One in a row....

As promised, Nathan and I worked on breaking in the barrel on the new .308 Savage last Saturday. There are many different methods of breaking in a new barrel....some people say to "just shoot it" while others use a time consuming procedure that seemingly lasts forever. I know one person who spent 3 months breaking in a barrel. He would go to the range and fire 5 or 6 shots in 8 hours. The rest of the time was spent cleaning.

I don't have that much patience.

The method I've been using for a few years is to fire one shot, then run 3 wet patches down the bore, followed by 2 dry patches. Repeat 10 times. After the first 10 shots I switch to "cleaning" (3 wet, 2 dry patches) after every 10 shots for the next 50 rounds or so.

I don't have the tools to bore sight a new scope, so simply sighted through the bore at a 200 yard target and drifted the crosshairs to match what I saw through the barrel. The first 10 "shoot one, clean, repeat" shots were fired at a 200 yard steel silhouette, with all but the first 3 sighting shots striking the target with a very satisfying clang. The next 10 shots were fired at a paper target, displayed below:



It was fascinating to watch the group get smaller as the barrel got hotter and dirtier. The entire 10 shot 200 yard group measured out to be 2 1/2" by 3". Not anything to write home about, but I was using 25 year old South African military surplus 147 grain ball ammo.

My next task is to cook up some test loads and actually start dialing it in for accuracy. A trip to the powder cabinet revealed supplies of IMR 4064, H4895, H335, Varget, and IMR3031. The bullet shelf has Sierra 150 grain softpoints, Sierra 180 grain softpoints, Sierra 168 grain Match HP's, Hornady 165 grain softpoints, Hornady 168 grain A-max's, Nosler 125 grain Ballistic Tips, and Nosler 150 grain Ballistic Tips. The only large rifle primers I have on hand are Federal 210M.

That should keep me busy for a while.

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