Howa Barrel Break-in

[Oso Polaris]

Has anyone used David Tubbs Final Finish impregnated bullets to smooth out their Howa Mini factory barrel?

[JSH]

Never had any of the three of mine to show terrible rough bores.

[Oso Polaris]

I have seen a fair number of posts where the barrel break-in takes 150-200 rounds before barrel settles down and shoots consistently. Typical indication of rough barrel (tooling marks, burs, etc.) Unfortunately, I don't own a borescope and I don't want the OCD that develops with owning one. My experience is that majority of factory barrels benefit from lapping to remove the imperfections of mass production. I can accomplish this by either hand lapping or by shooting enough bullets down barrel to smooth out the rough spots.

I was hoping to quickly stabilize barrel performance before making effort to begin load development. Thought Tubb's bullets might be the new better mouse trap then spending hot afternoon at shooting bench with plinking rounds, cleaning solvent and J-B paste.

[Klem]

Oso,

How does it group?

[Oso Polaris]

Oso,

How does it group?

Good Question - I have no idea. This is a budget build for young niece. It is brand new, and I am waiting on scope rail to show up. I have seen enough posts on barrel performance that I thought I would be proactive. I was just about to order some J-B paste to lap barrel during break-in when I remembered a conversation with fellow shooter who used the Tubb's bullets. I took a look at Tubb's website and their recommendation is to break-in new barrel with their bullets, which I assume in part is to avoid any copper fouling that will interfere with lapping compound on bullet making direct contact with the steel of the barrel.

With our ammo/reloading supply shortage, I hate idea of waste 100-200 bullets just to get gun broken-in like I read about in some of the posts.

[JSH]

My 65G barrel has maybe 20 rounds through it. First three shot chasing zero. The others were shot by me and a friend, initial groups looks like it is going to be boringly accurate. I use wipeout, saw nothing alarming when cleaning.

Howa Mini 222, I get my act together on the bench and it will be an easy sub MOA, picked my head up off the stock last week flier, but the others all went into a nice hole a dime would cover.
The 200 yard group was about 1 1/4”.

It’s not a custom barrel as you note, you don’t have a bore scope, nor have you shot it to see how it shoots. Yet you will by guess and by golly lap it when there is possibly no issue. So how will you know if you “fixed” anything?

Do as you wish and good luck with your project.

[A5BLASTER]

I have seen a fair number of posts where the barrel break-in takes 150-200 rounds before barrel settles down and shoots consistently. Typical indication of rough barrel (tooling marks, burs, etc.) Unfortunately, I don't own a borescope and I don't want the OCD that develops with owning one. My experience is that majority of factory barrels benefit from lapping to remove the imperfections of mass production. I can accomplish this by either hand lapping or by shooting enough bullets down barrel to smooth out the rough spots.

I was hoping to quickly stabilize barrel performance before making effort to begin load development. Thought Tubb's bullets might be the new better mouse trap then spending hot afternoon at shooting bench with plinking rounds, cleaning solvent and J-B paste.

Here is my suggestion. Grab up a 200 round box of hornady American gunner, go to the range, leave the cleaning supplys at home, sight in and enjoy the afternoon shooting 200 rounds.

Safe the brass for reloads, go home clean bore and chamber, your ready to work up sub moa groups now.

[Klem]

Oso,

Yes, don't fix something that may not be broken. Shoot a few groups first and then make a decision.

Normal shooting is going to do that anyway. It may take a few more rounds to fill in all the micropores with copper and smooth out the machining marks but it will all get there eventually.

(I wonder if Tubbs uses these bullets on his own barrels).

[Laman]

That was going to be my question, have you shot it yet? My mini Grendel and two others I am familiar with shoot sub MOA with no regimented breakl-procedure. Cleaned the bores fired a couple of shots cleaned again and then fired away. Honestly even with the factory 123 sst we could see these guns were shooters within the first 40 rounds. A little load developement and we've each got several loads that are MOA or below, very accurate for the hunting they will do. Note we are not trying to make benchrest rifles out of these Mini's, that's not what they were designed to do.