Barrel break-in?

American Handgunner, Jan-Feb, 2009 by Daniel R. Friemoth

I've read articles on rifle barrel break-in procedures, but I've never seen an article on handgun barrel break-in. Is there such a thing?

Daniel R. Friemoth

Via e-mail

Only if you're really bored. Frankly, most handguns are simply not accurate enough to have it matter. In the early days of stainless steel in handguns sometimes you could lap a stainless barrel so it wouldn't lead-up as much (I used to use Brownell's JB Bore Cleaner on a tight patch), but I never noticed any change in accuracy. Perhaps if you had an ultra-accurate small-bore rifle-caliber TC or other single shot a bit of break-in might be good, but even then I highly doubt it. We've even had writers test the need to break-in a rifle's bore and frankly, the results were inconclusive when a rifle is used as a sporting arm. It just didn't seem to matter. Target shooting appears to be another animal entirely. Editor