Is there a necessary process to break in a barrel?  Or do you just shoot and clean?

just shoot and clean.

For chrome lined no break in necessary for just a steel barrel I would think the standard break in procedure would benifit such a barrel.

Quoted: For chrome lined no break in necessary for just a steel barrel I would think the standard break in procedure would benifit such a barrel.

I still like to do the one round, clean, one round, clean, etc for the first box of ammo regardless of being chrome lined.

YMMV

- BG

do you have to take everything out to clean the barrel or can you go from the top down?

Clean shoot clean. There was a lot of crap in my SS barrel when I first got it. They might have test fired the upper to see if it worked but I went through over a dozen patches before they started coming out clean. Either way, cleaning is also a way of inspecting your gun. If something's wrong, you'll most likely notice it then.

Snowboarder - I am assuming you are asking if it is ok to clean from the muzzle end as opposed to removing the upper and cleaning from the breach end.  Most people, myself included, recommend against that.  If you push a patch through from the muzzle end you will be pusing all of the crud in the barrel and the solvent into the chamber - not good.  It is also possible to damage the barrel crown when cleaning from the muzzle end.  Best to clean from the breach end using a rod guide and one piece rod.  Another option is to use a boresnake, or one of the Otis Tactical Cleaning kits.  They allow you to pull through from the muzzle end without removing the upper from the lower.

It's a lie.

I don't know if you know who Gale McMillan is, but if not, he was a pretty famous barrel maker.  Here are his words on the subject:

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.

Here is a the thread.

You decide.

There is one thing that I can see barrel break in allowing for....

Ease of cleaning at some point down the road.

Some rather rough barrels from the factory will be like a freaking file or sanding paper on the bullet jacket, this will cause copper fouling to be EVERYWHERE inside the bore and it's no wonder why some barrels are referred to "copper mine" barrels with respect to the amount of fouling they have.


Early on in one of these rough barrel's lives, it will hold a lot more copper fouling in the pitts and rough spots of it's rifling than if it's had 100-200 rounds through it's bore and has been honed down or polished out a bit.       By doing some of the break in processes, what you are doing is removing the copper fouling before the round count gets too high and it becomes a real pain in the ass to get rid of the metal that has fouled the barrel, then once it's gone the pits and rough spots are probably still there to cause it to happen all over again.

Shot one, clean, shoot 3, clean, shoot 5, clean, shoot 10 clean, then shoot 20 and clean.     That's just ONE of the many recommended break in processes.

The thing to keep in mind when doing this is that as you move through the break in process you should see the task of cleaning become a bit less of a chore as time goes on.

The thing that probably would suggest whether you should break in a barrel would be whether or not you get a ton of fouling out of the barrel for the first few shots.


This is VERY obviously demonstrated if you were to compare a high dollar barrel with an excellent finish and professionally honed by the barrel maker to something like a roughly machined barrel like often comes on a factory tube.

BIG differences in cleaning.      Accuracy with a rough barrel can still be good but hell if it isn't a pain in the ass to clean and to get it actually clean.



I whole heartedly agree with various posts I have read by the late Mr. McMillian, some decent threads on the old Firingline forums regarding this.     Break in is essentially "wear" on the barrel.

Thing is, a lot of older worn barrels clean very nicely when compared to fresh barrels.

That's why all the money for a high grade barrel with excellent bore and the reason for going through the hassle to get one


Chrome lined barrels?     Stock that rifle up with ammo and start shootin!    Very likely that you will not make a meaningful difference by trying to do a break in.

When I get my AR I am going to clean it out and then shoot 2-400 rounds through it.

If anyone can tell my why I should break in an AR barrel but not break in a .270 before putting 75 rounds through it I am all ears.

I took a Taurus .357 out of the box and shot 200 rounds through it, cleaned it, and the next day ran another 150 rounds through it.

When my AR is complete I am going to run hundreds of rounds through the round, straight out of the box.

Being the only gun place I have heard of that barrel break in is needed, I will take my chances and let you know what happens.

Never said it's required nor do I think others are saying it's required.

Though what somebody should get from this thread is that they should be suspect of anyone who does say that barrel break in is required.    Especially if they read the post by McMillian about how some salesmen out there have figured out a way to increase the number of barrels they sell by getting people to basically wear the barrels out through lengthy "break in" process.


For the most part, the only beneficial thing I think comes from a barrel break in is that a person may experience easier cleaning at a lower round count through the barrel should they do a break in procedure as opposed to simply shooting and not cleaning quite so early.


Each break in the round count by cleaning allows you to uncover those rough spots in the barrel so that when the barrel is clean, the very next rounds to be fired will possibly wear down the burrs or rough spots.      If the barrel is dirty with copper fouling the bullets will have less effect as the contact is between bullet jacket and the fouling in the bore.       Clean out that fouling and you expose the imperfections and possibly wear them down so that they have less hold on fouling in the future.

This is how cleaning MAY become easier as you are in effect putting wear on the barrel and polishing out those imperfections.

Hows the snow in FL?

Quoted: Hows the snow in FL?

no snow, even if there was it would be to flat.  I am from laguna beach Ca, I snowboard when i go home for winter break.

Sometimes the sand patches look like snow on cold days.  

I've heard, from Bushmasters catalog or by talking to someone there, I don't remember, that you should not clean a new chromre lined  bbl, you should shoot 200 rds thru it and then you clean it. Anyone heard this before?

http://www.dsarms.com/brebarrel.cfm