Barrel Break In

[JoeJ615]

ok i just bought a new ruger 10-22 in a tapco intrafuse stock, and i've recently been introduced to the idea of barrel break in ... alot of mixed reviews out there on if it is even slightly benneficial or not, some say it even shortens the life of your barrel, of course others say it improves accuracy and ease of cleaning over the life of the barrel .. and still others claim they have done it with some rifles and not on others and cant tell a bit of difference so my question is. can anyone say from personal experience if it is worth doing and what is your particular method if so ... and would it be ok to just use a Hoppe's bore snake to do it to save time?

[Guest Aces&8s]

Until I put together my AR, I had never bothered with it. The info that came with my upper (DPMS Sportical 5.56) detailed their recommended barrel break-in as: clean after every shot for the first 25 rounds, then after every ten shots until you get to 100 rounds. Since I had nothing better to do the day I took it out the first time, I actually followed this procedure, but if I had not had a bore snake (which DPMS recommends in the flyer), I would have given up long before I got to 100 rounds.

I don't know that I will ever go through that again.

[Mike]

Waste of time with most rifles...

On a 10/22 you would definitely be wasting time and energy for absolutely zero gain.

Mike

[Dolomite_supafly]

+1

A rimfire is more likely to be damaged from cleaning than from overuse.

With a rimfire there is no need to clean the barrel unless accuracy falls off. And that is with all kinds of ammunition. And whan that happens a bore snake would work great. I have had surplus, training rimfires that probably had millions of rounds through them. Those bores looked as good as any I have looked down.

And with rimfires they tend to settle down and shoot better once they are fouled. I have one gun that requires 25-50 rounds to be fired before it shoots well. And when you change ammo you need to shoot at least 25 rounds before comparing shot groups.

If you are looking for the best possible accuracy you need to test different types of ammo. Every gun is different and every gun has its own likes and dislikes. You will gain more by using the ammo your gun likes than by doing any sort of imaginary break in with a rimfire.

With a 10/22 just go out and shoot it. Mine has at least 10,000 rounds through it since the last cleaning. It still shoots as good as it did 9,000 rounds ago.

Dolomite

[enfield]

I got that recommendation with my DPMS also, and I ignored it. Life's too short, rifles too plentiful.

[Guest twpayne75]

I would have to say yes and no. Any normal rifle, ESPECIALLY ARs and .22s, I would never consider taking the time. An AR is not exactly known for their sub moa groups.

I have had a few custom bolt rifles built by Predator Custom Shop. Those I followed break in procedures. Did it help? Who knows. But they will all shoot 1/2 min groups out to 500 yards and almost same hole at 100. I don't see the need in a very non precision rifle. All of these had barrels that I spent more on than a lot of ARs that I have built.

[Caster]

The break in procedures (should be) used with the use of jacketed bullets in mind. Given reasonable care, it's really NOT possible to wear out a rifle with lead bullets. This is yet another benefit of cast bullets. There are BPCR shooters with hundreds of thousands of rounds down the pipe. I'll bet you my hat that all the wear in their pipes are due to cleaning and the corrosive nature of BP, NOT the bullet. SO, why bother on a 22LR where you'll never shove anything but a lead bullet down the bore?

Personally, I think it's a waste of time on any rifle, but maybe your high end bench rifles get something out of it. Something I don't/never will know anything about.

[JoeJ615]

i've always been told to only use jacketed rounds in any semi auto .22 because the soft lead nosed rounds tend to cause alot of jams (mostly failure to feeds) i know growing up with .22 rifles i always had jamming issues with the non jacketed rounds, am i wrong on this? i hope not as i have a couple thousand rounds of JHP's lol

Edited November 5, 2011 by JoeJ615

[Caster]

Are they jacketed or plated? Jacketed bullets for .22LR aren't very common in my experience. In fact, I can't remember the last ones I seen. They're fairly common with .22 WMR though. Most .22LR is swaged lead, some are plated like the hyper velocity Stinger. It's entirely possible I'm way off on this.

[Rightwinger]

I spoke to John Hollinger at White Oak Armament about this very thing several years ago when I got a .204 Ruger upper from him. He said every bullet down the barrel is one more towards the total life of the barrel. Shoot it, keep it clean, enjoy.

[mikegideon]

I spoke to John Hollinger at White Oak Armament about this very thing several years ago when I got a .204 Ruger upper from him. He said every bullet down the barrel is one more towards the total life of the barrel. Shoot it, keep it clean, enjoy.

Yep. I talked to the manufacturer of the barrel on my varmint AR. He DID say that you don't want to let the copper fouling build up on a new precision barrel, but cleaning every round is way over the top. He suggested a light range session the first time, and then clean out all the copper. Then, just keep the copper fouling down in the future.

I wouldn't think any of that is necessary on a .22 LR. It's too slow to worry about.

When it come to an anal break-in procedure on a DPMS barrel, all I have to say is

[Guest Broomhead]

On an OEM 10/22 barrel, you're definitely wasting your time. However, at one point I had a Green Mountain bull barrel that came with break-in instructions. They were very simple, shoot 1 mag of 10 rounds, bore-snake it, repeat for a total of 10 mags (100 rounds), then have fun. I can't remember the last time I cleaned my OEM 10/22, I bought it in 2009. I am just now experiencing a drop in accuracy and function. Time to clean her up.

RimfireCentral.com members suggest only using a bore-snake, patch worm, or composite/steel-free cleaning rods to help protect the rifling and chamber. They also suggest cleaning from the chamber through to the muzzle only. They have some strange ideas sometimes, but the majority of the info is sound and very useful. Definitely go and read up on their How-To's section and join the discussions in the very large section devoted to 10/22s.

[mikegideon]

RimfireCentral.com members suggest only using a bore-snake, patch worm, or composite/steel-free cleaning rods to help protect the rifling and chamber. They also suggest cleaning from the chamber through to the muzzle only. They have some strange ideas sometimes, but the majority of the info is sound and very useful. Definitely go and read up on their How-To's section and join the discussions in the very large section devoted to 10/22s.

There IS something to that. Dinging the crown can kill the accracy, not that my 10/22 has a lot to begin with. I would tend to baby an aftermarket barrel.

[JoeJ615]

ok you're correct i just checked they are winchester bulk 333 box 22.lr 36 GR plated hollow points ... guess i just assumed plated and jacketed were the same lol

[Mike.357]

you may well find that 40 grain bullits work better than 36 grain hollow points for accuracy.

I have never done barrel break in on a .22 and never noticed any issues. My Model 60 was not cleaned for twenty years and had no adverse effects really. When I did finally clean it enough lead to make a bullet came out though, LOL. I do bore snake them after shooting now, doubt it hurts anything. 3 passes only with it.

And like Dolomite said, if you are testing different rounds it takes 20 or 25 rounds for the barrel to adjust to the different bullit. I assume that is from the lube on the bullits and each brand is going to be different. If I am testing rounds I will bore snake it between brands but then allow for about ten shots to refoul the barrel for accuracy.

[gregintenn]

Many, MANY ,more guns have been damaged from cleaning than from shooting. Shoot it. When accuracy starts to wane, clean it. Rinse, and repeat.

[fastbs]

this has been posted around the net a lot but seemed appropriate.

[Caster]

this has been posted around the net a lot but seemed appropriate.

"Some rifles come with a cow barrel, but you always want a bull barrel.." That's hilarious!