[n_andonovski]

whats the go with bedding in a riffle barrel?
i heard, from a fairly reliable source, that when the rifle is brand new, you go to the range with all your cleaning equipment...
fire 1 shot, clean the barrel untill every bit of copper has been removed ten times.
then take 2 shots and clean 10 times
then take 3 shots and clean 10 times
and so on and so forth untill you've fired 50 or so rounds?

is this really that important? and will it help extend barrel life?

[CA357]

You're talking about breaking in or seasoning the barrel. Bedding the barrel is a whole other animal.

There are as many variations on breaking in a barrel as there are riflemen.

My method is to fire one round and clean. Fire two rounds and clean. Fire three rounds and clean. Fire four rounds and clean. Then fire five rounds and clean. That's a total of fifteen rounds. I take care to take enough time during the shooting and cleaning to avoid getting the barrel too hot.

Then I will pack it up and shoot something else. When I get it home I clean and lube the rifle.

For the next trip, I will fire slowly so as not to heat the barrel too much. After maybe five rounds, I will run a bore snake through the barrel. I'll shoot as much as I want on this trip, but I don't let the barrel get too hot and run the bore snake through every five or so rounds.

Again after the range trip, I'll clean and lube the rifle. Next trip, I'll more or less just start firing it as much as I want. The only thing I don't want is for the barrel to get too hot.

The barrel will take quite a few rounds to break in, but after the initial cautions, I just shoot it as I normally would.

Hope this helps.

[dog2000tj]

Originally Posted by n_andonovski

whats the go with bedding in a riffle barrel?
i heard, from a fairly reliable source, that when the rifle is brand new, you go to the range with all your cleaning equipment...
fire 1 shot, clean the barrel untill every bit of copper has been removed ten times.
then take 2 shots and clean 10 times
then take 3 shots and clean 10 times
and so on and so forth untill you've fired 50 or so rounds?

is this really that important? and will it help extend barrel life?

I took the advise of members here when i broke in my DPMS .308 bull barrell. the process was pretty similair to what you laid out but i continued until i went through 100 rounds.

[amoroque]

I agree with CA357, everybody has their own method.

I clean after each shot for the first 10 shots, then I clean after every 5th shot until 100 total shots.

I also shoot slow enough to make sure the barrel stays cool for the first 100 shots.

[robocop10mm]

The break in cycle is needed to smooth out a new barrel. Microscopic machining marks in the barrel will gather bullet jacket material (copper) that must be cleaned out. If the copper residue is removed before it can build up significantly, the barrel will get progressively smoother til it is broken in.

The T-3 Sako has a cold hammer forged barrel. Such barrels "should" have fewer imperfections that need to be smoothed. Break in should be relatively easy and require 50 rounds or less.

I agree with "shoot one, clean for the first 10". Whether you go progressively up on the round count or go right to shooting 5 then cleaning is an individual preference.

[mrm14]

For the most part when you are "Breaking in the Barrel" what you are really doing is polishing out the throat of the barrel. Doing this will make it much easier to clean after it is broken in.

Here's Kriegers recommendations on how and why.

Break-In & Cleaning

Hope this helps.

[zenstic]

that krieger article was very informative! i had never even considered the dust produced by the tool marks left in the barrel, much less the plasma state of the copper.

Thanks!