Seasoning a new rifle

[hapycapy]

Just picked up my wby 300 mag Ive read on here about seasoning a new gun, can someone give me the details?

 

[yobuck]

seasoning a gun is about like seasoning a steak. some of us do, and some of us dont. there dosent seem to be any proof one way is better. enjoy your new gun.

 

[338 LEGEND]

I like to clean the barrel after every shot for the first ten shots, and then after every five for the next hundred. I use sweets solvent to clean with for breaking in the barrel. Dont do that fire lapping sh** . just keep your barrel clean and if its any good it will shoot.

 

[britz]

The whole idea behind seasoning or breaking in ar barrel is simply to polish the barrel using bullets. I believe Krieger's website gives a good set of directions on doing this. When you shoot your rifle the bullet will deposite small amounts of jackett materieal by every little burr in the barrel. If you remove the material and expose the burr before each shot, theroretically you will wear the burrs down to a fine polish.

 

[mike33]

I was always told and believe in a break in. Agree with the 1 shot for ten and then 5-10 clean again.
mike

 

[J E Custom]

The main advantage in breaking in a new barrel is that if you properly clean until
the barrel is broke in it will fowl less from then on.

To prove this I shot a rifle 50 times with out cleaning and it took almost 4 hrs and
many patches to clean it back to bare bore condition.

Then after every 5 shots cleaned again. and it took several swabbings and a dozen
or more patches to clean back to bare bore condition.

I ended up having several hundred rounds through it before it would clean up very
easy.

And after comparing it with a bore scope to a barrel that was broke in using the shoot
and clean method I was amazed at the difference. (Both barrels were the same make
and caliber.

The barrel that was not broken in took over 200 rounds to settel in and the one that
was broke in started shooting and cleaning very well after only 12 to 15 rounds.

So now I break in "ALL" new barrels !!!!!!

Most of the custom barrel makers recomend a break in procedure.

The choice is yours.

J E CUSTOM

 

[prtaylor]

Barrel break in is very impotent for the life of the barrel as well as consistent shooting. When I get a new rifle I always take it out of the stock and run a tight patch through with a good solvent like sweets. Let it set for a few minutes and then run several dry patches. At this point I use JB's bore brite and a tight patch on a jag. Run this patch back and forth slowly about 10 times. Clean with solvent and dry patches again. When the above has been repeated 8 to 10 times then it is time to shoot 1 and clean for 10 or 15 rounds and then shoot 3 and clean for for another 15 rounds. When this done, it is time to sight in the rifle. As a rule I never shoot more than 10 rounds between cleanings.

 

[mike33]

As i stated earlier i feel its very important. I would say there are a lot of excellant shooting guns out there being sold that just need a good cleaning. I first come on to cleaning and barrel break in in the late 80's reading a catalog from Fred Sinclair. Fred's catalog was more of a instructional book than a catalog, he went over every item of how and why to do. As soon as i read thru i grabbed the phone and started ordering dewey rods, solvents, bore guide, etc. As a regular every day hunter ah clean the gun inside every 5 years was okey. Ever since i have done the the single shot clean method as mentioned from the other posts and worked well.
Mike

 

[yobuck]

there are other threads here where this has been discussed at legnth.
as i recall shawn carlock dosent break in barrels. dosent clean them much either.
i have several friends who have been top competetors at williamsport, and they never break them in.
im of the opinion that damage can be caused by cleaning if not done properly. i dont expect my barrels need worry much about that.

 

[Longshot38]

I have never broke in a barrel and never will. On the other hand I know others that do it religiously. If you get a good quality hand lapped barrel in the first place breaking in shouldn't have to be done. As for the fouling issue. It is more in depth then just the bore. What bullet your running has just as much to do with fouling as your bore does.

 

[squirrelduster]

I recently purchased a new Savage 7wsm and I am not a believer in the barrel break in process. I clean real well when new then shoot a couple rounds and clean again.
After finishing load development after approx. 30 rounds I have a rifle that shoots 168 gr Berger VLD's into .380" and 140 gr accubonds into .502.
Not bad for limited load development and no break in. I have a new trigger on the way and I think that may help a little.
I was cleaning my 300 win mag. barrel way too much and getting it way too clean. I spoke with Bob at R.W. Hart and he helped me with the the problems I was having. It takes 8 to 10 rounds for the 300 to really start to shoot after you clean it good. The first couple of groups are in the 1 1/2 inch range and after getting it a little dirty they are around 1/2 inch.
Do a little experiment and shoot a group with a clean barrel. Then shoot 20 rounds. Shoot another group and I would bet the second group is better.
Keep us posted with the results.
SD

 

[mike33]

When i was shooting bench rest everyone would clean after every match ( 5 rounds on record and how many on lower sighter target). Going in to the next match you would shoot a few on sighter to dirty barrel before you would go up stairs on the record target. I have 2 previous posts, pro break in cleaning and will not post any more. I think if you believe in it do, if you dont believe in it dont do it. In reality who really cares what someone else does with there gun.
Mike