The little brown truck dropped off my new custom barrel from MGM today. I have some questions as this is my first custom barrel ever.

It is VERY tight. I mean TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT when I try to open it up. I am hoping this will loosen up because it seriously takes more effort than my break barrel pellet rifle to open up! The last Encore I had dropped open easily with only a squeeze of the trigger gaurd. It didn't require a second hand at all. But that was a stock barrel, so maybe that is the difference???

Also, it came with a couple of sheets of paper outlining the "break in period" for the barrel. Shoot the first 15 shots, but clean the barrel in a specific manner between each shot. Then for the next 50 shots, clean every 3 to 5 shots. Is this really neccessary, and what exactly happens to a barrel during this "break in" time. Is this a theory, or is it proven to actually make a difference?

All I am lacking is the scope, then I can post pictures, or at least try to...

Break in isn't proven, its a theory. I think that it polishes the throat area of the chamber so that it doesn't build up copper as bad.

Did you tell them to send new locking lugs, I had the same issues.

Well, I don't know what happened, but it must have been operator error on my part. I took the gun apart, reassembled it, and it works very smooth now. Didn't find anything wrong or out of place, but whatever it was, it now works just fine.

Thant was sure odd...

Break in is definitely a theory and I'll sometimes do it and sometimes not. I'm sure we've all noticed differences between barrels for their tendency to collect copper. I watched an interesting show the other night. A military sniper was talking about copper fouling. He only removed the copper from his barrel when the groups opened up. He currently had about 7-8000 rounds through the rifle he was using with out having removed the copper.

Hogwash!

Well, I'll take the flip side to the consensus so far. I do not do the extended barrel clean for most pistol barrels, but always do it for rifle barrels. If you serach this out on the net you will find that some premium barrel makers say yes, some say no.

The problem is that it will always be theory, as you cannot test it out on a single barrel. Its one or the other so you cannot do a side by side comparison. If you do it side by side with two different barrels, the fact that the barrels are different will foul the results. My thinking is why not, it does not hurt to do it other than a little extra time.

I don't know if MGM makes their own barrels or gets blanks from one of the premium makers. If the latter, then perhaps the folks who made the barrel know a little more about the way their barrels behave from doing the extended break in. In either case, if I am paying extra for a fine barrel, I see no harm in doing the process.

The other presumption here is that you want to wring all the accuracy out you can, and you know how to properly clean a barrel. If cleaning for you is running a steel bore brush down the bore, from the muzzle, with a jointed steel cleaning rod then you'll probably do more damage than good with all the extra cleaning ;^)

Craig

With the tight barrel and action. I had a REALLY tight barrel and action fit with a 7mm08 Bullberry barrel I had. I called Bullberry and Troy told me that the lugs were new and tight, as mention above. After a shooing section it worked like a dream.

Give a dance and see what happens… JMHO…

More damage can done to a barrel cleaning it than shooting it. I have a 6BR 15" barrel coming from MGM, they said it is a Green MT barrel blank. I have many custom rifle barrels. I will clean 1 shot and clean for 3 shots, then 2 shot and clean for 3 groups. then 3 shot groups. Then I am good to go. I hope the Green MT will do the same.

Mark