Break in procedure for Howa Barrels

[headspace]

I've heard all sorts of things about the break in period on Howa Barrels.

I'm especially intrigued by the use of Windex. Any one got an opinion on that? It just seems a bit weird.

My personal idea is to pass a patch through with solvent, then a dry patch then another with oil. Then patch that out again before firing.

JD.

[Norton]

I've heard all sorts of things about the break in period on Howa Barrels.

How to "properly" brake in a barrel is the worst conversation ever

A hundred different viewpoints and usually nothing to back them up. You need 5 rounds to 500 rounds depending on who you speak to

For what it's worth, my opinion is this...

Definitely do give it a thorough clean before firing for the first time. There is always way too much grease in a new barrel and if you shoot it without cleaning you'll possibly bulge or otherwise damage your barrel.

Pass a solvent patch through, give it a scrub with a brush, pass a clean patch through. Repeat until the 'clean' patch comes out clean. Then your barrel is ready to fire.

If you're not shooting it on the same day pass an oiled patch through it to protect the barrel while it's in storage until you do shoot it.

On shooting... Personally I reckon the whole '1 bullet then clean, 5 bullets then clean, 10 then clean...' or whatever numbers people recommend for their process is rubbish... Some people say you have to put 300 bullets through one at a time before it's "ready"... What a load of crap.

All my rifles shot just as good on their first few shots ad the did on their 100th, 200th and so on.

It's a complete waste of time, bullets and barrel life to shoot a hundred of bullets and clean it dozens of times before deciding it's "ready" IMO.

If you feel the need, put 5 through it after the initial cleaning if that gives you any peace of mind, then clean it once more. After that just shoot and clean as normal. No need to follow some elaborate break in process.

My 2c.

Ready for lots of people to disagree now

[petemacsydney]

being a noob, i wasn't quite sure, so i ended up doing 1 bullet 1 clean for the first five shots, then 5 bullets 1 clean for the next 35 shots.
probably overkill, but because i didn't know what was ok and what was not, i thought i'd just follow advice from the LGS.
Mind you, the advice i got from the various LGS's varied sooooo much, that i probably could have just bathed the thing in salt water for a week and then shot per normal... lol

[Lorgar]

I agree that the majority of break in procedures are mostly faff.

A hundred different viewpoints and usually nothing to back them up.

On that subject...

Headspace, this is the first 4 shots ever out of my Tikka that I picked up a month or so ago.

Tikka 7mm-08 group.

tikka-7mm-08-group-120gr-nosler-bt-43gr-ar2208.jpg (28.09 KiB) Viewed 5612 times

I gave the rifle a very thorough clean out of the box, shot that group, did a few clicks and another pair of groups and was straight into the forest after deer. 10 bullets and I was off hunting.

Like Norton said, other would say I should sit at the range for hours feeding single bullets and cleaning patches through

Why the hell would I waste a day of my life and $200 worth of ammo when it shoots like that out of the box?

Do with that information as you will

[reddog]

I did the fire 1 clean for the first 5 then then fire 3 then clean then 5 then clean , on my stainless Howa till 18 rounds were through it . This was my first rifle so i
was a bit anxious i suppose . I don't really know weather I would do it again one thing i did notice was the cleaning patch was a lot easier to put through after the
first 8 shots , and the fouling was less . It too that long to get it shooting on target anyway , so the last two 5 shot groups were really just sighting it in .
Is it worth it , I suppose its an excuse to go to the range . Nick Harvey just recommends cleaning them before to get the factory crap out and go shooting , reckons
he has never run one in in his life , and who am I to argue with 65 years of experience

[headspace]

Yeh, pretty much what I thought. I'd never gone through all that other crap before with any other rifle, and could see no reason why that should vary from one brand of rifle to another. I think that the more you look at the various sites on the net the more confusing it can become.
JD