What Is Your Break-in Period?

[Glanceblamm]

I saw that Doghunter1 has a new 223 wssm. He said dime size groups @ 100yds after break-in period.

I thought this was worth mentioning and decided to share my own. What it amounts to is cleaning the rifle before firing and After Each Shot for the First Fifteen Shots.
Sounds like a hassle but this is a complete brush\patch cleaning.

The theory is that the first bullet may snag on a burr\tool mark or such that will carve a slice out of the bullet. The next shot hits this "deposit" and follows a slightly different path.
More shots are fired and copper fouling builds quickly as the bullets continue to shift just a bit.

The rifling may or may not be damaged. Even if not damaged, the gun can be much harder to clean in the future as fouling builds up much quicker.

Many will Scoff at this as the old favorite will still shoot  five into 1 MOA.
Could have been that these same rifles were capable of shooting the same five shots under 1/2" at 100yds.

The big payoff here is small targets such as the PDog at the 300yd range and beyond. If your rifle will group five into 3 to 4 tenth's of an inch at 100yds, you have a much better chance on those long shots.

Good Cleaning Practices Are A Must.
Gun Vise
Bore guide
1 piece stainless rod
And holding the rod by the handle. The handle is designed to spin freely so the brush & patch will FOLLOW the rifling instead of being pushed or pulled across it.

Sorry for the story & long wind. This is just something that has worked for me.

[skb2706]

Basically I take mine out of the shipping box, run a patch thru it, shoot it a few times, clean it with a couple patches, shoot it a few more, clean it .............wallll la. Broke in ! Proceed to shoot it.......I don't buy barrels to make a long drawn out process out of breaking them in.......personally I think its way over rated.

[papajohn428]

I've heard both sides on this topic, and I think I'd rather err on the side of caution.  So when I got my Oly Arms AR, I did the same thing, shoot/clean, for the first 15 rounds, then 5 shot groups until I had fired 50 rounds.  Then let it soak with Hoppe's Copper solvent for 24 hours, and clean it again.  Voila!  I'm still testing, but with loads it likes, 1/2" at 100 yards is pretty easy.   I hope to cut that in half with heavy bullets, but so far it really likes the El Cheapo W-W bargain stuff, the 45-grain hollow point.  Three shots in about .335, the best so far.  I bought the gun to thin the local coyote population, they'd better be on their toes, or I'll dump them on their nose!   :lol:

PJ

[rickyp]

I just got a new savage model 10FP-LE2

Taken from savage website

STEP 1 (repeated 10 times)

Fire one round
Push wet patches soaked with a powder solvent through the bore
Push a brush through the bore (5 times in each direction)
Push dry patches through the bore (2 times)
Push wet patches soaked with a copper solvent through the bore
Push a brush through the bore (5 times in each direction)
Push dry patches through the bore (2 times)
Push a patch with 2 drops of oil through the bore
STEP 2 (repeated 5 times)

Fire a 3 shot group
Repeat the cleaning procedure from STEP 1 after each group
STEP 3 (repeat 5 times)

Fire a 5 shot group
Repeat the cleaning procedure from STEP 1
They recommend the use of a patch with 2 drops of oil after the cleaning so that you are not shooting with a dry bore. It is also advisable to use a powder solvent and copper solvent from the same manufacturer to be sure they are chemically compatible.