Barrel break in

[Black-N-Red]

I’ll probably be picking up a Savage .17 Hornet this week sometime. I’ve never done anything special to a barrel other than cleaning it & start shooting it, then clean on a regular basis. But with the accuracy everyone is claiming from this gun I want to do it right. I seen some where someone said shoot 1 clean, shoot 3 clean, shoot 5 clean, shoot 7 clean & so on till the groups stay the same. What’s y’all recommendations?

[6.5 shooter]

Shoot it.

[RPB]

The last few guns that I have bought new I’ve cleaned and then shot one shot and cleaned with a copper removing gun solvent. Swab it and let it soak a little then clean swab it. Shoot again and repeat. Most factory barrels are rough enough inside to produce copper slivers. If not dissolved away and you keep shooting they will get embedded into the barrel. As you shoot and clean you polish away the rough. Some guns have taken as many as 50 shots to not get a green patch. My blackout only took 10. Then shoot away and clean normally. I never use a brush. Just my .02 cents. Good luck. It’s a time consuming process but worth it

[trophy8]

It's a 17. Shoot it. Only barrels I break in are full custom precision rigs.

[Radar]

I’ll probably be picking up a Savage .17 Hornet this week sometime. I’ve never done anything special to a barrel other than cleaning it & start shooting it, then clean on a regular basis. But with the accuracy everyone is claiming from this gun I want to do it right. I seen some where someone said shoot 1 clean, shoot 3 clean, shoot 5 clean, shoot 7 clean & so on till the groups stay the same. What’s y’all recommendations?

I could only imagine how difficult it would be to break in a .17 barrel. All of the cleaning gear is so small, it would wear you out at the range. My .17 got cleaned once and I never messed with since. I hate reloading the dang things too, they are worse than a 22 hornet or 38-40 wcf.

[dphillips62]

New factory guns I lap before I ever shoot them to smooth out the rough in them. Ive been doing this for over 20 years now and it works. A lot of people will disagree with me on this but it has always produced some very good shooting factory guns. I also float and glass them.
As far as break in I use

http://www.gaprecision.net/about-ga-precision/downloads.html

open the break in PDF

[JakeGraves]

Clean the crap out of it first and then shoot it till you run out of ammo.

[cbrown]

I've got full custom guns, Christensen Arms rifles, Remingtons, Savage and TC Encore ect ect ect..... Just shoot them. Groups generally get tighter over time after a couple hundred rounds. But you're talking usually closing by 0.1-0.2".

[BrianL]

Break in serves two purposes to me. It makes the rifle easier to clean later, and might make it shoot better. Shooting 20 rounds thru a new barrel without cleaning can take forever to clean. I clean, shoot 1, clean shoot 1, clean shoot 1, clean shoot 5,.......depending on how long it took to get a clean patch it will drop it to 3 shots and clean or continue 5 shots, then clean. Most seem to start shooting best between 30-40 rounds. I'm done with breakin after 30 rounds.