500 rounds to break in a 22LR?

[meek]

I think I may have encountered the infamous 'know it all' at the range this week

I went shooting with a mate to break in his 22 and he have a few boxes of ammo to try out.

The bloke at the range said what shoots accurately in it now might not be the same in a few hundred rounds, and he should test then.

I'm sure a new barrel requires a little break in, but this bloke reckoned put 500 rounds through it before you bother testing for real

Seriously? 500 rounds?

What do you guys think?

[Chronos]

In 500 rounds you'll know

My weatherby mkxxii shot well with eley club ammo when I first got it. 2000 rounds now and it likes federal match now better than the eley. Maybe there's something in what he said. If you think about the heat and energy produced by a center fire rifle, I believe it takes a hundred rounds for their barrels to settle down so 500 may be realistic for a rimfire barrel

It also shoots better dirty than clean now, something I'm not used to. I think the main thing is to keep track of what's going on with your gun and how to get the best out of it.

Chronos

[Lorgar]

The barrel will go through some break in, I dunno about 500 rounds though...

Clean it, put 10-20 through it then just use it as you want to IMO.

Seeing the blokes that shoot 1 bullet, clean, 2, clean, 5, clean, 10, clean and so on up until they've done 300 or 400 shots makes me cringe.

I can't think of anything that's more of a waste of time.

Buy it, clean it, shoot it IMO.

[Hatter]

Seeing the blokes that shoot 1 bullet, clean, 2, clean, 5, clean, 10, clean and so on up until they've done 300 or 400 shots makes me cringe.

Tell me about it.

Breaking your rifle in? Sure. Give it a good first clean, put a box through it, maybe give it one more clean, then shoot and clean as required.

The whole 1 bullet then clean for 200 rounds or whatever is rubbish IMO too. I'm yet to hear one remotely convincing explanation from anyone as to what this actually changes in the barrel.

It's become one of these old wifes tales that people pass on as fact because they got told by someone, who only says it because they got told by someone and so on.... No one down the line actually has any experience or evidence themselves that it does anything other than waste ammo

My 2c.

[Hercl]

There was some old-school gunsmith in the states who mostly did barrel replacement work, he reckons he started the whole "shoot 500 rounds before you start 'shooting'" years ago so that people went through their barrels faster.

Burning through all those shots knocks 20% (or whatever) off the life of your centre fire barrel in a flash = 20% more frequent business for the gunsmith.

[Centerfire J]

I do a lot of rimfire competition target shooting. Here is my 5c worth.

Clean the barrel once, but very well when new. Then clean after 100 rounds. Then shoot your next 400 rounds. That will run the barrel in quite nice.

When testing ammo & you are changing from brand to brand. you need to put at least 5 conditioning rounds through the barrel before you read the target.

Above is just my opinion that works for me & my rifles. I only clean my rimfire when accuracy goes of song. about every 2 years.

Copper plated 22lr ammo (I don't use it) maybe every 6-12 months if used a lot.

If you have not used your .22 in a long while, it may require 5 conditioning shots to soften (for want of a better word) the old hard wax deposited in the barrel.

[Guliver]

There was some old-school gunsmith in the states who mostly did barrel replacement work, he reckons he started the whole "shoot 500 rounds before you start 'shooting'" years ago so that people went through their barrels faster.

Burning through all those shots knocks 20% (or whatever) off the life of your centre fire barrel in a flash = 20% more frequent business for the gunsmith.

500 is 20% the life of the barrel from the quote above, so overall lifetime is only 2500 using the same figures? At that rate I'd be replacing barrels every 4 months, I don't see that happening.

[Hercl]

I should have mentioned, this is was talking about centrefire calibres. Not rimfire.

I was just using 20% as an example, obviously that doesn't apply to all calibres. Depends on your load as well, how the barrel is treated, how well its maintained, blah blah blah.

For some that would be 5% or less for some it could be 20% or more of your barrel life. Whatever it is...

The point was he claims to have made it up to get more work.

[Blackened]

When testing ammo & you are changing from brand to brand. you need to put at least 5 conditioning rounds through the barrel before you read the target.

My 2c - A few conditioning rounds when changing ammo type makes perfect sense.

Similarly for CF rifles, for new and clean barrels firing a few rounds to bring the copper fouling and barrel up to it's "regular" state also makes sense.

You'll never find me doing the 1 bullet/clean/repeat thing for 300 rounds though

Regardless of what explanation people offer for mind-numbingly firing hundreds of rounds at nothing before that actually start using it, I can't see why you wouldn't just hunt or punch paper as usually while working towards your magic number.

It's not like a hunting rifle shoots 2 foot groups for the first 300 rounds then on round 301 shoots .5moa.

If you subscribe to that theory, at least use the rounds to bring in game or improve your shooting technique instead of just filling the local hillside with copper.

[Humir]

Someone needs to cook up something like the metal storm setups where they had 10 bullets in the barrel and it fired them one after the other.

Shoot 10 at a time to wear your barrel in instead of spending a week doing it

[jeener]

Metal Storm went bust I'm pretty sure so I think you can cross that off

[wade06]

I will get my Lithgow 22lr this week.

Ammo i have at the moment includes Eley Match, RWS Target Rifle, CCI standard, Eley Sub HP, RWS Sub HP, Winchester HV HP and CCI quiet. I'm trying to find Lapua Center X also as it has topped 3 crossover tests i have seen.

Any other ammo you would recommend for the crossover? I'm looking for target and hunting ammo.

What is the best method to test 22lr ammo?
Should i use the gun for a while with CCI standard before testing or get straight into it?
Should i clean it between ammo types or just run a bore snake through?

I was thinking i would get it sighted in they shoot 3x or 4x 5 shot groups of each type at 50m.

Any suggestions or tips for a noob would be great

[Wylie27]

Wade,

Clean it.. take it to the range.. shoot your ammo.. Clean when you change ammo type...

enjoy.. dont over analyse.. its a .22

[Wm.Traynor]

There is no reason why a factory-made rimfire barrel would not have a few burrs in it somewhere, just like a centrefire. However, expecting lead rimfire bullets to remove imperfections, just like in a centrefire, is asking a bit much, IMO. They aren't as hard or as fast. My suggestion is to clean thoroughly, push a bronze brush through ten times (or your grandmother's age) and clean again. That might remove some burrs. After shooting, push a patch through (careful; it will be Tight) and examine for the bright specks that indicate lead. If your groups are crook, leading could be the cause. And there are Many causes. If, after trying everything it still won't shoot, there is abrasive ammo.

Good Luck

[pomemax]

what do you mean clean a .22 Never at all the bullets are wax coated for a reason to GO TO Anschutz look up cleaning, They say wipe out when you first take delivery then every 10,000 round only if it starts to lose accuracy otherwise DON,T clean.

That cleaning routine is made up buy the guys selling you the cleaning gear

[wade06]

Thanks for the feedback. It is only a 22 but I'd like to maximise my accuracy by getting ammo it likes. Don't mind spending a bit of money and time doing so.

what do you mean clean a .22 Never at all the bullets are wax coated for a reason to GO TO Anschutz look up cleaning, They say wipe out when you first take delivery then every 10,000 round only if it starts to lose accuracy otherwise DON,T clean.

That cleaning routine is made up buy the guys selling you the cleaning gear

I'd appreciate any other thoughts on cleaning a 22 or not. My gut feeling is that there is still going to be a residue build up and a light clean would still be best for newish rifles. Not.planing on using solvents. Thanks

[Gwion]

There's a great article about cleaning 22lr. http://www.rrdvegas.com/rimfire-cleaning.html

Read it and make up your own mind.

The chamber and throat definitely need a periodic clean to mitigate carbon build up.

As for break in with 500 rounds..... Buy a 550 box of Winchester for $45 if you really want. It is fun rattling off rounds and taking that time as a new shooter to work on technique will make a hell of a difference to effectively testing ammo types/makes. No point testing for most accurate ammo if you aren't shooting consistently yourself. Other than that, I don't think there's anything to stop you testing ammo way before that, though. Maybe put a box of cheap stuff through to season the barrel after its initial thorough clean and then start testing away. The rifle will settle and change over the first little while, as Chronos mentioned, but what shoots well in it new isn't going to start shooting 2"groups in 6 months or 1000 rounds and having a few options that shoot acceptably is always good; even it it does take a while to find that perfect round that will shoot one hole at 50m.

[GLS_1956]

Wade,

Clean it.. take it to the range.. shoot your ammo.. Clean when you change ammo type...

enjoy.. dont over analyse.. its a .22

Good philosophy.

[wade06]

Thanks Gwion, that link was great but i have only read half of it so far.

Its a pretty strong argument that not cleaning a 22 can do damage to your barrel.
Secondly, when you clean it it may take 20 shots or so to replace the wax and get the accuracy back up.

Cheers

[Nalla Rehctelf]

Does any one have a stainless Marlin XT 22 TSR.
If at 50M what is the accuracy ?

[bigfellascott]

Get out hunting mate, don't waste ya time and money at ranges putting up with ****** who know everything - the SSAA is full of those types and every range I've been too has more than it's fair share of em - I'm glad if got rid of my membership

[wade06]

Ha ha thanks bigfella. Will probably go to mum and dads farm to sight it in and test a few types of ammo ... Plus they have a heap of Indian mynas that give the native birds and koalas heaps... Might sort a few of them out

[bigfellascott]

Ha ha thanks bigfella. Will probably go to mum and dads farm to sight it in and test a few types of ammo ... Plus they have a heap of Indian mynas that give the native birds and koalas heaps... Might sort a few of them out

That's the way mate, get out there and sort them bloody myna birds out (destructive little buggers aren't they) f*** wastin ammo on paper, waste it on pests I say

[bigfellascott]

And don't worry about trying to get the tiniest little groups you can, you don't need it for hunting purposes - so long as they around the 1" group that should be good enough for most hunting situations, after all you aren't shooting groups on fur, only one decent shot is all that's needed 99% of the time.

People get all caught up in getting the tiniest groups for hunting rifles, just ain't needed cos ya can't replicate that sort of shooting situation in the field anyway (ya got not lovely bench to shoot off, or fancy bench rest and sandbags and wind flags and measured consistent distance to shoot at so stop trying to achieve something that really isn't going to help in most hunting situations.

My advice would be find the ammo it shoots the most consistently, get out in the field and set up some small targets the size of say an apple or orange (spuds are nice and cheap to buy or grow your own (something rabbit head sized) and learn to shoot those at all sorts of diff ranges (unmeasured) and when you are consistently nailing them with good regularity be happy with that and get out rollin the fur.

One of my favourite things to shoot when I was younger was empty 22 cases whilst sitting around the campfire type thing, I got pretty good at after a while (20-30m was probably the max range) good fun always had targets too shoot at too, eggs were another fav, we used to put those out around 70m I guess (handy having chooks) bottle tops was another good one to practice on too (the little Mod 2 wasn't no benchrest rifle but it was good enough to hit those types of things with reasonably good consistency which helps one's confidence when it comes to rollin fur and was a cheap way to get some practice in too.