Thanks to some great debates on HW, I decided on the 22-250 left hand Remington SPS. I rounded up the scope and Warne rings & bases, and was waiting for a good day to go shoot. I decided today was the day. I mounted and boresighted the package and did a quick cleaning. Settled in on the 100 yard range, first 3-4 shots were walking rounds to the bull. Once I got it dialed, I started 4 round groups between thorough cleanings. I had read quite a bit of info on here and other sites regarding barrel breakin. I have broken in many barrels before, and never really paid much attention to following a certain process. This time, I decided to see what would happen if I followed the advice of many. I started with a clean barrel, and fired 4 rounds. I cleaned with Butch's Bore Shine, and it took about 10 patches before they were coming out clean. 4 more rounds, and repeat. I did this through 8 cycles, allowing the barrel to cool about 10 minutes between rounds. As I neared the end of my session, I noticed that the patches were coming clean in 2 or 3, instead of the 10+ it was taking initially. I didn't brush the bore as some mentioned. I didn't have a brush so I used a "scrubbing" action when I ran the Bore Shine down the bore. I also noticed that as I went along, the Bore Shine patches were less and less dirty after passing through the bore.
What does this all mean? I am not sure. But as I read in several articles, posts, blogs, etc, things progressed just as those said it would. I am not a tack driving nut, I am a hunter, so hitting a flea on the hind end of a coyote at 650 yards is not important to me. If I can hit a prairie dog out to 300 yards or so... I'm happy. I will continue shooting factory ammo for now. If nothing else, I will be building up my brass stash. All in all, a great day at the range. Weather was nice, not too crowded, and now I have Saturday open to do Honey-Do's (oh boy). My best group is pictured here. If I can get that dialed down to a dime, I'll be happy. The scope is a Nikon 6x18 BDC, and I really like it. It's my first Nikon scope. Next for this rifle is a Mcmillan A2 Tactical stock and a nifty camo paint job. (I'll be looking for advice on how to do a nice camo job. Someone should post a "tutorial".)
