Breaking in a new barrel

[LONEWOLF]

Hi what is the best way to break in a new barrel. I have seen a system in midway that use bullets coated different grits of polish.   Has anyone used this system by Tubb finial bore polishing system.  Any help would be great I have three new guns to break in.
Thank you
charlie

[Hairtrigger]

Depends on the gun.
Being benchrest anal does not make sense on a hunting rifle.
I believe a good bore guide is as or more important than barrel break in

[iiranger]

you can go to the wisdom of target barrel makers at benchrest.com under their ads and see what they think. #1). Each shot is barrel wear. #2). Would you rather be shooting at something or shooting and cleaning???

The polish systems you refer to are for guns that have been mistreated. The top quality barrels are often polished between the "making" steps with tools and equipment you probably cannot afford or know where to get. What these grits will do is enlarge your insides/bore and reduce accurate life FAST... I wouldn't, unless I had an "NRA moonscape" bore on some old mil. surplus rifle. Ordinary factory barrel, take it out and shoot it.

I can see running solvent/patches thru a new barrel to get any crud out, oils, greases, packing crap, etc. Then shoot it. If you get a ton of copper, by all means, clean it out before you shoot some more, but for varmints... And if you are working for a super precise load, sure, clean well, then fire a fouling shot or two before "shooting for record..."  I will not be able to tell if I have lost razor edge accuracy and neither can the pest and if I do, I am more than willing to shoot again... ENJOY ...

[carbine mike]

 all new barrels have some roughness or machining marks left in them. Factory barrels that are hammer forged are rougher than button forged barrels but all need several rounds through them to smooth them out.  these rough areas collect copper ,lead and carbon fouling more quickly than a smooth barrel will. Problem is this fouling is much harder to get out of these rough areas than with a well shoot barrel.Some will tell you that you will never get it all out, I dont know for sure but I would rather error on the side cleaning to much vs to little. I shoot one shot, clean-shot one-clean for the first five then do same every five shots for the next 45rounds. Maybe overkill but again better safe than sorry. Mine do seem to clean up a lot better, barrel wise but I dont know if I shoot any better. Just one opinion from a newbie here.

[gunnut69]

I've seen more barrels ruined by poor cleaning practices than buy shooting.. In reality I doubt that if you use 'PROPER' cleaning techniques that it won't likely hurt anything. Foes it help.. Probably not.. The bullet slamming down the bore with huge amounts of pressure behind it and heat as hot as a oxy/acetalene torch will have a lot more effect than a clean patch.. Also you usually can't remove all the fouling and probably don't want to but if you do, it is possible.. The eleactro chemical bore cleaners from Outers will clean the bore to bare metal..

[carbine mike]

I've seen more barrels ruined by poor cleaning practices than buy shooting.. In reality I doubt that if you use 'PROPER' cleaning techniques that it won't likely hurt anything. Foes it help.. Probably not.. The bullet slamming down the bore with huge amounts of pressure behind it and heat as hot as a oxy/acetalene torch will have a lot more effect than a clean patch.. Also you usually can't remove all the fouling and probably don't want to but if you do, it is possible.. The eleactro chemical bore cleaners from Outers will clean the bore to bare metal..

Gunnut Ihave read enough of your posts to know that you know what you are talking about. I guess I have been doing it this way for along time and it has worked well for me? Maybe I have been wasting a lot of time cleaning when I could have been shooting. I guess the biggest reason I do is it my dad taught me that a clean barrel was a happy barrel. Iam sure that over cleaning can be a problem as much as no cleaning can be but I do believe that a clean gun ( barrel ) is always going to shoot better than a dirty or rough/pitted barrel. I do understand that poor cleaning practices can do more harm than good.

[jpcampbell]

I would use the fire lapping on a new barrel  if it was a very rough barrel. 
Most competition barrels are hand lapped by the manufacture to make them smooth and to remove any tight spots.

You can check your barrel by taking a alum cleaning rod and using a damp tight fitting patch and inserting in to the barrel  through the chamber, with light pressure push it forward until you feel it tighten up, then mark the rod with a marker pen, apply more pressure and when it moves easily again mark the rod again, do this through the complete barrel, lay the rod over top of the barrel now, you know where the tight spots are.  From here you can hand lap the barrel or fire lap it to remove the tight spots. 

Fire lapping is a safe if done properly, follow the directions and you will have a smooth barrel without tight spots.

Now as to cleaning the barrel, since 1958 I have seldom used a rod to clean barrels unless it is to remove copper cladding or severe fouling, and then I have always used a guide.  Before the barrel snakes came out I used braided line with a loop in it and pulled a small bunch of steel wool then oiled patches. I build rifels from 22lr to 50cal and with each gun the customer got one of those strings, now they get a snake.

[carbine mike]

I would like try fire lapping my next rifle but I have a few Questions?? How many rounds and what grit of compound? Can you over do it and damage your barrel? Ive seen the fire lapping kits in midways catalog, are these the ones to use?  Back to the cleaning issue, I probably do clean to much but I have seen a difference in groups with my 22-250 after 50 or so rounds and then a quick clean with a guide through the chamber end.  This cleaning deal probably belongs on a differant thread.

[jpcampbell]

The fire lapping kits are safe if you follow the directions, I do my own 22lr using CCI CB Caps and the three pack of rubbing compound from Shucks.  I pull the bullet from the CB Cap and starting with the med. grit I roll the bullet with a little compound between two pieces of mirror then wipe it off and press it into the case, load and fire, clean with patch and repeat.  I use the fine grit for two rounds cleaning between each one, I have used this for many years. If you use the cleaning rod and marker you can feel the difference.

[gunnut69]

I'm sorry but I view fire lapping as a last resort for a barrel that should likely be replaced.  It will move the throat(where most barrels wear out) forward and will only mildly help the barrels roughness. A cast in place lead lap will on the other hand do a very fine job indeed of refining the level of finish inside the bore, if properly used.. If you don't believe me ask any barrel maker what they think of fire lapping.. I seldom clean a 22 rimfire until the accuracy falls off. Center fire rifles get more cleaning as the jacket metal can and will plate the bore and provide a place for moisture to collect and promote rust. Never clean without a bore guide. Snakes and pull thrus don't do much more than remove powder fouling and a polished stainless rod will not damage the bore of any rifle. For best results a free turning handle is a must and there shouldn't be any sharp edges.. Wipe clean with each stroke and follow the instructions of the bore cleaning solution.. I use Hoppes for simple powder fouling, it works well and the smell is wonderfull. When there is jacket metal present I use Sweets7.62.  It doesn't smell as nice but it actually removes the jacket metal.. Follow the directions and you won't get into trouble.

[jpcampbell]

Gunnut69
I have to disagree with you on the fire lapping, if done properly it will not damage the barrel or throat.
I have done it to many barrels without a problem.

A cast lead lap would be the best but if not done right it will do damage as well.

For general cleaning the snakes are much easier to carry and use. As I said in my earlier post I use a rod only to clean barrels to remove copper cladding or severe fouling.

Sweets is a good product, I use the lyman foul out and it works very well just takes longer.

[carbine mike]

    Check out the info on www.kriegerbarrels.com for thier thoughts on break-in.

[DDelle338]

  Before you think about fire lapping evaluate the gun.  Clean that new barrel very good before the first round. Then I use the shoot and clean after each round routine. While you do this, note how much copper fouling you have. If it isn't real bad, and you don't have to spend hours getting the copper out between rounds I wouldn't think about lapping. Just do one of the shoot and clean routines.

   I've Fire Lapped two rifles, both would copper foul so bad that I had to spend two days cleaning between each shot and still not get all the copper out. The first rifle was a .338 Win Mag. and the second was a .243. After doing the fire lapping to the .338 which took about a week for me to do, I cleaned it real good and went to the range, shot two rounds to season the barrel. Then I shot my first group and I was pretty happy with myself for being such a LUCKY shot, as all 5 holes were touching. Then I shot another, and another. I shot some groups that looked like a .338 bullet lying on its side! Da*m tight! I was happier than that proverbial pig. But it still copper fouls. Not as bad, but still requires allot of cleaning. But I can't complain because of what it did for the accuracy.
  Then I decided to make that .243 shoot one hole 5 shot groups also. I did the fire lapping on it. Helped the fouling some, didn't improve the accuracy that much. And now after doing the lapping the throat is soooo long that I can't get close to the lands with any bullet, even a 100 gr bullet seated way out in the end of the case doesn't touch them. Now this gun still shoots pretty darn good. Sub moa, sometimes I get al 5 shot holes touching. But I know that I severely shortened this barrel's life by doing the lapping. And I was pretty conservative with the lapping procedure.
  So....  Why do you want to do it? What do you want to gain? Can you put up with a little more cleaning than you like? What cal. is the rifle? What do use it for? How often will you need to clean it? All questions you need to answer for yourself. Then decide which route you want to go. All lapping is wear on the barrel. I think that if you have a problem in the bore, i.e. rough spot, then hand lapping will be of more help because you can concentrate on that spot. If it's a fouler, and you can't keep up with the cleaning, then go ahead and fire lap her. But I suggest you start conservatively, watch that throat, especially if your talking about the small calibers.