Before anybody jumps on me, by break in I don’t mean shoot one/clean, shoot three/clean, shoot three/clean, etc etc etc.
I’ve got a brand new 280ai Barrel. I’ve shot about eight rounds through it of factory ammo so far just getting it sighted in. I want to develop a load with Barnes 139 lrx for it.
Should I shoot another 20 / 40 / whatever number of rounds through it of factory ammo before starting the actual load development testing?
I see some people recommend letting the barrel break in, or other people refer to it as speed up, before spending time on the load development. In their opinion / experience they feel like the barrel is changing too much at this time and you’re going to be chasing your tail with load development as the barrel is changing at the same time that you’re making changes to the recipe.
Things will likely change a little as you break it in, but I start my rough load development after just 10 shots. I generally find it stays the same. Not a good time to be testing the difference between 0.3 grains of powder, but it’s fine for testing basic bullet/powder combos in my opinion.
This is what I was told. The barrel is a piece of hardened steel that your sending a soft copper coated piece of lead down it. When new barrels are rough at first and the copper is embedded into it as the bullet passes. This smooths out the barrel in time as the barrel is shot. It reaches its optimum accuracy of the barrel then the barrel starts to wear (every barrel is different). No cleaning on earth will stop this. Cleaning a barrel can impart scratches if done wrong. Keep the bolt lugs oil and the action clean/oiled. Shoot the barrel until you see signs of degrading accuracy. Then do a copper cleaning and enjoy what’s left of her time. Benchrest shooter replace barrels about every 1000 round on average and most never do break in or cleaning.