Barrel break in? TMS bullets?

[HoLeChit]

I understand the logic behind barrel break in, but I don’t see how it actually works. You’re not going to do a worthwhile amount of polishing or deburring with a flannel patch or a nylon brush. If you are scrubbing hard enough to deburr and polish you’re reducing the life of the barrel. However, I ran across a product that seems to make sense to me, and am curious as to what you guys think about it.

Specifically, I’m looking to use this on a AR build with a stainless barrel. A ballistic advantage premier 223 wylde stainless barrel to be exact.

https://www.davidtubb.com/tms-loadedammo-223

FinalFinish TMS [Throat Maintenance System]



This addition to the FinalFinish product line is intended for use by competition shooters and others who demand high performance from quality barrels. TMS greatly extends accurate barrel life. TMS is also the perfect complement to FinalFinish. On a factory barrel, TMS will help to maintain the smoother internal barrel finish that resulted from its FinalFinish treatment. These bullets are coated with a specially chosen single polishing compound that will smooth and maintain the throat in your firearm, thereby significantly offsetting the effects of throat erosion -- the number-one culprit in barrel wear and accuracy loss.



Barrel wear is really throat erosion. The throat in a rifle barrel is an area several inches long ahead of the chamber. This portion of the barrel receives the full force of the firing process. Extreme temperatures, blazing gases, and radical expansion eat into barrel steel causing stress cracks, pitting, and roughness. Under high magnification the throat starts looking like cracked mud plates in a dried up lake bed! The edges of these plates tend to cup upward and form teeth like a file. These teeth grab and rip the bullet jacket. When the bullet jacket is damaged in this way, bullet integrity is compromised and poor accuracy can result.



FinalFinish TMS bullets are specially engineered to smooth over these sharp teeth, helping restore and maintain throat integrity. Two or three TMS rounds every 200-300 shots will greatly extend the accurate life of your barrel, whether it is a match-grade hand-lapped barrel or an out-of-the-box factory rifle. TMS also significantly improves the land's signature mark on the bullet (when seating the bullet into the rifling) and hence eases the bullet's transition into the bore. When this occurs, better accuracy results!



TMS is for use in any barrel, production or custom, at any time during its life as a preventative maintenance routine. One or two rounds of TMS used every few hundred shots keeps the throat smoothed, which will prolong the accurate life of your barrel. Think of it like changing the oil in your car on a regular basis.



"I have experienced much longer accurate life from a barrel using TMS, and much easier cleaning. It's a hard concept to accept for some people, but it's true: the more frequently this product is used the relatively longer the barrel will last." David Tubb

 

[JEVapa]

A cloth patch and brush aren't going to knock down and polish out any burrs or whatever. Some people hone their bores and Tubbs has his barrel revitalizing kits like the abrasive bullet kits you linked.

The way we used to break in our M24s and MK11s is, in addition to a carbon solvent like Hoppes or Shooter's, we used a good copper solvent like Sweet's. Copper fouling removal is key because that's what is hanging up on the burrs and causes issues later on. We would do 100 round break-ins and then zero. I don't think you need that many but that's what we did. I've done 40 round break-ins and not noticed anything, but I used Sweet's the whole time.

The projo will knock down and smooth out the burrs but the copper solvent will remove the copper and let just the projo hit the burr instead of the projo hitting the burr and copper build up. <--this is what your doing to break it in.
The sandpaper bullet kits just speed up the process.

During break-in, you wanna use a bore paste like JB to polish once or twice. A little jar will last forever.

Real jags, good coated or fiberglass rods, and bore guides are key.

Given the jags, Rods, Bore guides, bronze brushes, you will need a good carbon solvent and a good copper solvent minimum. There's a whole technique for using these and a lot of people have their own magic of cleaning a bore, but most also probably do it wrong.

 

[HoLeChit]

I just double checked the manufacturers website, and it looks like I only have to do 18 shots for break in. For some reason I was thinking they were saying 100 or so.

For a stainless steel barrel, you can follow this sequence:

• Start with 5-10 one-shot cycles: Fire a single round, then clean the barrel.
• Proceed to 1 three-shot cycle: Fire three rounds in succession, then clean the barrel.
• Finish with 1 five-shot cycle: Fire five rounds in succession, then clean the barrel.