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Barrel Break-In

Barrel Break-In for the John Hancock Rifle and our Prefit Barrels:

Patriot Valley Arms recommends that new users follow the break-in procedure for the JHR and our barrels is below. Before any rounds are fired through the rifle it is important to follow the pre-fire cleaning step before the rifle is fired for the first time.

  • Upon opening the box and confirming that the Included Items are all present owners should put a loose, lightly oiled patch through the bore from breech to muzzle twice. Use a fresh patch each time.
    • This step is critical to ensuring that any debris from packing materials which may have migrated into the bore and chamber area does not end up being fired through the bore.
    • Failure to perform this step may cause permanent damage to the barrel and damage related to that is a disqualifying condition for the rifle’s warranty.

Break-In is relatively simple. Users need a safe firing range to discharge the rifle on to start. The suggested equipment for cleaning your JHR is found in this chapter.

At a distance where the rounds will be ensured to impact the berm perform the following steps:

  1. Be sure that the bore is free from any/all obstructions.
  2. Load 1 round and fire it into the impact mound.
  3. Repeat steps 1-2 for five (5) rounds.
  4. Using BoreTech Eliminator™ bore solvent clean the bore of the rifle with wet patches until it comes out clean. Lay out the patches in order of use in order to get a visual line-up of the dirty patches coming out of the bore.
  5. Repeat Steps 1-4 two (2) times so that a total of 15 rounds have been fired and the bore has been cleaned three (3) times.
    1. The total number of patches used for the 1st (5) rounds fired will be larger than for the last 5 rounds fired (rounds 11-15). If this is not the case repeat steps 1-4 until that is the case.
    2. Typically the barrel cleans up in about 6-10 patches on the first 5 rounds and about 3 patches on the 11-15th rounds fired.
    3. Once Steps 1-5 have been accomplished the barrel is “broken-in” as far as fouling is concerned and cleaning is only necessary as the group sizes of the rifle dictate that cleaning needs to be performed again.
      1. Typically this is every 150-500 rounds depending on chambering however that is not a hard and fast rule. Each barrel is a little different and owners will need to get a feel for how their barrel wants to shoot.
      2. Patriot Valley Arms strongly discourages the use of a breakin method such as “shoot 1 clean 1” type where the cleaning is performed after every round fired for a given number of rounds. This is detrimental to the life of the barrel and the overall accuracy of the barrel.
      3. Patriot Valley Arms strongly encourages the use of a bore guide for use in guiding the cleaning rod through the breech of the rifle barrel.
      4. Patriot Valley Arms strongly discourages cleaning of the JHR barrel through the muzzle, all barrel cleaning should be performed through the breech of the rifle with care taken to ensure that cleaning solution does not get spilled/dripped/slopped/etc into the trigger of the rifle.