What rounds to use when breaking in new rifle?

I am slowly burning through a case of Hornady American Whitetail so that or anything else that is cheap and accurate enough. My current Tikka got more and more accurate the farther past 50 rounds I got.

"Cheap Ammo" gets really looked down upon but shooting $50/box ammo to just plink around gets pricey, and what good is a gun that sits in your safe because it's too expensive to shoot

Bigjav said:

"Cheap Ammo" gets really looked down upon but shooting $50/box ammo to just plink around gets pricey, and what good is a gun that sits in your safe because it's too expensive to shoot

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Well, if anyone finds a source of "cheap" ammo, please let me know. I'd be happy to shoot it.

I never thought much of barrel break in. I then purchased a rifle known for their accuracy. I chased my tale trying to get this rifle to shoot. I just couldn't do it. I was about to send the rifle back to the factory. But as i tried load after load i suddenly realized that all my groups were getting tighter.

I finally went back to one of my initial loads that i had tried and it shot 1/4 MOA. I was probably 100 rounds deep at this point. Sometimes there is something to barrel break in i think. Other times probably not.

I think 99% of time when a barrel is claimed to get more accurate after "break in", it's just the shooter getting used to the trigger, stock and fit.

On the other hand, most innanet shooters insist barrels are easier to clean after break-in, accuracy isn't the point. I really don't follow this personally, my rifles shoot their best when filthy dirty. Clean freaks have been known to faint when they look down some of my rifle barrels.

I've never really seen where breaking in really accomplished a lot. But if I was going to try it again and I didn't re-load, I'd use the most inexpensive factory ammo I could find. If breaking in does accomplish anything, your not really going to find out a lot about the accuracy of your new rifle with high dollar ammo and a new rifle. I have tried breaking in a couple time's and figure it was a waste of time and money. It is claimed, Iand I think there's something to it, that after so many rounds a rifle barrel tends to smooth out, little imperfections you need a micro scope to see, get smoothed over. That could well be. At the same time I don't think those little imperfections really hurt anything in a hunting rifle! Now if your talking about a competition rifle, forget everything I said. I've only shot small bore and that was years ago with a match rifle with a barrel no one ever cleaned! I just don't get into gaining .002" in group size!