone please tell me how to do this.  This is what I got from the WO website but he really doesn't go into specifics..
"My personal break in procedure is to take a new upper to the range and zero the front sight and shoot a group or two. This will take about 15-20 rounds. I then bring it back to the shop and clean it good with shooters and a good quality brush. I check it with a bore scope, but generally very little copper fouling is present. Depending on how it looks I may hit the throat lightly with some JB. That's it, it is now broken in. This all for good quality hand lapped barrels. I will get a little more aggressive with mass produced barrels." |
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Quoted: I've searched through here and can't really find anything specific. I have no problem cleaning my guns in the past but now I'm building a new AR with a WOA stainless match barrel and don't want to mess it up. Would someone please tell me how to do this. This is what I got from the WO website but he really doesn't go into specifics.."My personal break in procedure is to take a new upper to the range and zero the front sight and shoot a group or two. This will take about 15-20 rounds. I then bring it back to the shop and clean it good with shooters and a good quality brush. I check it with a bore scope, but generally very little copper fouling is present. Depending on how it looks I may hit the throat lightly with some JB. That's it, it is now broken in. This all for good quality hand lapped barrels. I will get a little more aggressive with mass produced barrels." 1. Shoot 15-20 rounds. 2. Clean properly. That's all I had to do for my WOA DMR barrel. I'm not sure how much more specific you want, that's what John Holliger recommends for his barrels. |
I was actually looking for specific directions on how to clean the barrel. Like... "Use bore guide push patch through then remove patch then pull rod back through... Repeat?!?!? I'm kinda confused because ive always cleaned from muzzle end and pushed bore brush back and forth. patches too ive read so many pages with no real specifics.  please help. hope to shoot my new rifle this weekend and want to make sure I clean it properly afterwards
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67 Camaro,
I just assembled a WOA stainless barreled rifle myself. There's a lot of controversy over break in vs no break in. Some folks recomend it, others feel its a waste of time and uses up barrel life for nothing. Personaly, I invested a day at the range doing break in. I figured I had invested a lot of money in my barrel, why not do all I can to insure accuracy. That said, here is what and why. I read the procedure somewhere, but it's been so long ago I forget where. Lets start with the basics, and ya'll flame away if I screw up. You will need at least 1 good quality cleaning rod( I prefer 2, so I can have a jag on one, and a brush on the other), one piece is better, coated better still. ( the coating helps protect the bore if you accidently make contact) A bore guide that fits into the chamber and seals the bore off from the rest of the action and aligns the rod with the bore is recommended but not required. It can be replaced with patience and care. You will also need a good .223 or 5.56 cleaning jag. Jags are much better than loops for sending the patch down the barrel because they apply even pressure 360 degrees on the inside of the bore. Spear tip jags are best because the hold the patch better. I like a good bronze brush (.22 size 'll do), others don't. Next, some appropriate size cotton cleaning patches. I've found the ones cut for 6mm/.243 seem to work better on a jag than the .22's, at least for me, I like a tight fit. Next a good cleaning solvent, preferably one with copper solvent in it. And some CLP or gun oil. A few clean rags come in handy. A flat spot that you can make a mess on. Use a lot of news paper if you are on the kitchen table. Some sort of cleaning rest is nice, the plastic ones are cheap, but not nessacary. I've cleaned mine lots of times breaking it over a sandbag on the shooting bench. It's a lot easier if you have something to support the gun while you clean it so you have both hands free. Now for the work, For your new barrel, just wet a patch in solvent and spear it on the jag. Have the rifle broken and the bolt and charging handle out. Push the rod in from the rear of the reciever, into the chamber and down the bore. It may take a grunt to get it moving, but if the rod bows, its too tight and you need a lighter patch. Take it out and cut down the patch if this happens. A little more on the set up. I do it ouside and pull a garbage can over for all the nasty stuff to fall into. some people cut a 2 liter bottle out on one side (for you hand) and slip it over the muzzle to catch the patches. Each to his own... bottom line, when you push a wet patch down the bore , somethings coming out. When you push the patch through to the muzzle, the patch should fall off the jag. If it doesn't, help it. Pull the rod gently back out, taking care not to bang the crown of the muzzle. Anal people unscrew the jag and wipe the rod. Really anal people use a rod guide in the muzzle. I just ease the rod back out. Now a dry patch or two, until they come out clean. Remember you always want it to be a one way trip, chamber to muzzle, just like the bullet, never drag anything back the other way. And try to be gentle on the throat( area in front of the chamber where the bullet transitions out of the case and into the rifling) and the crown, where the bullet exits and has its final direction from the rifling. Finally a patch wetted with oil, but not dripping. Now you're ready for the range. Take your cleaning stuff with you. This is where the controversy starts, and there're plenty of threads dedicated to the arguments, here goes another. I went with a break in BECAUSE: IF the barrel has any rough spots, and most do unless they got some serious hand lapping to smooth them out, the rough spots need to get pounded down by bullets to achieve the final finish in the barrel ( and maximum accuracy). The theory I went with is that every shot irons the steel a little smoother, and you want to keep the copper out until the steel is slick. In this theory, the rough bore strips copper from the bullets jacket, and it builds up, sealing the pores in the rough steel bore. If you don't clean it out, your bore will not get ironed out by the bullets and will remain a little rough, because the bullets start riding on the copper left by their fellows, and the barrel will be rough again when you finally do clean it, prone to fouling in the future. Since it Always strips copper and fouls, it never gets completly slicked up, as its always repeating the cycle of strip, slick with copper, clean. Accuracy varies with the amount of copper filling the bore. So to prevent this, you start out by cleaning after every shot for the first 5, every three shots to 20, every 5 to fifty, every 10 to 100, then shoot normally.(all day and clean at home, or until accuracy deteriorates if you're anal)This process supposedly allows the steel to get ironed out without being fouled by copper from the jackets. I cleaned by using a brush to break the crud loose, then pushing dripping wet patches until they come clean, then dry patches, then shoot. Copper solvent has ammonia in it, and it turns copper blue/green, so the patches will start out black, then a light blue, then when you get to just the solvent color and nothing else, time for a dry patch. It's very tedious to clean this way for break in, and LOTS of people, including some barrel makers say it's unnessacary, so you be the judge. You may want to modify it to less cleaning. I looked at it as buying the extended warranty that I hoped I didn't need, and it's only one day at the range. I had a very hard time getting a clean patch when I cleaned at home, I suspect that it was because I kept running the bronze brush back in to make sure I had knocked down all the crud. I suspect that some strong copper solvents, mixed with bronze brushes, in stainless steel, have some sort of chemical reaction that makes a black color. Once I stopped using the brush, it cleaned up in no time. I still like a brush to start off though, to knock loose the build up, and I pump the brush up and down the bore to loosen everything up, the push it all out the muzzle with a patch.Thats the cleaning deal, hope it helps, I quite sure there a few hundred people on this site who can tell you why it's ridiculus and unnessacary, or how I screwed up the process. On to other things. If you keep the bolt& carrier well oiled, and I mean WET with a good CLP, you really won't have to worry about cleaning them until you finish, and then they should wipe down. Carbon scraping in the key and on the bolt will be a few hundred rounds down the road, so I'm not going into it here. More chances for arguments. Your WOA barrel is a Wilson blank, machined for White Oak by Frank White @ Compass Lake Engineering, If you google Compass Lake, and search their site, you will find JB BORE PASTE, and some recommendations for breaking in barrels and using the cleaning paste. They also claim that the barrels are hand lapped, which is; they rifle the barrel, then finish it by sticking a rod in it and pouring molten lead in to form a lead popsicle that precisely fits into the rifleing. They then knock it out, impregnate it with polishing compound, and pull it through the bore to smooth out the bore. ARmalite says their barrels are triple lapped. I don't know wether that means three pulls, or three levels of compound(like sandpaper, rough, medium, fine?) or what. I also don't know what procedure Compass Lake uses. I do know that barrel lapping is a time comsuming job done by hand and is only done to high quality barrels. Some people say hand lapped barrels don't need break in. Some say shoot it untill you run out of ammo, then clean. You'll have to decide for your self. Hope this helps you..... |
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