Poll: Weatherby New Rifle Break In

[Old Army]

Anyone want to share their opinion (pros and cons) about breaking in new rifle barrels?

Weatherby recommend their TWO BOX BARREL BREAK-IN....as described here.....

"This barrel break-in procedure requires two boxes of ammunition to complete. Start out by shooting one round at a time, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each round and allowing it to cool. This process should be followed for a total of ten rounds.  Then take the remaining thirty rounds and shoot ten three shot groups, cleaning the barrel thoroughly after each group and allowing it to cool completely before firing the next group. Once ten, three shot groups have been fired the barrel is adequately broken in. At this point the rifle can be sighted in and used."

Thoughts....comments....yes....no......?     

Thanks.

[PARA45]

I want to say that there are several posts on this subject.  You could prob do a search to see the results.  Very mix from what I remember. 

[WeatherbyFan 65]

My gosh that's a total waste of ammunition and money, if your buying Weatherby ammunition your into about $300 already, they're in the business of selling ammo so following their guidelines you would be into a third box of ammo by the time you sight it in ?

I love everything Weatherby but that's rediculous.....I've bought or built about 100 rifles and I'm a little fussy about cleaning for the first box of ammo after every group shot, after that I clean after every Range session or after hunting season

The main thing is NEVER OVERHEAT your barrel at the range, easy to do with Weatherby cartridges as they're loaded pretty hot,

This is what I've been doing with a new rifle or new build,

I clean after each shot for the first 3 then after every 3 shot group for the first box,
But I also use this time to zero my rifle with the same ammo I intend to hunt with,
 I would never dream of shooting two boxes of ammo off then sighting it in with a third box.
I've also just sighted a new rifle in and gone hunting and cleaned it at the end of the season and never had an issue ?

Every rifle is different, My Mark V ULW RC 240 does not like to be clean, after cleaning my first group will be about 2-2.5" after that it will start to shoot 1/2-3/4" groups consistently, soon as I clean it the group opens up ??

[.257]

The idea of the break in is to "warm" the barrel and let it cool completely. You never want to get a new barrel hot!!! The break in is also to get any imperfections out of the barrel. These will most likely be to small to see without a bore scope. This is what the cleaning between shots is for, and it makes you take the time to do it, which will give the barrel time to cool. It is human nature to not wait long enough.

Weatherby guarantees sub MOA groups, so yes they will advise you to break in your barrel.

I think the most important part of this is the heating and cooling of the barrel. My target rifle started shooting its best groups at about 100 rounds.

 There is no reason why you shouldn't be sighting your gun in as you go, this also gives you something to do as the barrel cools. Recording your groups changing targets etc.

Weatherby builds a lot of rifles they should know

[oregonmarkv]

The barrels are hand lapped so they are already smooth so what 257 said, just do not get it too hot.

[musicman]

I just combine the breaking in shots with the sighting in shots.  Start out with the "cheap" Weatherby, $35 a box ammo.  If my first shot is twelve high and ten right, do I really need to shoot two more shots for a "group."  Nope.  Move the crosshairs, clean the barrel.  Take the the next shot.  I repeat until I am dead on where I want to be; just shooting one shot at a time, and then cleaning.  By this point, I am dead on, and then I do the three shot group thing, to see what the rifle will do.  I get it broken in to my satisfaction with one box of shells, not two.  And with our three .257's, I found that the "cheap" Weatherby ammo with the mystery 100 gr. bullet all shot under an inch.  And that load has proven to be lights out on our Central Texas deer and wild pigs.  Some people like to test their scope's repeatability (I do not) by "walking the square."  If you do that, you can clean between those groups and burn up some more ammo.  While watching my Grandfather and Dad as a kid, they essentially broke in their Winchester 94's the same way, but over the course of a couple of years.  They were rather stingy with the ammo in those days.   Shoot one or two shots before the season to verify open sights, clean gun, shoot two or three deer during the season, usually cleaning the gun after each successful hunt, put the gun up till the next season.  Repeat.  After four years and one box of shells, they had "broken in" their barrel, and didn't even know it.  My Dad's pre-war 94 still shoots great groups for a lever action rifle.  Back to modern bolt actions, to me, the cost of one or two boxes of shells is minimal, if it makes my rifle shoot a half inch better.  People will spend more than that on an after market trigger, free floating the barrel, bedding the action, lapping the lugs, blueprinting the action, replacing the stock, etc., just to get a little more accuracy.  Breaking in the barrel is probably the "cheapest" way to get a little more accuracy.  MM

[TexWeatherby]

This comes up every once in a while. I don't know how much it actually helps, but I do it anyway. I combine the break in with sighting in the freshly mounted scope (a given on a new  or re-barreled rifle) and some post-zero test shots. That way I kill two birds with one stone and I'm not really wasting ammo as some feel about break-ins. Hell, I enjoy the shooting anyway.

[danno50]

 I think that over time a barrel that is shot and cleaned on a consistent basis will achieve the maximum accuracy that its capable of, although it may take longer to go through 2 or more boxes of ammo, "if" thats what it takes. You have two schools of thought that achieve the same goal while using different methods, albeit one method is unstructured or varies from shooter to shooter. Just don't overheat your barrel at the range as has been mentioned, and your shooting will stay more consistent. If you shoot sub moa with the first three shots, you may just want to save your ammo.

[Blackbear3]

The barrels are hand lapped so they are already smooth so what 257 said, just do not get it too hot.

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure the Vanguards are not hand lapped, that's why they recommend the 2 box break in. The Mark V's are hand lapped, but I did do a one box break in on my new ULW.

[224KING]

Yawning

[Old Army]

Since someone said there are previous discussion on this topic, I won't waste anyone's time I'll do a search and read up.   But my take away from the inputs so far is to:  Shoot...clean and allow barrel to cool...Adjust sights and then Repeat the process.  I don't think I have ever been told not to allow the barrel to overheat before.  But it makes sense.  Thanks for all the advice, tips and comments....Friends. 

[eford]

For me, the barrel break in process has been largely unnecessary. No matter if you can clean after every three, five, or ten shots with a new barrel. It might make a difference. Shoot, wait a minute, shoot again, etc. Chances are the ammo will make a larger difference than the cleanliness of the bore. If you're getting good groups then clean the bore when you're finished and leave it at that----unless you'll be hunting the next day and if so, go afield with a fouled bore for better accuracy. I've found all my rifles except one are more accurate with a fouled barrel than a clean one.

[Downeast]

What eford said. 

[dubyam]

I tried breaking in barrels, but then I started buying used rifles, and you can't worry over break-in on used barrels. So what I do now is pay attention to what the rifle tells me it needs. Any new, or new-to-me rifle gets a thorough cleaning before first range trip. Then mount the scope, head to the range after that.

Now, to be sure, I don't shoot my barrels hot. But after that first range trip, if groups are tight, and hunting season is close, I might just leave it alone and hunt. More time until hunting season, or bigger groups than I want? Well, it gets cleaned with BTE, and here's where I start listening to the rifle. The first cleaning of a new/new-to-me rifle after shooting a known number of rounds through a clean bore will tell me an awful lot about how that gun will foul and how it should be cleaned over the early ownership period. If it's terribly coppery, I may even run some bore paste through to help start smoothing things out. For this I'll use JB's, or Break-Free, because that's what I usually have, but Flitz works well, also, I'm told. I do a couple of full passes, then a "short stroke" up the bore, which really helps get the big tool marks out if there are any.

Beyond that, shoot (not too hot!) And clean every 20-40rds, for a while. What you'll find is over time, you can stretch that regimen out a ways. I generally clean every 40-50rds on heavy shooters, and once a year on everything, just to keep carbon buildup from causing problems with the throat steel. Most of my guns see 30-40rds a year, though the past couple of years that's not been the case.

[galamb]

I bought two Vanguard II's a couple years back - a 243 and a 7.08.

The 243 I broke in exactly as Weatherby recommended.

I clamp my rifles while sighting etc to take away my shaky hands from the equation.

While breaking in the 243 I did notice a "significant" tightening of the group after about the 30th round - it was dramatically tighter taking it from the 1"ish range down to below 1/2" groups @ 100 yards. So for that rifle it may have just "fluked" at 30 rounds or there is something to the break in.

I did NOT break in the 7.08 (needed it for moose hunting and got it late) so all it got was a bore sight and 10 rounds down the pipe to zero in the scope. Now given that 9 MOA accuracy is still deadly on a moose at 200 yards I didn't fiddle with it, and it was (just) sub-moa @ 100 without the break in.

So my conclusion (personally) is: for the average "hunter" it probably doesn't make one iota of difference if you break in or not.

But if you are one of those gun nuts that is trying to squeeze every fraction of an inch of accuracy or are shooting greater that 400 yards, it might be worth breaking in a Vanguard.

And besides, what better excuse to go out and shoot 40 rounds?