Barrel break in ?

Hi all. New member here from Michigan and new to the AR/M15 platform. Just picked up an M&P Sport II the other day. Quality of this firearm is everything I have come to expect from a Smith. I never realized what an easy rifle they are to disassemble/reassemble and/or customize and I can't believe it took me so long to purchase an AR/M15.

I haven't fired it as yet as the weather here in Michigan has been pretty nasty the last several days. (Wind chill yesterday was around a minus 8 or so). I have had it apart several times and have dryfired it to get a feel for the trigger and even did the old balance the dime test. Trigger breaks nice, clean, and smooth but maybe just a tad heavy. Or maybe I just need to get used to it.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you do a barrel break in procedure and if so, why, and what do you do?

I don't want to open a can of worms here with the old don't need to do it/gotta' do it controversy. I was just wondering if and what you all do.

Elbert

I picked mine up at my FFL/gun range, took it out of the box, loaded it, and shot a couple hundred rounds through it.
I did clean and lube it when I got home.

IMHO, it's a military rifle and doesn't need to be babied. I doubt the military did a "breakin" for the millions of rifles they buy.
The only thing that I don't do is run hundreds of rounds through it without letting it cool down,
(unless the "tangos" are breaching the ramparts).

Minus 8 degrees is a great time to shoot, that barrel cools down quickly and can be used as a hand warmer.

It's a myth.

I load ammo and shoot

I'm a break in kind of guy. I always clean and lube a brand new gun. Most of the time it doesn't need it but there have been a few that had some metal debris in there most likely from the manufacturing process. For an AR I lube the BCG pretty heavy for the first hundred rounds or so and then back off to a normal amount of lube.

I'll usually fire 10 rounds, then run a few wet patches followed by a few dry patches for the first 50 rounds. Does it really make a difference? I can't honestly answer that question. It definitely makes me feel better so guess I'll continue my routine. Go with whatever you're comfortable with.

I recently built an AR using a White Oak barrel. They're not the best but they are really darn good barrels. I to was wondering what to do for barrel break in. Here's what John says:

"I suspect that more barrels have been damaged than helped by "breaking in". Barrel makers take a lot of care to get a uniform finish on the inside of a barrel. Barrels are lapped not so that they will be smooth, but so that the finish and dimensions will be uniform over the entire barrel. When you use an abrasive cleaning compound you will change the finish on the inside of the barrel. Since some areas of the barrel are going to be protected by copper that you are trying to remove, and others areas are not, the surface finish is no longer going to be uniform. Since I got a bore scope I have backed off on my use of abrasive bore cleaners. I use them, but not nearly as aggressively, particularly on a new barrel.

My personal break in procedure is to take a new upper to the range and zero the front sight and shoot a group or two. This will take about 15-20 rounds. I then bring it back to the shop and clean it good with shooters and a good quality brush. I check it with a bore scope, but generally very little copper fouling is present. Depending on how it looks I may hit the throat lightly with some JB. That's it, it is now broken in.

This is for all for good quality hand lapped barrels. I will get a little more aggressive with mass produced barrels.

For general cleaning and barrel maintenance we use Hoppes #9 for cleaning, Break Free CLP for lube, and only use Dewey rods."

I ALWAYS break in rifle barrels. Why wouldn't you? You'll be thankful you did because your cleaning chores will go much quicker. It's really not hard, just shoot one round, clean, shoot another, clean until you're up to 10 shots. Then clean between a few three shot groups and you're done. You'll notice the barrel cleans much quicker and easier after the 5 shot and clean as opposed to the first few. Just because it's an AR doesn't mean it shouldn't be properly cared for, and that starts with a proper barrel break in. Sure, you can skip it and everything will work fine but it'll never clean as easily as it could have and we all know what jacket fouling does to accuracy. You can quietly and safely break in a barrel in your basement using a roll of carpet and an old stump.

MJFlores said:

I ALWAYS break in rifle barrels. Why wouldn't you? You'll be thankful you did because your cleaning chores will go much quicker. It's really not hard, just shoot one round, clean, shoot another, clean until you're up to 10 shots. Then clean between a few three shot groups and you're done. You'll notice the barrel cleans much quicker and easier after the 5 shot and clean as opposed to the first few. Just because it's an AR doesn't mean it shouldn't be properly cared for, and that starts with a proper barrel break in. Sure, you can skip it and everything will work fine but it'll never clean as easily as it could have and we all know what jacket fouling does to accuracy. You can quietly and safely break in a barrel in your basement using a roll of carpet and an old stump.

Click to expand...

Perhaps this voo doo works on a match barrel to help smooth the rifling and not allow copper build up, but on a chrome lined or melonite treated barrel, you are wasting your time.

MJFlores said:

You can quietly and safely break in a barrel in your basement using a roll of carpet and an old stump.

Click to expand...

This definitely needs an explanation.

I've done the shoot one, clean, shoot one, repeat. I've also grabbed a couple of boxes of ammunition and gone shooting. The funny thing is that after about 40 rounds the rifles usually settle down regardless of which method I used. Putting 40 rounds down range without cleaning between shots is a whole lot more fun.

There is no such thing as break-in with melonite treated or chrome lined barrels. They are what they are.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. As I said in my original post, I don't want to open up a can of worms. I was just wanting to know what you all do, if anything at all, to break in a new rifle barrel. I know a lot of people call it voo doo and then other people claim it is mandatory to get the utmost accuracy out of a rifle.

I guess I'm kinda' in the middle. And my experience is about like MichiganScott. I've done the shoot one, clean, shoot one, clean, 5 shot group, clean, etc., then clean thoroughly after each trip. I've also done the shoot 20 or 30 rounds and then clean thoroughly.

And then again, my Marlin .17 HMR hasn't had the barrel cleaned or swabbed since I bought it because I don't have a rod or jag in .17 caliber. I have put literally hundreds of rounds through it and it is a tack driver. Probably the most accurate rifle I have. (Thinking about that, I guess I did finally get a string to slide down through the barrel and pulled a patch through it once)

Anyway, thank for the replies all.

Elbert

P.S. As a side note, I did order a cleaning kit with everything from .17 caliber up through .12 guage so the .17 will finally get swabbed and cleaned correctly, LOL.

Regardless of how you break in a barrel. I think the biggest thing is to stay away from excessive mag dumps and cooking the barrel.

Fired my Sport for the first time today, maybe 50-60 Rounds. Worked very well and happy with it.
Internals are fairly oiled up after firing it. Maybe got carried away when I first cleaned it.
Was not worried about barrel break in, just fired at my leisure.

MJFlores said:

I ALWAYS break in rifle barrels. Why wouldn't you? You'll be thankful you did because your cleaning chores will go much quicker. It's really not hard, just shoot one round, clean, shoot another, clean until you're up to 10 shots. Then clean between a few three shot groups and you're done. You'll notice the barrel cleans much quicker and easier after the 5 shot and clean as opposed to the first few. Just because it's an AR doesn't mean it shouldn't be properly cared for, and that starts with a proper barrel break in. Sure, you can skip it and everything will work fine but it'll never clean as easily as it could have and we all know what jacket fouling does to accuracy. You can quietly and safely break in a barrel in your basement using a roll of carpet and an old stump.

Click to expand...

cyphertext said:

Perhaps this voo doo works on a match barrel to help smooth the rifling and not allow copper build up, but on a chrome lined or melonite treated barrel, you are wasting your time.

Click to expand...

This ^

Shoot one or shoot 100....a few patches and done. And it doesn't have to be new to be clean

I shoot a round, then clean the barrel. I bring a Tipton AR-15 gun vise with me. I push a non marring rod down the bore, dry patch, solvent patch, dry patch, lightly lubed patch. I do that every shot for the first 10 rounds. Then I do it every 5 shots for 25 rounds. Then every 10 rounds for 100 rounds. Then every 20 rounds for 200 rounds. It is absolutely necessary to do this to ensure accuracy over the life of the barrel.

...

Psyche! It's an AR-15.

Clean it. Shoot it. Get home and clean it. Done.

Maddmax said:

Regardless of how you break in a barrel. I think the biggest thing is to stay away from excessive mag dumps and cooking the barrel.

Click to expand...

THIS.

Plus keep any new AR15 wet with light oil during the first 500 or so rounds.
(upper & lower not barrel)

MJFlores said:

and we all know what jacket fouling does to accuracy.

Click to expand...

Yeah. I know exactly what it does. Some copper jacket and other fouling will always bed into the lands and grooves. Until a barrel has some copper jacket and minor fouling bedded into the lands and grooves, the barrel won't give the precision and accuracy expected of it. On my bolt action rifle, I only strip copper from the barrel if and only if I notice a marked degradation in both precision and accuracy. The one time I did strip the barrel of copper, the barrel didn't settle back down until about 6 shots downrange when copper stripped from the barrel and bedded itself into the lands and grooves.

On a bolt action rifle I might follow a clean after every round fired over the first 10 rounds because a bolt action rifle has a completely different purpose of use. On a M&P 15 Sport with a nitrided barrel? Barrel break in voo-doo isn't necessary. For crying out loud, the current M4 style AR-15 is primarily a defensive carbine. Short to intermediate distance.

Newbies, realize that almost everything on an AR-15 is a wear item including the barrel. The AR-15 is built on standardized dimensions and is relatively end-user maintenance friendly for a reason. If you exclusively shoot good old brass case copper jacketed ammo, expect a barrel life of about 10,000 rounds. If you exclusively shoot steel case bi-metal jacketed ammo, expect a barrel life of 6,000 rounds. Remember as the round count increases, the barrel's potential for both precision and accuracy diminishes.

Go out and shoot your rifle. Wear out the barrel. Replace the barrel along with the bolt when the time comes. Enjoy it. Maintain and clean it. Don't needlessly worry about barrel life. For crying out loud if you have the $$$ for 10,000 rounds of brass case FMJ within even two years, buying a new barrel is most likely the least of your financial worries.

You want nuts? I have an IWI Tavor. I have 2,000 rounds of Wolf Gold .223 and 1,000 rounds of Federal .223 down the barrel. I could have bought another 15-Sport for the money I spent on ammo fired through my Tavor to date. Guess what? When it comes time to replace the Tavor Barrel, it sure as heck will be more expensive than the readily available AR-15 barrel. Do I worry and obsess about it? No, because barrel replacement is inevitable. Did I bother with barrel break in voo-doo? No. Does my Tavor barrel clean any more or less easily than my bolt action rifle? No.

Take it easy for the first 500 miles.
Oh , wait a minute. Thats for a 65 Chevy Impala.
Nevermind.
Jim