DO YOU REALLY NEED TO BREAK IN A RIFLE BARREL?

By Jordan Sillars – MeatEater

What am I doing with my life?

At the time, it seemed like a fair question. I’d been at the gun range two hours, but I’d only pulled the trigger eight times. I had been attempting to follow the barrel maker’s break-in procedure, and it wasn’t going well.

You may have seen similar instructions buried in the user’s manuals of your own rifles. Like new hiking boots or that t-shirt you will never (ever!) let your spouse throw away, new barrels need to be “broken in.” The specifics of this process vary, but it always involves cleaning a barrel every shot or two until patches indicate less copper fouling. This usually takes 8 to 12 shots. After that, the barrel should be cleaned every five shots until the same goal is met.

My existential crisis stemmed from the fact that this is an incredibly tedious process. While my fellow range-goers were ringing steel, I was dutifully, miserably cleaning my rifle. I’ve always wondered whether rifle barrels really need to be broken in, and that day, I decided to get some answers. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL STORY