Breaking in a new gun?

[Amikee]

Hi there

I've been told by several shooters, that using wire brush helps out with smoothing the barrel, and so-called break-in process. It happened that I purchased a new rifle, inexpensive older cva. Every cleaning I did, that's what I use regardles if it needed or not. After a while I noticed that the brush moves without much of the torque and the barrel is nice and smooth. It did help with accuracy a lot for sure. It's been definitely less than 100 rounds with this particular gun. I would say about 60 shots. But reading most responses on here, more natural way to do it is just to shoot it and I'm more for that, since helps me practice along learning about my guns.
My 0.02
Good luck with whatever way you decide.

 

[Zonie]

Glad it worked for you but I personally HATE using wire brushes in a muzzle loader.

Yes, I know about rotating the brush so it skips the rifling while reversing the pull on the cleaning rod to get it back out of the barrel but it is a PITA.

I've also read too many horror stories about folks who not only got their wire brush stuck in their muzzleloading barrels but they broke their ramrod trying to get it out. They then had a brush and part of a ramrod stuck down in the bore.

As for a break in on a new barrel, if it has square rifling grooves they will always have sharp edges.

To dull these edges without damaging the rifling I wrap a small piece of #000 or #0000 steel wool around a cleaning jag and then run it up and down the bore about 100 times. I stop about every 10 strokes to replace the steel wool because it does get worn down in this process.

After 100 strokes, all of the sharp edges on the rifling will be dulled but polished and very seldom will they cut a good cloth patch.

With round groove rifling the edges are usually dull enough that they won't need any break in or steel wooling at all. They shoot good right out of the box.

 

[juancho]

A side note about the brush.If you break one inside , I red somewere of this trick.You can push a pipe between the brush and the barrel, traping the brush in the pipe.Never tried it myself though.

 

[Amikee]

Breaking the brush... That's why I used it only in inexpensive CVA. I got it for about $60.00, so I figured I will I can will experiment with it.

 

[Vaino]

I "break in" a new pair of shoes, but not MLers. A new MLer should be shot to first find out if it's functional and if so, then an accurate load should be found before adjusting the sights. Throughout the time of achieving an accurate load, the lock might "act up" or the patches might cut and then suitable "fixes" should be done. When the MLer fires consistently and accurate groups are attained, then the "sight-in" begins. When shooting, whether at the range or while hunting, I use only a wire brush and "dump" the debris and continue on. This eliminates clogging the TH, wetting the next load and is quicker. Even w/ wire brushing, eventually wet patches are used and again the wire brushing continues for approx. another 15 loads.....Fred

 

[hanshi]

Concerning the use of #0000 steel wool, it will not actually remove metal but will polish and burnish the bore. Still, don't over do it. 100 to 200 laps is plenty. If that scares you then something like Scotchbrite works almost as good.