Shooting In

Farmer

Member
I'm looking to get a .243 soon, hopefully a new one but I did see a nice s/hand yesterday.
If you buy s/hand is there anyway to tell if it's been run in properly?
What are the effects of not shooting in? Shortened bore life? loss of accuracy?
Any input or experiences would be appreciated.

Cheers
 
I question your question.
Shooting in is for the benefit of rifle smiths as more barrel wear from shooting in leads to shorter barrel life.
If you look at a the bore of a rifle with a hawkeye bore scope you may well see wear yet th egun may be very accurate on shooting, so there is only one way to find out.
I bought a rifle S/H with a warranty and had the bore checked by a smith and he said it was well used but fine. 0.4" 3 shot group was one result
 
Hi Farmer mate. Even a hand lapped, custom, cut-rifled barrel can usually benefit from being run in properly. It's even more likely to be worth doing with a high intensity round like .243
Try google for the how to.
1 tip from me is always push or pull your cleaning kit from breech to muzzle. You want to get the grain smoothed one-way friend.
All these guys sayin it aint worth it, what've you got to lose. If their wrong, it's not good. If I'm wrong all you do is blow a few extra rounds out the pipe.
 
Farmer.

Tamus is on the money. Having just purchased a new custom .243 the riflesmith was adamant that the barrel MUST be conditioned. He even gave me a folder with warranty, manuals and conditioning procedure in it. Even a super match grade handlapped barrel will have imperfections down the tube. Conditioning removes the imperfections so you have the closest there is to a smooth tube.

If you are buying new then shoot one -clean-shoot one-clean. How long will it take? Couple of hours at most and you have piece of mind that everything is in your favour.

It's a lot of money to throw away as a result of neglect on your part. The riflemaker has done their part but from my own experience with a Tikka T3, mass produced factory rifles will have plenty of imperfections in the barrel.

I will be at Blair Atholl this weekend shooting F Class at a 1000yards. The riflesmith who made my rifle wouldn't let me have the rifle until he had conditioned and hand polished the barrel. He is an expert riflesmith and F Class shooter--enough said.
 
This makes me laugh to just how low modern expectations are now :rolleyes: Before the accountants got full sway at BSA the barrels were cut rifled and lapped as standard. Now it's only "Custom" barrels that are made this way, or some of them others are button rifled, with the "cutom" :rolleyes: price tag.
 
The riflesmith who made my rifle wouldn't let me have the rifle until he had conditioned and hand polished the barrel. He is an expert riflesmith and F Class shooter--enough said.

That would be Mrs Groom, then?

A fine man and a very fine riflesmith.
 
Farmer.

Tamus is on the money. Having just purchased a new custom .243 the riflesmith was adamant that the barrel MUST be conditioned. He even gave me a folder with warranty, manuals and conditioning procedure in it. Even a super match grade handlapped barrel will have imperfections down the tube. Conditioning removes the imperfections so you have the closest there is to a smooth tube.

If you are buying new then shoot one -clean-shoot one-clean. How long will it take? Couple of hours at most and you have piece of mind that everything is in your favour.

It's a lot of money to throw away as a result of neglect on your part. The riflemaker has done their part but from my own experience with a Tikka T3, mass produced factory rifles will have plenty of imperfections in the barrel.

I will be at Blair Atholl this weekend shooting F Class at a 1000yards. The riflesmith who made my rifle wouldn't let me have the rifle until he had conditioned and hand polished the barrel. He is an expert riflesmith and F Class shooter--enough said.

What imperfections will a series of shots and cleanings using copper jacketed bullets take out that the hand lapping of a super-match grade barrel won't? I just don't buy it. In fact, if I'm being sold a land lapped, super-match grade barrel it darned well better NOT need running in. JHMO, of course, and I'm just a hick who has never shot F-Class.~Muir
 
What imperfections will a series of shots and cleanings using copper jacketed bullets take out that the hand lapping of a super-match grade barrel won't? I just don't buy it. In fact, if I'm being sold a land lapped, super-match grade barrel it darned well better NOT need running in. JHMO, of course, and I'm just a hick who has never shot F-Class.~Muir

I'm not sure imperfections is the right description. However, it seems clear that there is often some micro-scopic abrasiveness which can be ironed out.

I have three rifles, all with Border Barrels (cut rifled) bbls on them. All handlapped and all shooting very well. BTW all we're cheaper to rebarrel than to replace with new rifles and I wouldn't sell any of them or swap them for what passes as a "state of the art" plastic gun now... but maybe that's just me. I like steel floorplates and integral mags and steel trigger guards. Sako certainly did those features very well on my old shooting sticks.

At first my .30-06 really grabbed the gilding metal, for about the first 50 rounds, but I followed the sort of procedure Tamus advocates. Now she doesn't foul noticeably at all even if I put 30 shots through her. and I clean out thoroughly with Butches Boreshine and the likes.

The 6.5 284 has been pretty much the same, but I still always clean this one after a max of 5 rounds, indeed after any firing at all. I dunno if the "barrel-burner" tag really applies or not but I'm taking no chances. So far so good.

Now, my .223 rem "F" class (foxer) didn't need anything like as many rounds, but since Geoff and the boys thought that barrel was good enough to warrant the full logo engraving treatment, maybe that says something? but I'm still very careful about cleaning after use, preferably asap.

The point I'm trying to make is, there has been a clear benefit to me in following a strict shooting in procedure. They all clean easy now and can group into raggedy holes. Hell the .223 can shoot raggedy holes at 200m, when really competently handled. Which aint all the time.:oops:

Shoot her in carefully Farmer, is what I think. Although, you don't need to just "blow" the rounds through. You can zero and test loads and even go stalking but do follow a good shoot in process. I think you'll find it pays off.
 
I'm not saying that shooting in is bad, but I wonder about if it is necessary VS just shooting normally. One thing that I always ask is: Did you shoot it without running in? The answers is usually, "no", which makes perfect sense: If you just shoot, you lose the run in option. If you run it in, then you wouldn't shoot it in normal cadence. My point is that if MakerX says "Run it in" people will do it. What I need to see is someone who disregarded the advice and can then prove the rifle would have shot better if they hadn't. (or visa versa!) Most fellows sink a enough coin into their rifles that they won't risk going against the manufacturers recommendations.

I once used Douglas Air Gaged barrels, exclusively, and built some very good (winning) competition rifles for various disciplines. Douglas advised careful cleaning but no run-in. I guess it just depends on the maker.~Muir
 
My Roedale with its Lo' Wal' barrel and my Sauer refuse to pick up fouling, my Sako and my Zoli have been difficult to clean. I guess there are easy barrels and difficult barrels and your first couple of shots will let you know what you have. Perhaps running in a difficult one may help or perhaps they will always be difficult to clean/maintain accuracy. I would say treat each barrel as you find it. Even from one manufacturer you will have people saying that they have easy or difficult barrels.
 
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