I've never been a guy that uses a method to break in a barrel. I just shoot and clean and treat it like a car in the respect, it takes some miles to get it in routine condition. I have a Shiloh Sharps 45-90 arriving in the next month or so and wonder if anyone has ideas or thoughts on breaking it in or shooting it the first hundred rounds or so, Upfront - I ONLY use ballistol/water emulsion for cleaning and do not believe in pouring hot water or soap down a barrel, so that should save some typing for some folks. Thanks,
BP Barrel Break In
- Thread starter Chief TC
- Start date
hawg
Member
I've only broken in one barrel but it was a 30-06. Why are you scared of water?
Malachi Leviticus Blue
Member
I know some folks that look like they are scared of soap and water.
I've never done anything to purposefully "Break in" a barrel.
That will naturally come in my opinion, with use and the familiarity gained is just as valuable, if not more.
hawg
Member
I know some folks that look like they are scared of soap and water.
I had a guy ask me once would I take a high end Sharps and stick it in a bucket of water. I told him I didn't have a high end Sharps but I do have a Weatherby Mark V Deluxe. I never heard another word out of him.
Jackrabbit1957
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Break in the barrel by shooting slow under powered loads, standing shots only, with both elbows pointing straight up and your tongue sticking out of the right side of your mouth. Nah, just woofing ya! Shoot normally and develop your load till ya find what you and the rifle likes.
.38 Special
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I sometimes have wondered if the elaborate break-in procedures advocated by some barrel makers are just a way for the barrel makers to sell more barrels!
noelf2
Member
Some may say something against it, but every new barrel I get gets 100 passes with flitz on patches before I even take the first shot. I learned this from an old friend. I had trouble getting good groups with a new T/C inline, and Rich said "watch this!". After 100 passes with flitz, there was a remarkable improvement. I swear by it.
.38 Special
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Jeez, this is some stupid advice. Everyone knows that you have to stick your tongue to the left.
hawg
Member
The best way to break a barrel in is to hand lap it. I had to do that or rather have it done with my Mike Rock barrel.
No, I just think all these other methods of cleaning BP guns is messy, time consuming and really doesn't make any sense. If you have ballistol and water, you have what you need and anything else is not useful. Just my personal opinion. To each their own.
hawg
Member
You said in your original post you don't use water. Water is what cleans.
1. With Shiloh's quality... just clean it from preservative, and shoot it.
2, BCPRs don't need the classic muzzleloader-standard "pour hot soapy water..." routine.
But a warm soapy patch (or three) run through the barrel followed by drying/oiling with
any good CLP -- or better yet: Hornady 1-Shot (BLACK can) -- is de rigueur.
Jim Watson
Member
Back when Badger made sporting rifle barrels like my Browning Miroku BPCR's, they said that a few - maybe 50 - jacketed bullets followed by thorough decoppering before shooting cast would be the quickest "break in". They said it would take a couple of hundred cast bullets. I got mine used so it was already "broken in" however done.
I started out cleaning my Winchester and Browning BPCRs with Mike Venturino's recommendation of diluted Windex with Vinegar and later went over to diluted M-Pro 7. Clean at the range while the barrel was still warm from shooting, reclean at home. Everybody then was recommending Balistol for lube and preservative, so I used it, stink as it does.
Note, this is with patch and brush, I don't "wash" my rifles.
There was an early odd hours cable tv gun show whose expert recommended cleaning any new rifle by pouring boiling water through the barrel.
I started out cleaning my Winchester and Browning BPCRs with Mike Venturino's recommendation of diluted Windex with Vinegar and later went over to diluted M-Pro 7. Clean at the range while the barrel was still warm from shooting, reclean at home. Everybody then was recommending Balistol for lube and preservative, so I used it, stink as it does.
Note, this is with patch and brush, I don't "wash" my rifles.
There was an early odd hours cable tv gun show whose expert recommended cleaning any new rifle by pouring boiling water through the barrel.
woodnbow
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I use Lee,Shaver break in method and barrels so treated clean easily and are accurate. I couldn’t ask more of a tube.
Lee Shaver’s Break-in Procedure
Having used the jacketed bullet/clean-between-shot process in the past and
specifically Badger’s procedure when breaking-in one of my Browning BPCRs, I
was not looking forward to repeating the very lengthy process with my other
Browning’s. Fortunately Lee Shaver came to the rescue with his much simpler and
less time consuming process. With permission from Lee I’ve included the details
of his procedure. It’s from a larger article Lee published in the May 2013 edition
of The Single Shot Exchange Magazine.
Excerpt from “Breaking In a Barrel” by Lee Shaver:
Several years ago, I developed a process for breaking-in barrels for lead bullet use
that eliminated the afternoon of shooting and cleaning with jacketed bullet. It
began because I would occasionally have to get bad leading out of a barrel for a
customer, and when you charge what a gunsmith must charge to stay in business
you don’t want to spend an afternoon scrubbing the lead out of a customer’s gun.
And I’m sure the customer would rather not pay for said services.
What I learned was that when scrubbing lead out of a barrel, I could run a tight oily
patch through a few times and then take the patch off the jag. I would then unroll a
little 0000 steel wool and cut a piece the size of the patch. Place that over the
patch and then run it all through together. (The proper fit is when you have to
bump the rod a few times with the palm of your hand to get it started in the bore.)
When you shove that steel wool over a patch through the bore of a badly leaded
barrel, it may sound like paper tearing as the lead is ripped out of the barrel in a
pass or two. I can clean the lead out of the worst barrel in about ten or fifteen
minutes that way, and an average leaded barrel will be clean in a few strokes.
After using this technique for a while, I began to notice that the rifles that I was de-
leading that way seemed to lead less afterwards, which got me to thinking. We use
fine steel wool on the outside of old guns all the time to do some cleaning or spot
rust removal, and it does not damage the surface of the steel. It just scrubs it.
Which lead me to consider the fact that we are trying to break in a barrel by
smoothing the surface without cutting, and it seems to me that process would go
much quicker if we used something on the inside of the bore that was closer to the
hardness of the barrel instead of lead or copper. So I started trying the steel wool
and oiled patch technique on new barrels before shooting them. I use it about as
tight as I can get in the bore and wear out a steel wool pad or two in about 15
minutes, then I go and shoot the rifle.
How well does it work you might ask? On a few occasions, I have built a new rifle
and taken it to a match without ever having fired the rifle. All have performed
flawlessly in their first match and several times I won the match or set a record
with them. On one occasion, I set a new 300 yard range record with the first 13
shots out of a barrel. This method has become a service we offer to our customers
here in the shop and I have shared the technique many times with others.
So the next time you get ready to shoot that new rifle, just remember it is important
to break in a barrel properly, but if the operation you are doing to the barrel cuts –
it is not breaking it in. It may be making the barrel smoother, but to break the
barrel in you need to polish the bore by burnishing not cutting either by shooting it
or scrubbing it.
Lee Shaver
Lee Shaver’s Break-in Procedure
Having used the jacketed bullet/clean-between-shot process in the past and
specifically Badger’s procedure when breaking-in one of my Browning BPCRs, I
was not looking forward to repeating the very lengthy process with my other
Browning’s. Fortunately Lee Shaver came to the rescue with his much simpler and
less time consuming process. With permission from Lee I’ve included the details
of his procedure. It’s from a larger article Lee published in the May 2013 edition
of The Single Shot Exchange Magazine.
Excerpt from “Breaking In a Barrel” by Lee Shaver:
Several years ago, I developed a process for breaking-in barrels for lead bullet use
that eliminated the afternoon of shooting and cleaning with jacketed bullet. It
began because I would occasionally have to get bad leading out of a barrel for a
customer, and when you charge what a gunsmith must charge to stay in business
you don’t want to spend an afternoon scrubbing the lead out of a customer’s gun.
And I’m sure the customer would rather not pay for said services.
What I learned was that when scrubbing lead out of a barrel, I could run a tight oily
patch through a few times and then take the patch off the jag. I would then unroll a
little 0000 steel wool and cut a piece the size of the patch. Place that over the
patch and then run it all through together. (The proper fit is when you have to
bump the rod a few times with the palm of your hand to get it started in the bore.)
When you shove that steel wool over a patch through the bore of a badly leaded
barrel, it may sound like paper tearing as the lead is ripped out of the barrel in a
pass or two. I can clean the lead out of the worst barrel in about ten or fifteen
minutes that way, and an average leaded barrel will be clean in a few strokes.
After using this technique for a while, I began to notice that the rifles that I was de-
leading that way seemed to lead less afterwards, which got me to thinking. We use
fine steel wool on the outside of old guns all the time to do some cleaning or spot
rust removal, and it does not damage the surface of the steel. It just scrubs it.
Which lead me to consider the fact that we are trying to break in a barrel by
smoothing the surface without cutting, and it seems to me that process would go
much quicker if we used something on the inside of the bore that was closer to the
hardness of the barrel instead of lead or copper. So I started trying the steel wool
and oiled patch technique on new barrels before shooting them. I use it about as
tight as I can get in the bore and wear out a steel wool pad or two in about 15
minutes, then I go and shoot the rifle.
How well does it work you might ask? On a few occasions, I have built a new rifle
and taken it to a match without ever having fired the rifle. All have performed
flawlessly in their first match and several times I won the match or set a record
with them. On one occasion, I set a new 300 yard range record with the first 13
shots out of a barrel. This method has become a service we offer to our customers
here in the shop and I have shared the technique many times with others.
So the next time you get ready to shoot that new rifle, just remember it is important
to break in a barrel properly, but if the operation you are doing to the barrel cuts –
it is not breaking it in. It may be making the barrel smoother, but to break the
barrel in you need to polish the bore by burnishing not cutting either by shooting it
or scrubbing it.
Lee Shaver
I wrote I use ballistol/water emulsion. So it contains the amount of water necessary to clean out the blackpowder.
Last edited:
Well, if Lee says it, then you know it works since he is a top-notch gunsmith and international muzzleloader champion. Thanks for sharing this!
I have seen a lot of competitors using M-Pro-7 these days. Thanks Jim.
Ugly Sauce
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Well neither one of you jokers mentioned shutting your eyes when pulling the trigger. DUH!Jeez, this is some stupid advice. Everyone knows that you have to stick your tongue to the left.
Ugly Sauce
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You should see the bore of my Brown Bess. It was nice to begin with, but I've got it looking like it's chrome lined. !!! Smooth bores need love too.
.38 Special
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Well, he was asking for break-in advice, not accuracy advice!
Ugly Sauce
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True, but on some thread, or forum or another, I saw a suggestion, seriously offered, to close one's eyes when pulling the trigger on a flintlock, in order to "get used" to the delay and flash, and so not to flinch at the flash in the pan. So it must work on a BP cartridge rifle. ? Perhaps while breaking in the barrel.
woodnbow
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I wonder… would that work?…
woodnbow
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I once bought a roached Renegade from the local pawn shop. Pulled a load from the barrel and then filled it with evapo rust. Once the rust was gone I could see fairly massive pits the length of the bore so following the advice of Ross Seyfried I loaded a small charge of 3f behind a round ball patched with denim loaded with Aluminum Oxide grit. Probably started with 1000 grit, advancing to 3000 and finishing with red rouge. Shot, cleaned, shot, cleaned, shot, cleaned. I did this as long as I could stand it, maybe 20 or 30 shots. There were still severe pits but the barrel shot very well. Well enough to gift it to a good friend who is still killing elk with it all these years later. I would just use the Shaver technique now, that was a lot of cleaning but it did work.
