AR barrel break-in????

Vent_O_Later

New member
I'm anticipating the arrival of a new Rock River A4 Varmint with 18" barrel from txyote, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif and was wondering about the barrel break-in, I've looked through the everything ar thread and could'nt come up with to much...so...

How have you guys done this in the past, this is my first ar and have allot of questions, but first is barrel break-in.

Thanks for the input /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

-Vent-
 
If this is your first ar. This is what I did with mine.
Load mag and shoot.
Let barrel cool
Repeat.
Let barrel Cool
Repeat.
Let barrel cool.
Repeat.
Let barrel cool
Repeat.
Let barrel cool.
Repeat.
Take home to clean because your out of shells.
Go to the reloading bench and work up some loads.
Following week go to the range with awhole lot more shells.
Start shooting groups to see what groups better.
After finding the best looking load. With the loaded shells that are left over.
Load mag and shoot.
Let barrel cool.
Repeat until out of ammo.
Go home and clean.
It took about 250-300 rounds before my rra predator really started to shoot.
 
I bought my Oly K8 from Dtech and followed his directions for breaking it in, but it didn't settle down until after 300 rounds and I get tight groups now with handloads....

His routine if I remember correctly was to clean the ever living snot out of the barrel before heading to the range. Shoot five shots, clean it again (shooters choice was his recommendation at that time) count the number of strokes it takes to get the copper out, repeat the process until it takes as many strokes as it took to clean the gun orginally before heading to the range. Enjoy

(I am sure I have forgotten a couple steps so if I were you, I would do a search on this forum about breaking in a barrel, I see this question about as much as I see how to reload)
 
I don't do anything special with a new rifle/barrel. I clean before shooting, & clean after most any use. Of course don't abuse the gun, overheating, extra hot loads, or rough cleaning rod use.
 
If you don't have one, get an AR Bore Guide for your cleaning rod/tips..
ARBoreGuide.jpg


It may save your lands from the chamber on...Midway Arms and others have them.

I broke in both of mine with the shoot one, thoroughly clean for the first five rounds, then clean for each five rounds until I had twenty five rounds down the tube, and then every twenty five until I reached the first hundred rounds process....All were shot with the cheapest FMJ ammo that I could find...

Only then did I worry about what loads might work best...
 
Barrels are barrels does not matter if they are attached to an AR, Rem 700, Win 70, Savage 110, etc.

Bore guides should be used, and I like Old Turtles procedure except I will go to 40 rounds during the 5 shot and clean.

Some barrels that are lapped to a very smooth bore won't benefit as much from this procedure, but it can't hurt with proper cleaning and using a good bore guide.
 
Quote:
Barrels are barrels does not matter if they are attached to an AR, Rem 700, Win 70, Savage 110, etc.

Bore guides should be used, and I like Old Turtles procedure except I will go to 40 rounds during the 5 shot and clean.

Some barrels that are lapped to a very smooth bore won't benefit as much from this procedure, but it can't hurt with proper cleaning and using a good bore guide.



This is similar to what I was told by he that not be named.

I broke my Schilen in with:

1 shot
Wet patch dry patch

Did this up to 25 rounds

Ran a wet patch and then let barrel sit over night on a paper towel.

Next time at range it was

5 shots
Wet patch dry patch

Did this up to 50 round count (5 times)

Repeated procedure at home with the wet patch

From 50 to 100 rounds it was every 10 shots the the patch routine. Then still did the wet patch at night then ran some dry patches in the morning. I'm using a bore guide and hoppes #9. Always let the barrel cool in between shots, by this I was told it should never burn your hand when your grab it. If it does or is too hot to hold then you got it too hot.

It sucked, was probably over kill but since I spent $500 on a barrel I had no problem treating it like a baby and doing the extra work. I will fully admit I'm not this anal with regular off the rack barrels. I'm still pretty crazy but I just shorten the amount of time I will spend on them. And with the "toys", I admit to letting the barrel getting really hot. I like to shoot those types fast.

Now I just wet patch dry patch her after a day of hunting.
 
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