Aftermarket Barrels - Break-in and Cleaning
Interested to learn the practices/techniques employed by shooters that have competed at the National and International levels.
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Shoot one , look in the bore with the bore scope If there is no copper just the grey colour from the carbon /graphite in the powder , keep going ( you are very lucky when this happens it is not the norm ) if there is copper present either in the lead throat area or at the muzzle end , clean Using a good quality bore guide ,Push three wet patches through the the barrel pick them off the end do not pull the rod back to knock the patch off ( can cause crown damage if it jams ) , each one will normally be less black than the last , then soak the bronze brush with cleaner and work it back and forth, if your using a water base it will start to squeak ,when it squaks all the way from chamber to muzzle your done , usually about ten passes , take care not to push the brush much past the muzzle so as not to run the rod on the bottom of the crown , Now run a dry patch or two through the bore , have a look with the bore scope if all the copper is gone and the steal is clean run a patch down the barrel with eezox or lock eez on it and your ready to shoot the next one , if the is a blueish black colour on the steal st the chamber it must go , put a small dab of iosso on a SOFT nylon brush and short stroke (6-7”) the chamber end 6-10 times , now put a dry patch on and push it in the same distance ,now pull it back out through the bore guide , repeat this until a cleanish dry patch comes out , now wet a patch liberally with cleaner and push it through to get the rest of the residue , the idea here being not to push the iosso down the bore but to only work the affected area , Now look with the bore scope again , it should be clean again run a patch down it with eezox or lock eez , Shoot and repeat , at some point between 7-10 and 25 rounds the coppering should quit , I have seen some take as long as 100 rounds (aggravating ) , Even the best lapped barrels have some little “hairs “ along a land here and there , as well there are tiny striations that need to be magnified to be seen ,this and the reamer marks are what your “breaking in” , the reamer marks usually go away in 25 rounds or so , Things not to do , never use iosso and a stiff nylon brush , this is a good way to wreck a bore , never use iosso on a patch or a patch wrapped around the nylon brush all it will do is polish the lands and make the barrel a coppering fouling mess , jb’s Also works I told , If you;don’t clean the copper and the blue black scale out of a new barrel your just putting more copper over old copper and it will never get after the problem are under neath , The top guys can tell when a barrel is fouling up by the bullet holes in the target they can see it coming , that’s a whole other discussion Cleaning , most shoot between 7-10 shots on a target ,then clean , most barrels will shoot 10-25 rounds before some sort of fouling starts to appear that will kill your agg , the trick is to be in front of it not clean it after it wrecks your day , like adjusting poa for the last shot, good way to wind up on page two . I’m sure there is more that I have missed but see if this works for a start |
Thanks, much appreciated. Sounds like a good bore scope is key to the operation. Also illustrates that copper fouled barrels are no friend to the consistency required in the SBR game.
Can you comment on the effectiveness of bronze VS nylon brushes? |
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Nylon brushes don’t seem to clean as good so we use them for the iossso but not general cleaning, |
Each person gets to pick and choose what best works for their cleaning operations.
http://www.accurateshooter.com/techn...eaning-debate/ I had mine to a science long before this article came out. I like the fast, simple, easy clean. My agg is holding even between the "year-end" over all spread so long as I do my part. |
I don’t mean to sound rude, but this illustrates as good a reason as any why NOT to break in a barrel. Those who do should now realize why that is. Laughing.
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Barrel
I would offer that if you choose not to follow a break in regime, as suggested by the barrel manufacturer, that you not try to warranty a poorly shooting tube with “ I read on AO to just keep shooting her, and that breaking in a barrel was a sales gimmick”. Benchmark would have ya pound sand I suspect.
Cleaning a gun is part of shooting, and I have some high round count magnum rifles that I suspect have benefited from proper maintenance. |
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[QUOTE=Robmcleod82;3810474]More barrels are wrecked by cleaning than being shot.....[/
Barrel wear depends greatly on the steel, lot to lot there are big differences . Barrels that are wrecked by cleaning are due to poor quality bore guides and improper methods , if you clean a barrel properly it will last just as long as a barrel that is never cleaned and allows firecracking to get bad. |
[QUOTE=HW223;3810484]
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What manufacturer
What manufacturer was that, and what answers did they like, lol.
And I agree that I’ve seen quite a few barrels damaged by improper cleaning as well, fewer stainless by a significant margin. I’ve scoped a lot of barrels, and fouling is never consistent, clean a barrel without copper removal and slug it. Then remove the copper and slug it again. The difference is quite noticeable. (Especially if you gently reinstall the original slug back into the bore) What does it mean on paper? Well, that’s up to how well you deliver down range. Cleaning has worked well for me, and will continue to do so. I’ve had exactly one barrel warrantied. I did not get asked if I broke the barrel in. I was asked a few questions. They liked the answers, and sent me a new barrel.[/QUOTE] |
Grey (graphite) fouling is desirable . Copper in the Bore results in bullets leaving the group
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Finding two barrels that react exactly the same to fouling is pretty rare from what I have seen. For the most part, I leave my barrels alone until accuracy begins to fall off. Sometimes it takes 40-60 rounds or better before that condition shows up. |
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LAUGHING HAHAHHAHAHAHA and what the hell is that all about after every post.I don't want to be rude,but hahah laughing in your face you dip.Dosen't sound cool hey so why do it to others. There's guys that forgot more than you will ever know ,so if you think your the best in the world,get in line there's a billion on top of there game ahead of you and there not laughing.I could care less if the inside of you barrel looked like a bad muffler,but don't feed stuff that's wrong or incorrect and then laugh in there face. You said you were attacked by an anti hunter once,you sure it wasn't the wipe out rep. |
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If we have a barrel that won’t shoot until 4-5 rounds go through , it will never stay on the gun for a competition .we would keep it as a practice barrel and only if it was able to shoot low .2’s in practice , if not it’s scrap, shooting until the accuracy falls off in competition is a good way to wind up on page two. The idea is to stay in front of stray shots, different disciplines have different requirements , some have no time to clean but also don’t demand the same accuracy as srb Different lots of steel do respond differently , that is part of the reason it takes some barrels 10-15 rounds to break and others 150 rounds , usually try to buy barrels with consecutive numbers or from the same lots , even that is no guarantee that they are from the same lot of steel , usually you can tell when you machine them , they will cut the same |
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Competitor vs non competitor.
Break in vs. Not breaking in. O style press vs. Co-axial press Collet die vs. Bushing die. Balance beam vs. Electronic scale. Bipod vs. Bags and rests Muffs vs. Plugs Chevy vs. Dodge. Everyone thinks theirs is superior to the others. It’s all relevant, to what you’re trying to accomplish. For the great majority of us the benifits of one over the other are about as decernable as one toothpaste vs. The other. If it brings you comfort, by all means do as you may. If you’re hell bent upon imposing your will upon others because, you believe your process or beliefs are superior to the next guys, your on shakey ground that I reserve for evangelical ministries, and ultra polarized political whack jobs. |
We're getting a bit sidetracked here, so let's stick with that asked in the OP, which is to benefit from the best practices employed by folks that compete beyond the club level...regardless of discipline.
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Just trying to answer the original post , not really interested in arguing with guys who don’t compete about how things are done at the national / international level, if you have a better way by all means get out there and prove it at a match , thats where the separation of what works and what doesn’t really happens , if you start kicking butt on a regular basis I’m all ears
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The outer limits of top competition is what often defines the ultimate processes. Does that make those same processes necessary for the average shooter. No. Nascar rebuilds their motors after every race, 500 or less miles. Does that mean we should do it too on our daily drivers. Certainly not. It is interesting stuff we can learn from and be entertained by. If you want to emulate the top competitors fine. Doesn't mean everyone in the world needs to do the same thing, and it doesn't make them lesser people. It entirely depends on the outcome you are looking for, but if you think you can compete at the top of the field you best be willing to emulate or improve on the processes of the top 10%. |
The trouble is, that you can’t emulate them unless you are doing exactly what they do. Are you interested in packing a 20lb single shot rifle afield with a fixed 20 power scope? In my opinion, with some of this stuff, you are either in or out. Time and money should be focussed on stuff that actually matters (ie, I like concentric ammo) rather than stuff that is tough to prove effective, even at the highest level.
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I think the maximum Light Varmint class SBR rig (all in, including scope) is 10.5 lbs? ... and the HV at 13.5 lbs??
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All my big game hunting is walking/hiking or stands as I don’t have horses, so I’m not sure what the truck comment means chuck , we call for coyotes so I guess we are usually within a few hundred yards of where we park the truck for that , gophers are usually park the truck and walk the field , all the big game I’ve taken over the years has been under 300 yards with the majority under 100 , I don’t go through as much work to make my field rifles shoot as good as a bench gun (when they get to 1/2. Moa I’m happy ) , but since I know how To make them shoot good I do it,everyone needs to find there own comfort level , if that 1 moa then that’s great too,
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