[luke1999]

I have just bought a howa 1500 in 204 ruger and it tells me about a break in procedure to harden the steel and to maintain accuracy by firing cleaning and letting the barrel cool and repeating and basically shooting a box of shells. Can anyone tell me if this is really needed.

[willfully armed]

Different strokes for different folks....

Some industry experts say yes, some no. I know that benchrest shooters swear by it.

My precision guns get broken in, one shot, clean, repeat ... for at least 10 rounds. But by clean, I mean NOTHING on the patch for the final swab.
Hunting guns just get shot.

[luke1999]

Hey thanks for the info

[locutus]

Originally Posted by willfully armed

Different strokes for different folks....

Some industry experts say yes, some no. I know that benchrest shooters swear by it.

My precision guns get broken in, one shot, clean, repeat ... for at least 10 rounds. But by clean, I mean NOTHING on the patch for the final swab.
Hunting guns just get shot.

100 percent agree. I clean with Sweet's 7.62 between shots. and I do mean CLEAN! Down to the bare metal.

Then clean every two shots for the next 10. Fred Sinclair's system is good enough for me!

[axxe55]

if the manufacturer suggests using a particular method for breaking in the barrel, then do it. i follow a break in method on every new rifle i purchase. reason is, if it works fine, but at the very least if it doesn't, cleaning the bore properly isn't going to hurt anything.

when i buy a used rifle, one of the first things i do is a proper bore cleaning. you would be suprised at how dirty some can be! many gunsmithing books will tell you to start with a proper bore cleaning in the search for accuracy problems.

[kytowboater]

Dad cleans after every shot for 20 rounds. I've not owned a rifle nice enough.

[locutus]

Originally Posted by axxe55

if the manufacturer suggests using a particular method for breaking in the barrel, then do it. i follow a break in method on every new rifle i purchase. reason is, if it works fine, but at the very least if it doesn't, cleaning the bore properly isn't going to hurt anything.

when i buy a used rifle, one of the first things i do is a proper bore cleaning. you would be suprised at how dirty some can be! many gunsmithing books will tell you to start with a proper bore cleaning in the search for accuracy problems.

Several years ago, a good friend bought me his Sako 7MM Remington magnum to sell at a gun show.

I knew he loved this rifle, so I asked why he wanted to sell it. He told me the bore was shot out.

I took the rifle to my workbench, and looked through it with a bore light. It looked almost like a smooth bore.

I cleaned it with Sweet's 7.62 several times. when it looked clean, I used the Outer's Foul Out to get the last traces of copper out.

I brought the rifle back to Ralph, and asked him to shot it before deciding to sell.

A couple of weeks later, he called me, very excited, and told me that the Sako shot better groups that it had when it was new.
No way would he sell it.

I asked him how he cleaned the bore. He said that his father had taught him that with modern ammo there was no need to clean the bore.

I took Ralph to the LGS and got him to buy a large bottle of Sweet's, a steel one piece cleaning rod and an Outer's Foul Out.

10 years later, his beloved 7mm Sako still shoots 3/4 MOA.

[willfully armed]

Steel cleaning rod!?!

[locutus]

Originally Posted by willfully armed

Steel cleaning rod!?!

Darn near all serious BR and varmint shooters use one piece steel rods. Grit doesn't embed into the steel and scratch the bore. Coated one piece rods are also good.

But aluminum and all jointed rods should be avoided.
(occasional use in the field is okay)

[willfully armed]

I use the hoppes coated one piece rods. Steel might be good for the military, but it won't go in my bores.