Author Topic: New Pistol ? (Read 369 times)

Lizard3 · « **on:** July 28, 2005, 05:32:05 PM »

Question: Do new pistols and revolvers need "breaking in"?

Reason why I ask your experience on this subject is, I recently went down to the local range to shoot a couple of new pistols I have. The previously unfired Taurus 24/7 in .45 shot like crap. It was extremely all over the place. At 20yrds firing very slow, carefully taking aim and holding steady on target, the bullets had around 2 feet of varience in placement. Out of 12 shots, on average I hit within 4 inches of the center twice. 2 or 3 complete misses and others varying ALL over the place.

Using my fathers 40+year old llama 1911 ALL 7 rounds were within 4-6 inches of the center. Same or better with a used Bersa .380 I picked up cheap last week.

This was using very large man sized targets on an indoor well lit range.

I was told by a fella at work who did some gunsmithing back in the day that I should put 200 to 300 more rounds through it, then get back to him. What has your experience been with brand new pistols? I've never in my life shot that poorly and when switching immediatly over the the 1911 I had NO problems.

BTW, that Bersa is a sweet shootin little gun. I was pleasantly suprised by my under $170 purchase, while extremely ticked off at the 24/7...

Edit: I used 2 different kinds of ammo, winchester and remington, both were 230gr fmj.

rpm · « **Reply #1 on:** July 28, 2005, 05:42:59 PM »

The only thing firing 300 more rounds will do is make the springs softer, wear the firing pin and make the range owner some $. However, your aim may improve as you get used to the weapon.

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 28, 2005, 05:43:20 PM »

Yes, POI (point of impact) will change as the gun has rounds put through it. Its a very minor change, but it does happen.

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 28, 2005, 06:33:48 PM »

I know some guys who swear by "Breaking in a Gun".

However, know that breaking in a gun just isn't taking it to the range and firing it.

From what I've been told, you fire 2-3 shots and then completely clean the barrel like you've taken it to the range 10 times but never cleaned it.

I don't know how long to do this though. I've frankly never done this (or had a new gun for that matter).

Maverick · « **Reply #4 on:** July 28, 2005, 07:29:34 PM »

Yes there is a reason to "break in" a hand gun.

Example:

Revolver. This will cause the workings to smooth out and the trigger pull will lighten a bit. The inevitable rough spots on the machined surfaces wear together and get smoother. The trigger pull will lighten a bit and it gets easier to stay on target. The accuracy of the actual barrel won't really change, just the force required to pull the trigger. The line up between the cylinder and barrel also will not get better as the gun wearsm As the cylinder gets looser the accuracy will slip when the projectile bounces on the walls of the forcing cone into the barrel. This SHOULD take quite a bit of firing unless you fire heavy loads in a light revolver as a rule.

Auto. The slide rails will also wear together and become a bit looser. Depending on wehter it has a fixed barrel (stuck to the frame) or a moving barrel (Colt .45) that will also wear in a bit. After a bunch of rounds the looser slide will start to cause the movable barrel to align in different areas each time it is fired as it gets "sloppy". Most tuning of an auto is tightening the slide rails and fitting the barrel so it returns to the same spot each time.

I will fire a pistol at least 150 to 300 rounds before I trust it to work if I need to use it for defense. This is especially true for the autos I have as I want to make sure the magazines are reliable as well as the extractor adn any safeties. There is more to go wrong with an auto so I make darn sure it works without malfunctions 100% of the time. The revolvers are simpler in this regard but are harder to tune for accuracy.

Looking at the performance you listed for the one pistol it might have a barrel that is out of spec. I'd get it "slugged" to see if it isn't overbored. It sounds like the rounds are not getting fully engaged by the rifling. Were any of the holes keyholed slightly?

GtoRA2 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 28, 2005, 08:31:49 PM »

My sig was rock solid right out of the box.

my springfield 1911, shot better after a few hundred rounds. 1911s were the only ones I ever heard of needing to break in.

rshubert · « **Reply #6 on:** July 28, 2005, 09:45:45 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by rpm
The only thing firing 300 more rounds will do is make the springs softer, wear the firing pin and make the range owner some $. However, your aim may improve as you get used to the weapon.

I respectfully disagree, my friend.

Breaking in is extremely important. The machining processes used to manufacture anything leave microscopic burrs and stuff like that there on the contact surfaces of the gun. These are levelled and smoothed by use. An old gun (up to a point) is much smoother than a new gun. And, the movement of a spring actually hardens it, by the way.

Most guns are designed to shoot thousands of rounds, literally. A few years ago, when I was heavily into IPSC shooting, I would shoot up to 5000 rounds a year per gun, and I was not a dedicated pro. Those guys shoot up to 1000 rounds a week, which would be about 50000 rounds per year. Yes, they maintain the guns. But they last through it.

However, I think the original poster's problem has nothing to do with breakin. The 24/7 is a double action only pistol, striker fired. I owned one last year. Past tense. I had trouble with the extremely heavy and stagey action. The pull was heavy enough that I could see the frame flexing outward where the trigger bow passed through the magazine opening area. Really crappy triggers give really crappy results.

~~shubie~~

lazs2 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 29, 2005, 06:52:32 AM »

agree with mav here... the reason to break in a gun is to get the parts working against each other and smoothing em out... you can do just as well with a revolver by dry firing it a few thousand times at the bad guy on TV or... taking it apart and hand fitting it if you know what you are doing (VERY few do tho including some so called gunsmiths) better to just wear it in.

Autos are a little different... the sometimes don't function well out of the box and shooting em wears in the mismatched parts and burrs and allows them to function better.. It is also a good idea to make sure the gun is reliable..

as for accuracy... an auto should be about as accurate as it is gonna get right out of the box... more wear usually just makes it worse... sloppy lockup means less accuracy generaly..

but... barrels can be rough. shooting jacketed slugs may smooth it up a bit and increase accuracy.. there are lead slugs that you can buy that have a polishing compound imbedded into em... goingf from course to mild in about 50 rounds... they are just slugs tho.. not loaded ammo.. you need to reload. I have used em on rough bore before and they do help.

lazs

Lizard3 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 29, 2005, 04:00:23 PM »

So...If I can summarize, guns do need breaking in to some degree or another, but the gun should not be that innacurate.

Reckon I should get rid of it at the first opportunity?

capt. apathy · « **Reply #9 on:** July 29, 2005, 08:44:32 PM »

Mav pretty much covered it.

a couple things I'd add though.

auto's:
your sights are on the slide, not the barrel. breaking it in will 'seat the barrel into the slide' (not exactly right but I can't think of a better way to phrase it), so so they end up settling into the same position for each shot.

revolvers:
not exactly a breaking-in issue, but one thing to consider if a revolver tends to have large groups is that in some ways your revolver is 6 different guns.

try numbering the chambers on your cylinder and tracking them individual instead of just the 6-round load as a whole.

a few crappy guns I've had turned out to be fairly consistent when viewed this way. not that I kept them. they were sold fairly quickly. if my day has gone down-hill to the point I have to be shooting at someone, I'd rather not be having to keep track of what position the cylinder is in.

as the quality of the gun you buy increases, this becomes less noticeable. any guns I've had where it was easily noticed were either older or of dubious quality.

on any gun the first thing I do when I get them is break them down and use a honing stone or jewelers file to smooth out the action, particularly the trigger mechanism.
better quality guns should have it already done but I still prefer to tune them myself.

Dago · « **Reply #10 on:** July 29, 2005, 09:13:56 PM »

Breaking in a barrel correctly is important to accuracy in a rifle, but not sure if it is really as critical in a handgun.

dago

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #11 on:** July 29, 2005, 09:31:51 PM »

Well, the guy I knew halved his bullet spread just by breaking the gun in.