Well, I broke in the barrel today on my TRG-S in .338 Lapua Magnum and have a few observations.
First, whatever Sako did when they created the barrel, it keeps out the copper---there was zero copper fouling (especially surprising with Barnes X bullets). I mean absolutely zero detectable copper in the bore---very weird. My last barrel to be broken-in, a Lilja, collected so much copper per shot for the first 10 rounds, that I wondered how much bullet was left coming out of the barrel. I used Butch's Bore Shine for cleaning.
Next, my recoil impressions. I experimented a bit because a least one person was curious about the recoil. I left the scope and mounts off for this, so total gun weight was 8.125 lbs. Recoil while shooting offhand and wearing a heavy PAST shield was not bad at all. The stock recoils straight back---so no smacking your face even with the loosest of holds. Shooting while standing but without the PAST was painful, so no more of that except when hunting. Shooting rigidly from a bench but with the PAST was painful as well, but not as much so. I won't do that anymore either. However, I can happily shoot from the bench while on my knees to get back to an offhand-like stance and I'm in nirvana. When shot like this, the felt recoil is much less than that of than my lightweight .270 Winchester off the bench. The load was 97.2 grains of H1000 behind a Barnes 210 grain XBT (uncoated).
Now that I have some fire-formed brass, I'll have to work-up some loads. BTW, I'm using BeLL brass (at only a dollar a case, its a steal) and it is very uniform in weight (unlike my Norma brass), but average weight is the same as Norma's at about 340 grains. The Lapua brass that I have is much heavier (around 370 grains), is nicely annealed, has a drilled flash hole, and is already chamfered. However, it costs about twice as much as the BeLL brass.
First, whatever Sako did when they created the barrel, it keeps out the copper---there was zero copper fouling (especially surprising with Barnes X bullets). I mean absolutely zero detectable copper in the bore---very weird. My last barrel to be broken-in, a Lilja, collected so much copper per shot for the first 10 rounds, that I wondered how much bullet was left coming out of the barrel. I used Butch's Bore Shine for cleaning.
Next, my recoil impressions. I experimented a bit because a least one person was curious about the recoil. I left the scope and mounts off for this, so total gun weight was 8.125 lbs. Recoil while shooting offhand and wearing a heavy PAST shield was not bad at all. The stock recoils straight back---so no smacking your face even with the loosest of holds. Shooting while standing but without the PAST was painful, so no more of that except when hunting. Shooting rigidly from a bench but with the PAST was painful as well, but not as much so. I won't do that anymore either. However, I can happily shoot from the bench while on my knees to get back to an offhand-like stance and I'm in nirvana. When shot like this, the felt recoil is much less than that of than my lightweight .270 Winchester off the bench. The load was 97.2 grains of H1000 behind a Barnes 210 grain XBT (uncoated).
Now that I have some fire-formed brass, I'll have to work-up some loads. BTW, I'm using BeLL brass (at only a dollar a case, its a steal) and it is very uniform in weight (unlike my Norma brass), but average weight is the same as Norma's at about 340 grains. The Lapua brass that I have is much heavier (around 370 grains), is nicely annealed, has a drilled flash hole, and is already chamfered. However, it costs about twice as much as the BeLL brass.
