Do you service a brand new gun before break-in?

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Seadog

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What do you do & why?

Dry patch down the barrel, oil the rails or internals, full clean & strip, OR just go shoot it?

Also, what is your break-in process? I'm mainly thinking off the shelf handguns and rifles. Obviously some people go to great lengths for their competition barrels, but that isn't me.

I don't really have a system per say, so I was curious what the community thinks. Would have done a poll but wanted to leave it open ended.
For a pistol run a patch through the barrel. Make sure anything that needs oil gets oiled and then shoot it. For a rifle I’d probably give it a look over to make sure there were no unexpected surprises from manufacturing. No machining particles. Then still run a patch through the barrel and look the bolt over. Oil as needed. Then send em.
 

Shinneryfarmer

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Depends on the gun with me, most get a complete cleaning before firing. A new long gun that I'm hoping for good accuracy from will also get my standard breakin cycle.
Fire one shot clean barrel X 10
Fire 3 shots clean barrel X 5
Fire 5 shots clean barrel X 3
Then Shoot the Heck out of it.
The explanation for doing this is personal experience and some debate it. I was helping with a hunt set up for under privileged kids many years ago. The organizers got Remington, Ruger and Winchester to donate 2 rifles each. They also had scopes and other gear donated. A senior gentleman ( a gunsmith and long range shooter)and me mounted the scopes and sighted in the rifles. During the scope mounting we got in the discussion of breakin which I believed was unnecessary so we made a test out of it. One of each rifle being they were same model guns from each manufacturer would just be sighted in. The other would go thru the breakin cycle. I was impressed to say the least each gun that went thru the breakin cycle held tighter groups than the other gun not broke in. Maybe we just picked the best barrels out each pair of rifles but odds are against it.
Anyway if you think it will help what will it hurt to try and gain that little extra bit of accuracy.
 

sh00ter

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Do you run oil or grease on the rails of a pistol? I find that some guns prefer grease to run better.

Also, glocks usually have the OEM antiseeze on them from the factory. Does anyone use oil instead or do you run those as-is on the first outing? For that matter, does anyone just use antiseeze on any pistol in place of oil?
 

ttown

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I don’t after all they have a test cartridge in a lot of guns they tested from the factory like glocks and signs.

Used yes I do clean them.
 

Buddhaman

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Lubricate the moving bits and go shoot. I’ve had a few guns that were poorly oiled from the factory. Also, function check magazines since some factory mags are worse than aftermarket. I had to trim the spring on a few magazines to get the full capacity while being able to rack the slide (spring prevented the rounds from compressing so slide couldn’t rack). Break-in is shoot and clean. See the shiny spots and polish those. Shoot some more.
 

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