Never thought much about Barrel break in, until now !

[jjmp]

Years back when I found my model 75 Sako synthetic in the used rack . It was in like new condition ,bought it took it home and put some leupold 1 inch rings on it . Started reloading for it and it was staying around 1.5 which I thought was suspicious,then it dawned on me , hey give it some time ,it's not shot enough cause it's almost new ,and no way to know how much if at all it was shot . So every 10 shots I cleaned it,then continued to up the round count,then clean so more ,seemed like I was cleaning more then shooting at last my 60 rounds was done . Then I told myself either you're gonna shoot or down the road you go. The next reloads I throttled her up and she came around to a nice 1 inch ,3 shot group , so I changed bullets tried the new 160 accubond noslers with a whisker over book loads and they shot fantastic 3/8 ,3 shots at 100 yds . Now some might say hey that needs to be 5 shot groups , I say it's my way my rifle ,to each their own. Caliber 7 STW bbl 26 inch chronograph reload 3150 fps. Moral of story stick with it , give it some TLC , happy it payed off ,Cheers !!!.

 

[manitou]

Also, some rifles are way more picky about bullets than others.
I have rifles that will shoot just about any make of bullet and I have a couple that will only shoot one or two brands of bullets accurately. Those are the rifles that almost get wrapped around a tree when working up loads!

 

[mark slavinski]

Can't explain it myself. Action screws were properly torqued the whole time. I knew the scope was good because it came off a gun that shot great. Muzzle brake was fine I actually took the brake off to shoot some groups and it made no difference. It shoots 165's and 180's just as good as the 208's now. Not sure what else it could be, don't really care, just thought it was interesting. Going to shoot it tomorrow if this wind dies down and will report.

 

[victor3ranger]

Just got a Christensen Mesa in 300WM. I always do my own version of bbl break in which is very consistant to CA. I own three CA rifles which were all shooters right out of the box, no break in really needed. I started with a load, got it zeroed then cleaned. shot another load 3" at 100 and cleaned. Shot another different load , 3" then cleaned. Went through several bullets, powder, cleaning and everything shot about 3"…..after about 50 rds, I cleaned and was really frustrated and ready to send back to CA. i figured a had better send some factory rounds down range to make sure it wasn't me Before I called them. Had a partial box of hornady superformance 150 GMX on hand so shot a group with them getting a 4" group at 100. Had some PPU 180 gn SP tried a group with them and got a 3" group. Have a buddy with some Hornady 180 sst superformance and got a 4" group with them. Now I am ready to send the rifle back. Cleaned it again then dwelled on it for a while. I now have about 60 rds down the bbl and thought I need to try some heavies so loaded up some 208 ELDM's and got a 1/2" group. Had to be a fluke so shot another group and got 1/2". Went back to 178 ELDX and got a 1/2" group! Tried three other bullets and everything is now shooting 1/2-3/4" groups! All of a sudden I have a rifle that shoots that I was ready to send back….never experienced anything like this, CA says it takes 50-60 rds to break in the bbl, this is the first time this has ever happened to me. Guess you are never too old to learn!

I have had that happen twice to me.
About 50-60 rounds and everything came together

 

[Rosebud]

Just got a Christensen Mesa in 300WM. I always do my own version of bbl break in which is very consistant to CA. I own three CA rifles which were all shooters right out of the box, no break in really needed. I started with a load, got it zeroed then cleaned. shot another load 3" at 100 and cleaned. Shot another different load , 3" then cleaned. Went through several bullets, powder, cleaning and everything shot about 3"…..after about 50 rds, I cleaned and was really frustrated and ready to send back to CA. i figured a had better send some factory rounds down range to make sure it wasn't me Before I called them. Had a partial box of hornady superformance 150 GMX on hand so shot a group with them getting a 4" group at 100. Had some PPU 180 gn SP tried a group with them and got a 3" group. Have a buddy with some Hornady 180 sst superformance and got a 4" group with them. Now I am ready to send the rifle back. Cleaned it again then dwelled on it for a while. I now have about 60 rds down the bbl and thought I need to try some heavies so loaded up some 208 ELDM's and got a 1/2" group. Had to be a fluke so shot another group and got 1/2". Went back to 178 ELDX and got a 1/2" group! Tried three other bullets and everything is now shooting 1/2-3/4" groups! All of a sudden I have a rifle that shoots that I was ready to send back….never experienced anything like this, CA says it takes 50-60 rds to break in the bbl, this is the first time this has ever happened to me. Guess you are never too old to learn!

Took about 80 rounds fired for one of my CA Ridgeline in 7-08. Another one was at the mid 40 round count. I'd shoot and clean as they advised. I set a patch freshly pushed from barrel on the table I was shooting from, about five minutes later it looked like a disco ball with all the glittering metal on it. I've had three of them and all have been shooters after the break in period. But I was like you at first, ready to send it back.