bigcountry

Here's the reason I break in. I rarely if ever see it do miracles as far as fouling. But I am in a hurry. I have accomplished the same thing shooting like 200 rounds. Some guns after 200 rounds, they chronograph alot better with alot lower spreads, and they seem to throw less flyers. Also a gun is dynamic. You can make a load for a gun when it was new, and all the sudden, you see accuracy changing. So I cut to the chase. If I shoot, decopper, shoot, decopper, for 20 rounds, for me its like going to the range with 10 box's of shells, 10 times, with 10 cleanings in between. I then can get to some serious load development. If the gun still fouls badly or has a tendency to throw flyers, probably just a rough bore.

If a gun shoots awesome out of the box, I hesitate on whether or not mess with it.

For instance, I got a 460 pistol a few months ago from the performance center is just awesome in accuracy. It doesn't foul badly, so I didn't bother with break in.

You know break in is working if lets say, you shoot one shot and clean out the copper, and do that until the point, where you see little to no copper come out, and then move to 3 shots and clean, you do that until you see little to no copper come out, and then move to 5 shots, and then 10 shots. If you see 10 shots with little to no copper, then you got one smooth barrel, no need to go further. I got a sako 75 a few years ago that this worked great. But its a rarity.

TxStorm

Why is it a waste of time? I had a Vanguard that went from a 1.3" group down to a .78 grouping within the 50 rds. using the described method. To me, a 1/2" better isn't a waste of time.
Just because something isn't custom, doesn't mean it doesn't have the potential for fine accuracy if given the chance. Just MHO...

TxStorm

I based that on using the same ammo factory used according to the included marked and signed 3-shot target which showed the rifle barely got passed. (Vanguard's 1.5" accuracy guarntee) Granted, it wasn't ammo from the same lot #, but did match brand, bulletand grainage. So perhaps I should have included those initial 3 factory fired rounds.
I just don't see where it would hurt to do the process, other than ammo cost, which you still have to buy eventually anyway. Whether button rifled or hammer forged or whatever, all will have various degrees of marks in them and it helps remove them.

Solitary Man

There is no possible way physicallythat I know of to prove that a particularbarrel that was "broken in" shoots better or worse than if it had not been "broken in". That's because the barrel simply cannot be taken back to its pre "broken in" state and testedthe other way.So, any talk of a barrel being more accurate (or less accurate or the same)because of a tedious break-in routine is just talk.

eldeguello

There's nothing in particular wrong with breaking in a barrel according to the barrel maker's recommendations. This is particularly true if you paid a lot of money for a premium make and had it installed on a varmint or benchrest rifle.

However, that fancy, arcane procedure for breaking in barrels is totally unnecessary for a hunting rifle, and only succeeds in costing you alot of ammo and cleaning time.

My barrel break-in procedure is to take the rifle to a range, shoot it as much as I want for zeroing and practice, then clean it wellwhen I get it home - and clean it well every time I shoot it!

The barrel that shot this group, and a lot of comparable ones, is a Douglas Premium grade (6mm/284), and it was NOT treated any differently than my other barrels.....