Barrel break in?

[Mail Clerk]

Why I am SURE this has come up here before? I did a search and could not find anything so here is my question.

There is a YouTube vid of a guy that talks about breaking in his new 10/22, stock, barrel. He suggested that you fire a round..just one. Then clean the thing. Then you fire another and you clean it. After a mag, you start to fire...oh boy...2 rounds!! After a mag of that, you can then go up to 5 etc etc until you have blasted around 200 rounds.

Here are the 2 vids about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=654SItF4e7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LitGDerYR6Y&feature=plcp

I have not heard of this. Can anybody say if this is correct or just overkill??

Bill,

When it comes to shooting rimfire rifles you don't need to break in the barrel. Your accuracy comes from the crown of the barrel so if and when you clean the bore don't ding up the crown!

From your description that only applies to centerfire rifles cuz of the accuracy comes from the how smooth the bore is. You clean the bore each time to remove fouling as the bullet removes micro burrs from the lands of the rifling. The smoother the bore the more accurate the center fire is.

That's what I know of. If anyone knows more please chime in.

Mail Clerk

[Jack L]

Volquartsen Custom rifles do not require any break-in. Why would a stock 10/22 or any other rimfire rifle need one.

^^THIS^^ Clean it before first time use, then after a full day of shooting is plenty ok. A lot of this comes from super accurate competitive shooters not squirrel hunters and paper punchers using .22 rounds.

[sholling]

Why I am SURE this has come up here before? I did a search and could not find anything so here is my question.

There is a YouTube vid of a guy that talks about breaking in his new 10/22, stock, barrel. He suggested that you fire a round..just one. Then clean the thing. Then you fire another and you clean it. After a mag, you start to fire...oh boy...2 rounds!! After a mag of that, you can then go up to 5 etc etc until you have blasted around 200 rounds.

Here are the 2 vids about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=654SItF4e7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LitGDerYR6Y&feature=plcp

I have not heard of this. Can anybody say if this is correct or just overkill??

It's completely unnecessary even for a match rifle and about as effective as getting your girl friend to dance naked around the rifle after every 3rd shot but nowhere near as much fun. Subsonic lead bullets do not smooth out the barrel or do anything else to "break in" the barrel. I do recommend cleaning the barrel before your 1st range trip but just to assure that there are no obstructions. What will make it shoot better is get the barrel good and dirty with 20-30 fouling rounds and then shoot the heck out of it. Repeat the fouling rounds after every barrel cleaning (roughly every 500-1500rd for match ammo) and you'll have a happy 22.

[ZirconJohn]

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This THE definitive VID on how to properly break-in a rifle barrel...,

[shadow65]

Break in for a semi .22 is for the action, not the barrel