carljohnson
New member
I'll be breaking in my new Tikka .308 soon. My question is should I use the same rounds I plan to hunt with or can I use cheap rounds to beak the barrel in?
What rounds to use when breaking in new rifle?
- Thread starter carljohnson
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noharleyyet
Well-known member
Assuming you're talking factory I'd consider the quality of the brass in case you decide to reload.
MinnesotaHunter
Well-known member
I would consider federal gold medal 168 SMKs, and I would closely watch to see if groups tightened throughout the process. Mostly because I have heard so many conflicting ideas about the neccessity of the process, I would like to see if accuracy actually improves, and that load is kind of a "gold standard" for accuracy testing with factory ammo, and you happen to be shooting a .308.
NHY, has a good point though, in which case I would probably try a Nosler match load. Good luck.
NHY, has a good point though, in which case I would probably try a Nosler match load. Good luck.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
I bump max & get excellent longevity from Nosler brass...
noharleyyet
Well-known member
MJE2083
Well-known member
I always just shoot cheap stuff when doing break ins
belly-deep
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Cheap rounds will work fine, if you must.
MJE2083
Well-known member
Yeah I guess what I meant to say was cheap copper jacketed ammo. FMJ or whatever is laying around the shelf.
carljohnson
New member
Good to know. Thanks. I'd really prefer not to waste the good stuff
danielboone
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I used Federal Fusion ammo to break my Tikka in and found it to be so accurate that I have continued to shoot it for practice. It worked out nice because it has almost the exact same point of impact as the round that I use for hunting which is the Federal Premium Sierra Game King. Cheaper ammo equals more practice.
Rancho Loco
Well-known member
Cheap ammo works fine to break in barrels.
Also cheap sage sticks work just as well when you're burning them to chase the bad spirits away, and cheap crystals are fine when you wave those around to center the rifle's energy.
But don't cheap out on the eagle feather you use to rub against the barrel to sharpen the rifle's eye. That's a big no-no.
Also cheap sage sticks work just as well when you're burning them to chase the bad spirits away, and cheap crystals are fine when you wave those around to center the rifle's energy.
But don't cheap out on the eagle feather you use to rub against the barrel to sharpen the rifle's eye. That's a big no-no.
AggieOutlaw
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Admittedly ignorant here. But does a modern rifle barrel really need breaking in? I have cheap rifles. Clean them routinely. Never really "broke in the barrel" more than about 10 shots. They seem to shoot fine. Is this process just for "precision" aftermarket barrels? How much ammo are we talking about for break in? More than a box?
belly-deep
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Break in is mostly a myth, but you'll die trying to convince the internet otherwise.
GlockZ
Well-known member
honestly, i have 2 Savage rifles that i didn't break in the barrel and both have shot the same since day one. i bought a Browning X-Bolt and that rifle shot much better after @ 30 rounds through it, now its a tack driver. i guess it depends on the rifle, as to whether or not you need to break in the barrel.
MJE2083
Well-known member
I don't know if it's a myth or not, as others have said it depends on the gun. I break mine in because I don't think it's hurting anything. I used to use JB to polish the bore of my new rifles, but I don't do that anymore. It's just like anything else, some people swear by it, others don't. There is also a million different methods for breaking in a barrel. I usually fire 1 shot and clean(5 times) then fire 3 or 5 shot groups cleaning after each group usually totaling roughly 40 rounds. It's somewhat hard to prove if it improves accuracy and cleaning unless you're experimenting with identical barrels side by side.
MJE2083
Well-known member
I know different makers recommend different things, but this is from the Krieger barrels website.
With any premium barrel that has been finish lapped -- such as your Krieger Barrel --, the lay or direction of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, so fouling is minimal compared to a barrel with internal tooling marks. This is true of any properly finish-lapped barrel regardless of how it is rifled. If it is not finish-lapped, there will be reamer marks left in the bore that are directly across the direction of the bullet travel. This occurs even in a button-rifled barrel as the button cannot completely iron out these reamer marks.
Because the lay of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, very little is done to the bore during break-in, but the throat is another story. When your barrel is chambered, by necessity there are reamer marks left in the throat that are across the lands, i.e. across the direction of the bullet travel. In a new barrel they are very distinct; much like the teeth on a very fine file.
When the bullet is forced into the throat, copper dust is removed from the jacket material and released into the gas which at this temperature and pressure is actually a plasma. The copper dust is vaporized in this plasma and is carried down the barrel. As the gas expands and cools, the copper comes out of suspension and is deposited in the bore. This makes it appear as if the source of the fouling is the bore when it is actually for the most part the new throat.
If this copper is allowed to stay in the bore, and subsequent bullets and deposits are fired over it, copper which adheres well to itself, will build up quickly and may be difficult to remove later. So when we break in a barrel, our goal is to get the throat “polished without allowing copper to build up in the bore. This is the reasoning for the fire-one-shot-and-clean procedure.
Every barrel will vary slightly in how many rounds they take to break in For example a chrome moly barrel may take longer to break in than stainless steel because it is more abrasion resistant even though it is a similar hardness. Also chrome moly has a little more of an affinity for copper than stainless steel so it will usually show a little more color if you are using a chemical cleaner. Rim Fire barrels can take an extremely long time to break in, sometimes requiring several hundred rounds or more. But cleaning can be lengthened to every 25-50 rounds. The break-in procedure and the cleaning procedure are really the same except for the frequency. Remember the goal is to get or keep the barrel clean while breaking in the throat with bullets being fired over it.
Finally, the best way to tell if the barrel is broken in is to observe the patches; i.e. when the fouling is reduced. This is better than some set number of cycles of shoot and clean as many owners report practically no fouling after the first few shots, and more break-in would be pointless. Conversely, if more is required, a set number would not address that either. Besides, cleaning is not a completely benign procedure so it should be done carefully and no more than necessary.
With any premium barrel that has been finish lapped -- such as your Krieger Barrel --, the lay or direction of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, so fouling is minimal compared to a barrel with internal tooling marks. This is true of any properly finish-lapped barrel regardless of how it is rifled. If it is not finish-lapped, there will be reamer marks left in the bore that are directly across the direction of the bullet travel. This occurs even in a button-rifled barrel as the button cannot completely iron out these reamer marks.
Because the lay of the finish is in the direction of the bullet travel, very little is done to the bore during break-in, but the throat is another story. When your barrel is chambered, by necessity there are reamer marks left in the throat that are across the lands, i.e. across the direction of the bullet travel. In a new barrel they are very distinct; much like the teeth on a very fine file.
When the bullet is forced into the throat, copper dust is removed from the jacket material and released into the gas which at this temperature and pressure is actually a plasma. The copper dust is vaporized in this plasma and is carried down the barrel. As the gas expands and cools, the copper comes out of suspension and is deposited in the bore. This makes it appear as if the source of the fouling is the bore when it is actually for the most part the new throat.
If this copper is allowed to stay in the bore, and subsequent bullets and deposits are fired over it, copper which adheres well to itself, will build up quickly and may be difficult to remove later. So when we break in a barrel, our goal is to get the throat “polished without allowing copper to build up in the bore. This is the reasoning for the fire-one-shot-and-clean procedure.
Every barrel will vary slightly in how many rounds they take to break in For example a chrome moly barrel may take longer to break in than stainless steel because it is more abrasion resistant even though it is a similar hardness. Also chrome moly has a little more of an affinity for copper than stainless steel so it will usually show a little more color if you are using a chemical cleaner. Rim Fire barrels can take an extremely long time to break in, sometimes requiring several hundred rounds or more. But cleaning can be lengthened to every 25-50 rounds. The break-in procedure and the cleaning procedure are really the same except for the frequency. Remember the goal is to get or keep the barrel clean while breaking in the throat with bullets being fired over it.
Finally, the best way to tell if the barrel is broken in is to observe the patches; i.e. when the fouling is reduced. This is better than some set number of cycles of shoot and clean as many owners report practically no fouling after the first few shots, and more break-in would be pointless. Conversely, if more is required, a set number would not address that either. Besides, cleaning is not a completely benign procedure so it should be done carefully and no more than necessary.
