TargetTalk

Could I ask those more knowledgeable than myself what your thoughts are on breaking in new barrels?

I've recently had a Trueflite barrel fitted into my 1813. The smith who fitted said 500 rds would break it in, however when I spoke to ELEY about batch testing their recommendation was 2000 rds. So far I've only put 350 through it (cleaning before and after every trip to the range) so its difficult to gauge how strong its going to be however I'm not getting super group size's at 25yds or 50m. Would others who've been through breaking in a new stainless barrel have any advice on how long their barrel took to settle down and tighten up? I have a big comp beginning of May and I cant decide if I should persevere with this barrel or revert back to my 1913 for the comp.

When I run a bronze brush through it it tightens up nicely continuously down the bore all the way to the crown, I assume this is a good thing? Would running some VFG blue paste around the leade area help?

many thanks
Bryan

You can try bench testing to see if your barrel is still breaking in. Use a scope and test on a calm day and if you're still not getting great groups, go back to your 1913.


The resistance you're feeling with the brush is called a choke. It's intention is to somewhat size each bullet to a uniform size prior to leaving the muzzle. Some benchrest shooters report a big difference between groupings with even a 0.0002" (two ten thousandths of an inch)difference in choke by using a ring clamp around the muzzle.

Break in period is also impacted by how good of a chambering job the gunsmith achieved. With rimfire, the only way to find out is to keep shooting.

Of the 3 custom stainless barrels that wereally on my 1813, all required very little break-in. They all shot very well out of the gate with only slight improvement over around 1k rounds.
Ken

Break in, what is that? Prone 100 yards, new rifles, 1st groups after getting a zero

40X Lilja SS 5 shots .6 inches
1913 CM 10 shots 10X
54.30 CM 5 shots .44 inches.

Mark

Thanks for the comments, I think the performance is tightening up. I've attached a photo of a 5 shot group from last night at 25yds. I'll just keep putting ammo through it and see what happens.