Breaking in a new rifle

[tdyoung58]

Well today I had my new Howa M1500 .308 with the 20" heavy barrel at the range for the first time. Howa recommends a 10 shot, 5 minutes wait for cooling and a cleaning between each shot.

Thank God for Boresnakes......

So, range wise, I was shooting about 2" groups after the first 5 shots, the scope sucked, but hey it was a cheap one I was stupid and bought. Was about a 8" differeenct between the first 5 (at 50 yards) and the second 5 (at 100 yards).

Action and trigger were nice and smooth right out of the box.

Now I need to get a decent scope for it, looking at a Sightmark I think, or a higher end Centerpoint

[nfafan]

Well today I had my new Howa M1500 .308 with the 20" heavy barrel at the range for the first time. Howa recommends a 10 shot, 5 minutes wait for cooling and a cleaning between each shot.

<snip>

You get off easy... Oly recommends this (non mandatory) for their ARs;

"There are many ways that people recommend to break in their barrels. The following is our recommended method, but certainly not required. Additionally, your warranty does not hinge on this method of break in. We have many customers who shoot sub minute of angle from their standard button-rifled AR-15 barrels and have done NOTHING special with regards to break in.

A note of warning breaking in a barrel does not make a barrel inherently more accurate. What it will do is make it more consistent and give it a longer life. For these reasons we do recommend a good quality break in procedure.


Fire, Clean, Treat, Lubricate and Fire Method

1 Clean the barrel well.
2 Make sure the patches come out clean and white.
3 Use the cleaner of your choice (do not use ammonia-based cleaners). Use of a lead or copper solvent is okay. Make sure you have the barrel cleaned and neutralized in the bore.
4 Apply the lubricant-bore treatment.
5 Dry the bore with a clean dry patch.
6 Use the quality ammunition of your choice and fire ONE round.
7 Repeat Step 1 for the next 24 rounds.
8 At round 25, repeat Step 1. Change from firing ONE round to THREE.
9 Repeat Step 3 until you have fired 50 rounds total.
10 At round 51, repeat Step 1. Change from firing THREE rounds to FIVE.
11 Repeat Step 5 until you have fired 100 rounds total.
12 After firing 100 rounds total clean and treat the bore as in Step 1, then fire for a group.

Your barrel is now broken in."