Why you should break in your handgun barrel

So you bought a brand new barrel for your handgun or possibly a brand new handgun. Did you know that every new barrel has a break-in period to ensure maximum accuracy and performance from your barrel?

It’s a good idea to break your barrel in first before heavy usage. In this video we’ll show you how.

The Break In Process

The break-in process smooths the bore of the barrel making it more resistant to buildup of copper from future bullet jackets. So how do we break the barrel in?

Well the process involves firing a few rounds through the pistol cleaning it with bore cleaner and a wire brush then rinse and repeat until the wire brush can slide through the barrel like butter. If you don’t do this break-in period, that is usually okay, but copper will accumulate in the bore of the barrel at a higher rate early. That will affect the accuracy of the barrel in the first couple 100 rounds.

The other method for breaking in a barrel is just shooting a lot of rounds through it, but taking the time to do this easy process will help maximize barrel performance and longevity.

Option Step: Polish your feed ramp before hitting the range

So we’ll start at home, I like to polish the feed ramps on my barrels especially if they are aftermarket barrels. Not every barrel needs it but it doesn’t hurt anything to do so. I have another video on how to polish your feed ramps so check that out if need be.

Step 1) Run Bore cleaner through the Barrel with a Wire Brush

Next I’ll run some Birchwood KC Gun Scrubber. You can use whatever bore cleaner you want through the barrel and I’ll run a wire brush through it make sure your wire brush is for your caliber, in my case 9 millimeter. Make sure that you have it on a rod that swivels.

I’ll run this through until the brush glides through smoothly this helps remove any extra material that might be present after the manufacturing process. Next we’ll hit the range.

Step 2) Fire a 5 round group

We’ll fire a 5 round group then repeat the process.

Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you’ve shot 15-20 rounds

At the range, disassemble and clean the bore. Run the brush through it, reassemble, and repeat 5 more rounds through it. Then the same process 2 or 3 more times. We’ll do this for 15 to 20 rounds total.

Results of breaking in the Barrel

You should start to see that the brush just glides through the barrel smoothly. This is when you know the barrel is broken in and ready to go. At that point you should be able to operate it normally. I hope this video was helpful to you, if it was please consider subscribing to the channel and have a great day.