What’s your rifle “shake out” process?

[Lorddumbledick]

Disclaimer: I’m not talking about “break in”. I don’t believe in barrel break ins and I don’t buy anything weird that has a real need to be “broken in”.

What do you do with a new rifle the first trip to the range? Put 500 downrange and fall it good? 1,000? 1,500? Do you just zero and go home? Shoot groups? E

Basically what I want to know is, what do all of you guys put a rifle through on the flat range before you say “Yep, this thing is certifiably good to go”. Just trying to hear what other guys are doing

 

[nightchief]

I like to get 1000ish rounds down range in various types of shooting to ensure there is no issue with the rifle (cycling issues, feed trouble, etc.). Some slow fire, some rapid fire, varying temperatures if possible. Use different types of magazines. I've never done any sort of "torture" testing like driving over it, or dropping it from an airplane, shooting it from under water,etc.

I don't clean it during this period either. I may wipe some gunk off and I will inspect the bolt, carrier, gas tube, etc for signs of unusual wear. 1000ish rounds takes me one to two months.

I am not Mil or LE, so this is my personal civvy standard for a new AR.

 

[Gypsy EDC]

I used to be a 1k believer, but I found that failures seemed to present within the first 100-200 rounds, at this point for pistol (I know you specified rifle sorry for the drift) I've relaxed it to 500 total including a minimum of 200 of my EDC ammo. I would probably be comfortable with the same standard for my go to rifles, but I don't really swap those out and I already have well over 1k on them. The latest pistols I "cleared" for carry were CZP10c and CZP07. I personally like dot torture, reload drills, and drawing/ shooting from concealment 1-3 shots (sometime I combine all 3) I do my best to use the test ammo wisely to maximize ROI.

 

[shoobe01]

I have also become a less-cleaning guy, but during "shake out"* I clean/lube, fire a bit, clean/lube, fire more, clean/lube then (assuming no problems) put into service.

Cleaning is important first because rarely** is all machining residue removed (machine oils, degreasers, metal waste) from the factory and you want to remove all that, replace with nicely-lubed surfaces. For anything, not just guns***. Cleaning mid stream, during mechanical "shake out," things are wearing into place. There are going to be more and new waste products, metal flakes, etc. We clean that off to avoid excess wear.

A also, it is critical to pull it apart to inspect stuff. Things that are going to break soon will break and you want to see them, or the precursors (gouges, etc.). Look for damage, cracks, and too much metal scraped off or marking other components. Functional mechanical items do not just operate, but exhibit all signs of continued operation on inspection.

I agree c. 200 rounds is all you need to assure good operation, AND that I ignore all stoppages in the first 50 or so.

Now... if I get stoppages in or shortly past the first 100, it's not declared reliable until 500 rounds in. It happens. My example was a Century C93 which didn't do 2 rounds in a row for the first mag, but sloooowly got reliable, and I haven't had a single stoppage with any ammo under any conditions since it passed about 175 rounds. But, I didn't trust it until I got to 500. It was Century-fit, so needed the wear-in period to work.

Stoppages past 500, and we're not going to get fixed easily. Sell it (or repair, etc).

Cracks, gouges, etc. at ANY time, mean return for warranty work or so on as applicable.


* It is still mechanical break in, a term used in every other mechanically-inclined industry, but that seems to confuse everyone when it's guns.
** Rumor aside that they are perfect, even Glock says it's okay-to-preferable to remove the copper "grease" and do a clean/relube for break in. I have also seen plenty of metal flakes come off them. They are still machines.
*** From night vision to the kid's humidifier, once I unbox an item, I first remove all the normal-operation bits and lube them up properly. Battery screw on caps get dielectric grease, o-rings get whatever lube best applies, plastic-on-plastic get silicone, and so forth. Everything gets at least a basic shaking/brushing out, and a lot of times chunks of material and screws fall out of things.

 

[Ryan St.Jean]

First I give the item a cursory inspection and quick cleaning (wipedown/ lube). Next I take it out and shoot it. Nothing super scientific but just to make sure the gun goes bang and get it zeroed. Round count, say a couple hundred.

 

[nightchief]

Perhaps "number of rounds fired" isn't the best way to look at it. To some degree, the number matters, but other factors also matter. An AR may shoot just fine for 200-500 rounds if they are all slow fired from a bench. Issues may never present themselves. The more the shooter can push the gun, the more likely they are to find issues, if they exist.

As an aside, and this doesn't apply necessarily to the AR, but I have a higher end 1911, and the manufacures reccomneded break in is 300-500 rounds fired before field stripping. While I was conducting this break in, at about the 500 rd count, I was getting slugginsh or "slow motion" movement form the slide after firing. Upon inspection, I found a polymer "shock absorber" was added by the manufacturer to the guide rod and it disintegrated somewhere between 500 and 600 rounds fired. I didn't replace this part since its not needed.

 

[Wake27]

My beater PSA upper is the only one I’ve ever even really “inspected.” I put 500 rounds through it in fairly rapid succession as I figured heat would help highlight any issues, before really being satisfied.

I have recently included grouping all of my uppers. Typically I’d do enough to get them zeroed and then rarely shoot past 25m, but my last Noveske barrel had a flawed chrome application that was destroying accuracy. I’d put about 4K rounds through that barrel and it bothers me that I have no idea when it started, so grouping at 50 or 100 has become much more of a practice for me, especially for the new uppers.


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