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Hunting
The Basics, Starting Out
breaking a barrel
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<blockquote data-quote="4ked Horn" data-source="post: 101876" data-attributes="member: 11"><p>I think it is important to know why we break in barrels. This is my understanding of it so if someone has other info please post it. I am always willing to learn something new.</p><p></p><p>Breaking in a barrel is a method of removing the edges in a barrel that will shave off and hold copper jacket material. If the jacket material is allowed to embed it's self in these pores it will in essence allow a copper lining to coat the rifling. Since similar metals (brass on brass or steel on steel and others) will adhere and gall (smear) the bullets passing through a copper laden barrel will wear unevenly and grab at random points causing a whole myriad of consistency issues that can cause velocity spreads and inconsistent flight characteristics. Also the copper that is stuck in these relatively large pores will only get harder to clean.</p><p></p><p>An example of this is the last two barrels I cleaned for my brother and my friend. The friends gun that has had at least 40 rounds since its last mediocre cleaning took 28 patches with Copper Melt to clean and it shot about a 10" 3 shot group at 300 yards with factory loads. My brothers gun that was not broken in either but it has been cleaned after a number of quick range sessions and a 5 shot hunting season, right down to the bare metal, cleaned in 5 patches after a 19 round ladder test. As many know the ladder test is one shot of many powder weights as opposed to factory loads being somewhat the same. This 19 shot group was about a 6" group at 300 yards. I'll take a 5 patch cleaning over a 28 patch cleaning any time. And the potential for a fantastic group seems to be soundly in place.</p><p></p><p>I don't have a set number of rounds that I shoot for each step of the break in. I let the barrel talk to me. I shoot 1 and clean until the cleaning process drops from about 5 or 6 patches down to 3. This happens in dramatic fashion. Then I go to 5 rounds and clean until it happens again and then I call it good. I use a bore guide and a plastic brush with a patch and 6 to 8 drops of Copper Melt as per the Copper Melt instructions. Cool thing about Copper Melt (other than the fact that it works very well) is that it is a colorless liquid so the patches go from black on the first one to blue while removing copper to white when you are done. No brown patches to guess about. If it ain't white then it ain't clean.</p><p></p><p>BTW Meister, I have not once seen the .308 vs. 30-06 arguement come up on this forum. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="4ked Horn, post: 101876, member: 11"] I think it is important to know why we break in barrels. This is my understanding of it so if someone has other info please post it. I am always willing to learn something new. Breaking in a barrel is a method of removing the edges in a barrel that will shave off and hold copper jacket material. If the jacket material is allowed to embed it's self in these pores it will in essence allow a copper lining to coat the rifling. Since similar metals (brass on brass or steel on steel and others) will adhere and gall (smear) the bullets passing through a copper laden barrel will wear unevenly and grab at random points causing a whole myriad of consistency issues that can cause velocity spreads and inconsistent flight characteristics. Also the copper that is stuck in these relatively large pores will only get harder to clean. An example of this is the last two barrels I cleaned for my brother and my friend. The friends gun that has had at least 40 rounds since its last mediocre cleaning took 28 patches with Copper Melt to clean and it shot about a 10" 3 shot group at 300 yards with factory loads. My brothers gun that was not broken in either but it has been cleaned after a number of quick range sessions and a 5 shot hunting season, right down to the bare metal, cleaned in 5 patches after a 19 round ladder test. As many know the ladder test is one shot of many powder weights as opposed to factory loads being somewhat the same. This 19 shot group was about a 6" group at 300 yards. I'll take a 5 patch cleaning over a 28 patch cleaning any time. And the potential for a fantastic group seems to be soundly in place. I don't have a set number of rounds that I shoot for each step of the break in. I let the barrel talk to me. I shoot 1 and clean until the cleaning process drops from about 5 or 6 patches down to 3. This happens in dramatic fashion. Then I go to 5 rounds and clean until it happens again and then I call it good. I use a bore guide and a plastic brush with a patch and 6 to 8 drops of Copper Melt as per the Copper Melt instructions. Cool thing about Copper Melt (other than the fact that it works very well) is that it is a colorless liquid so the patches go from black on the first one to blue while removing copper to white when you are done. No brown patches to guess about. If it ain't white then it ain't clean. BTW Meister, I have not once seen the .308 vs. 30-06 arguement come up on this forum. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [/QUOTE]
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breaking a barrel
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