Nomercy448

Maybe we should all be driving Ford Model T's also?

Frankly, I STRONGLY disagree with this perception in general. Maybe your father, grandfather, and great grandfathers were lazy, but mine indeed did teach me to break in my rifles. All 3 my father, grandfather, and great grandfather were there when my dad gave me my first new rifle, a Ruger M-77 .30-06 when I was 14, and all 4 of us walked through breaking it in that afternoon. My patriarchs even insisted it wasn't even worth trying to sight it in along the way until it was thoroughly broken in.

Heck, barrel break in procedures were widespread long before metallic cartridges were even available. Blackpowder shooters, like my great grandfather whom I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with as a youth before he passed, used a very detailed break in procedure for his rifles, although he called it "seasoning" instead of "breaking in". The first 10-20 shots out of a black powder rifle shooting a patched ball will even SOUND differently than the shots after say 50rnds. Cap and ball pistols will sound like a loud "poof" initially, until the barrel gets broken in and fouled properly to seal the balls, then they'll switch to a distinct "cracking" sound we're all familiar with.

My great grandpa also taught me to clean my rifle after every time I shoot it, hunting season or not. Granted, he was a smokepoler, so he said to take the stock off and soak it in hot soapy water, then clean it with brake cleaner, then oil it, but the philosophy was the same, "you shoot it, you clean it" (which was his quote for both rifles AND game).

Frankly, I have noticed from experience that cleaning is much faster for broken in barrels, and yes, they do tend to be more accurate, AND STAY ACCURATE LONGER than barrels that weren't broken in.

That's probably the biggest difference for me. The cleaning process is SHORTER and easier with properly broken in rifles, and the barrels DO last longer before the throat and/or crown erode enough to start effecting accuracy.

All that said, it doesn't take a very accurate rifle to kill a deer at 100-200yrds. A 4" group at the given range will knock down any deer your grandpappy might have shot at. These days, we have a little higher standards for accuracy and a little longer expectation on huntable range... Hunting deer at 100yrds doesn't take much precision, so the old timers didn't have very high standards in general.

Sheridan

Also after proper barrel break-in, the differance between the POI with a clean cold barrel or a hot dirty barrel, will be less.

skeeter 7MM

I agree with this statement 100%

For the guy or gal who shoots a 20 shells a year this is likely moot. So it really depends on your usage and practice. I like to ensure my equipment which is maintained above the call of duty. I use them and want them to stay used for a long time so therefor my practice is to go beyond the call of average maint. or care. Just what I do, not right for all but right for me.

FWIW my .17 was a shooter right of the box. I think most are. I broke it just beacuse my retentive side required it.