Breakin and Cleaning of New Rifle

Just purchased a new FN in 308 cal. Just wondering if you had any suggestions about:
1) Breaking my new 308.?
2) Cleaning my new 308.?
Note: The barrel is "moly coated."
Any info would be great!
Thanks, MIke

Mike - FN didn't include instructions?

I believe you'll find the barrel is actually "chrome lined" as in hard chrome. FN deserves much praise for managing to bring out a true match-grade barrel that is also chrome lined for very long barrel life. One of the things that makes their rifle different. Chrome lined bores are not new. M-16's have had them for years. What's different is that FN managed to do it without compromising match-grade accuracy. Seems like there's as many good ways to clean and break in a barrel as there are shooters. I'll go over a standard procedure that works well:

You'll need a bore - guide, a quality coated cleaning rod (Dewey), a jag, some quality patches, a bronze brush (some guys use nylon) and a good cleaner like Butch's or Shooter's Choice.

Always clean from the breech - remove the bolt. This avoids possibly damaging the valuable crown. If the crown gets dinged, accuracy will suffer.

Use the bore guide to keep the cleaning rod straight. Also keeps "goop" from running down inside the action/magazine.

Saturate a patch with solvent, put it on the jag and push it through. Do this several times. Then wait. Let the solvent work. You're cleaning both powder residue and bullet jacket material.

Start running more saturated patches through.

Then dry it with clean, dry patches.

If the barrel is heavily fouled you may well need the bore brush - some of my barrels seem to need one, some don't. Always push the bore brush all the way through - Never reverse direction in the bore.

Clean the action - Dewey makes a great little kit for cleaning inside the locking lug recesses. Get the bolt face/extractor good and clean too.

You can shortcut the whole barrel-cleaning thing with the use of one of the new wonder-cleaners like Wipe Out. Some of my shooting friends swear by those products, and their rifles shoot well, so why not? I just do it the old fashioned way.

For barrel "break in" - what you're really doing is burnishing the rough marks left by chambering the barrel. You're concentrating on the area of the bore right in front of the chamber. This is where most bore erosion takes place, and where most barrels eventually "shoot out." This rough area grabs at the copper jacket, and strips it from the bullet. If it stays rough you'll be fighting copper fouling forever.

You can break your barrel in by shooting a round, cleaning, then repeat.

Clean thoroughly and dry the bore & chamber area completely before shooting again.

Depending on the barrel, you may be able to do this 3 - 6 times, then start shooting groups of three, and cleaning after each series of three shots.

Shoot several groups, clean between and you should have a nicely broken in barrel which will reward you by shooting well w/o fouling.

I've had nice Krieger barrels break-in in about 6 shots, and rough Remington barrels that still weren't broken in after 100 shots - and never did completely break in. They were accurate, but plagued me with copper fouling as long as I had those barrels.

There are many ways to do this - but this way works well for me.

A fringe benefit is that by the time you're done breaking in the barrel, you may well have your 100 yard zero down pretty solid! :grin:

What do you guys use to clean the outside of the barrel, solvent? I've always used a silicone rag to wipe down the barrel but I don't think it is cleaning as much as it is coating.
Also, what about cleaning a synthetic stock??? Soap and water?
Mike :shock: