barrel break in...

[homebrew]

I've read several comments about breaking in a barrel. I'm ordering my first and it's gonna be a 54 with a 39 inch barrel. what can I do to do it right??

 

[BadHorse]

I've read several comments about breaking in a barrel. I'm ordering my first and it's gonna be a 54 with a 39 inch barrel. what can I do to do it right??

put a couple hundred PRB's through it

 

[MSW]

you may hear a great deal of pontification from armchair experts, most of it based in old wives tales from when barrels were iron and probably did need 'seasoning.'

I agree with Karwelis (sp?) ... just get out there and make good smoke- the barrel will settle as you work up the load, and then practice practice practice...

good luck!

 

[mazo kid]

Just shoot it normally and it will be fine. Keep it oiled to prevent rusting. The barrel break-in would apply more to cartridge guns and even then there is controversy as to it's need or effectiveness. Emery

 

[cowpoke1955]

All of my muzzle loaders have shot good from day one. My .54 GPR would cut patches from the sharp lands. After a couple of hundred rounds, the lands smoothed out and stop cutting the patches. But did not change in prefromance. Still shoots the same load and it hits the same place.

 

[Idaho Ron]

My last three ML's all got JB's bore paste in them before they got powder.
I polished "smoothed" them with somewhere around 200 strokes with the JB's then I just started shooting like normal. Ron

 

[mykeal]

Well, there may be a break-in period for a new barrel but it's to do with how the rifling was done and not about 'seasoning' the metal. karwelis, et al, have it right: break it in by shooting it, the more the better. If the rifling is sharp this will smooth out the edges and tend to keep patches intact, thus providing a better gas seal. If the rifling is not sharp, well, just enjoy the shooting and act like it's helping. It's a good excuse.

You can also lap the barrel, but shooting is a lot more fun.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Expect there to be some kind of sealer in the barrel to protect the barrel when it arrives. You can use acetone, or Break cleaners, or even denatured alcohol to clean this stuff out. You do want to clean the barrel before you shoot it.

Then inspect the muzzle. The crown of the muzzle should be round enough that you can begin a patched round ball down without the crown edges, or the front of the lands cutting the patch. Run an oiled patch on a cleaning jag down the barrel carefully, and slowly to see if you can feel the patch Catch on any part of the lands. If it does catch, then you want to first talk to your gunmaker, to find out what he did to the barrel,or didn't do, and then get his advice on how to deal with the roughness and burrs on the edges of the lands. JB bore cleaner, toothpaste, lapping compounds you buy from Brownells can all be used to remove the burrs, and rough spots. Even wrapping steel wool around a bore brush and running it back and forth down the barrel will knock off the burrs, and help smooth the lands. I like to dampen a couple of patches to fit tightly ni the bore on my cleaning jag, and then rub toothpaste on the patching, so that it scours the lands as you pump the rod down and back out of the barrel. It only takes a fine abrasive like that found in your favorite toothpaste to remove the fine burrs on the lands, and then smooth any chatter marks on the lands.

Then wash out the toothpaste and residue and flush the barrel with water. Then dry it thoroughly, and give it a light oiling for transporting it to the range or field. Then dry the barrel of the oil before you pour powder down it to shoot.

Barrels also have to settle down in their stocks to be consistent. Your gunmaker can help this by bedding the tang and last 4 inches with epoxy bedding compound. But, if he doesn't, most guns will begin to shoot better about the same time as you begin to shoot the gun better!!!! :rotf: :rotf:

By that, I mean that there is a honeymoon period with a new gun for every shooter, no matter how good a shooter you are, where you get used to its weight, balance, trigger pull, and the sights on the gun. It rarely comes together the first time at the range.

Take the gun out and shoot it! :hatsoff:

 

[Many Klatch]

It takes me about a year to get to know a new gun. That is shooting it regular, learning what patch, ball, powder charge it likes, futzing with the trigger pull and changing the sights to suite me. Somewhere along the way the barrel gets slicked up from the shooting and the cleaning and oiling. I have never done anything special to my new barrels other than use them.

I am sure it will take a while for you and your new gun to become familiar with each other. Don't get impatient and you don't need to do anything special to season the barrel. One day it will all come together.

You will want to find your patches after you have shot and inspect them. If they are cutup you may have to lap the barrel or change your patch ball combination but that is a whole other issue.

Many Klatch

 

[homebrew]

Thanks guys!!! The rifle I'm getting is from Cabelas and I'm doing it in part with a gift card. I'm totally on my own with it. I've always been interested in black powder up to the point of making my own in high school and shooting it in a cannon a friend of mine made is shop class. That was a great summer until I put a charge thru my hand. Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated. I wish there was a black powder group in central Arkansas.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Contact the NMLRA to find charer clubs in Arkansas. I find it difficult to believe there are no BP clubs near you. You just haven't looked in the right places. Start at any gun shop, or gunsmith, and ASK! Don't ask clerks at Wally world, 'tho'. That is a waste of time in most venues.

 

[mazo kid]

NMLRA Field Reps in Arkansas are: Metford Compton in Hardy @ 870-966-4075, Dennis Lundberg @ 812-597-5363 [email protected] . They should be able to put you in contact with a club near you. Emery

 

[homebrew]

thanks a bunch!!! I'll be on the phone this afternoon. Different question... I was looking at Midsouth for their kit on a Lyman Plains rifle. It's a lot cheaper than others I've looked at. And I sort of like the idea of building my own. Anyway the discription said it was drilled and tapped for the Lyman target sight. Does that mean the barrel is not dove tailed for the traditional sights? It would look odd to have a target sight on it and empty dove tail on the barrel.

 

[mykeal]

The barrel is dovetailed both front and rear for their standard open iron sights. The 'drilled and tapped' statement refers to a single hole drilled and tapped in the tang for mounting their 57GPR rear peep sight. The companion front sight is their 17AEU which fits the European dovetail.

You can fill the rear dovetail with a blank if you decide to install the tang mounted peep sight.

 

[hockeyref]

.....
Barrels also have to settle down in their stocks to be consistent. Your gunmaker can help this by bedding the tang and last 4 inches with epoxy bedding compound.

Paul,
Isn't it sacreligious and just plain not PC to bed barrel? :nono: :hmm: :rotf:

But seriously, This is a good suggestion and since it's a hook breech you may want to bed the Tang and possibly give the stock some "slight draw" on the barrel similar to the M1\M14 bedding so that the barrel is held solidly when the wedges are inserted.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Oh, yeah. Sure is. But this is not a perfect world, and there are few builders now working who can CONSISTENTLY bed barrels perfectly just by removing wood. Its a joy to see that kind of workmanship, and an honor to know any builder who can do it.

That being said, wood shrinks, or warps, or tools tip or turn as they are cutting, and anything human can err, so mistakes are made. Even the PC police apparently accept OLD ways of bedding barrels, using layers of varnish, and paper, instead of Epoxy bedding compounds.

I know one builder who beds out to just shy of the first key or barrel pin. And, even after building more than 2,000 guns, he still beds the tang and back of the barrel area of the stock, where all the recoil forces are taken. The bedding compound is put on thin, granted, I would be happy to be able to cut a barrel mortise thin enough to only need what he considers adequate bedding compound. His primary reasoning has to do with stock splits at the wrist and tang, BTW.

ON heavy recoiling stocks, he grinds, or cuts, a small half-moon cut in the bottom flat of the barrel, horizontal to the bore,behind the first underlug, and puts enough epoxy into the stock to fill that arch. This makes a recoil stop in the stock, forward of the rear of the barrel, which greatly strengthens the stock, and steadies the barrel. The stop also spreads the recoil forces out into the stock, so that it doesn't all go through the back of the barrel into the thin shoulder of wood located there, near the lock mortise, and the thin wrist of the stock. ( Obviously, if you do any bedding with epoxy, use an adequate release agent on all metal parts!)

If I were going to repair the bedding in a gun used for international competition, I would abide by all their rules, and use paper, and varnish, to bed the back of the barrel.

 

[longcruise]

But seriously, This is a good suggestion and since it's a hook breech you may want to bed the Tang

In the case of the GPR, not bedding the tang is going to lead to an eventual splitting of the stock. Usually at the screw at the far end of the tang. The tang bolt normally has enough clearance not to split the wood.

A few weeks ago I set a new factory built GPR up for a new shooter. it required a small amount of bedding under the front of the tang and about 1/32" of bedding between the tang and where it recoils at the back of the barrel channel.