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As a follow up to the above information... After you have taken the time to polish/break in your barrel, you can then experiment with different brands of bullets to find which one gives you the best groups. Make sure to do this off a shooting bench with a rest. Use paper targets so you can track the group size. Aim at the same spot every time. At this time you are not trying to sight in your rifle, you are experimenting to find which ammo gives you the best groups. I would usually shoot about 15 rounds of each brand, clean the barrel, change the paper target and mark the target with the bullet info (brand etc). Remember that the first couple of shots of each brand will probably be fouling shots or flyers. A flyer would be a shot that is outside your main bullet group. So don't use those first couple of shots to judge the grouping of the rest of the shots. After trying several brands you can then check your target sheets to determine which brand gives the best group. You will be surprised at the various groups. You can then sight in your rifle with with the ammo that gives you the best group.
Ive often heard it takes 20+ rounds of .22lr when switching ammo under any circumstances to properly foul the barrel for that specific type of ammo to settle into how it can truly expect to perform optimally.
 
Some didn't learn much with the OBama .22 pandemic shortage, several years ago. Those who did learn something, at least, must have been Boy Scouts and learned the phrase, "Be Prepared" ! :

They grew up to be:

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I can usually get a pretty good idea of the bullet grouping with 10-15 rounds. 20 rounds would work also. Remember, we are talking about everyday rifles, not expensive target rifles. Competition shooting is a whole different ball game.
 
OP:
Is there a specific or recommended way of breaking in a 22lr rifle?

Is it needed?

I can usually get a pretty good idea of the bullet grouping with 10-15 rounds. 20 rounds would work also. Remember, we are talking about everyday rifles, not expensive target rifles. Competition shooting is a whole different ball game.

Agree to disagree ;) as op stated. Pretty open ended. I think he was talking in general.

I do remember him mentioning a savage or something cant remember specifics (and too lazy to find it) but the nature of the question is kinda hair splitting seeking top performance anyway.. So :s0013:
 
I would also mention that a nice hand lapped barrel shouldnt really have many if at all defects or burrs.
And also that if you care to try it brownells makes their awesome JB bore bright and JB bore compound. These are basically micro fine polishes made specifically for cleaning and polishing bores. I personally love this stuff. Even in my shotguns.
Its basically like hand lapping but using cloth instead of lead.

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I would also mention that a nice hand lapped barrel shouldnt really have many if at all defects or burrs.
And also that if you care to try it brownells makes their awesome JB bore bright and JB bore compound. These are basically micro fine polishes made specifically for cleaning and polishing bores. I personally love this stuff. Even in my shotguns.
Its basically like hand lapping but using cloth instead of lead.

View attachment 835975
I bought an older pistol that had some slight rust pitting in the barrel. I decided to pour a lead slug in the barrel. The slug matched the rifling perfectly. I then attached the slug to a cleaning rod and used it to lap and polish most of the pitting out of the barrel. It was a two day project and very tedious as I used 4 different grits of polishing compounds. The barrel polished up really nice and the pistol was still very accurate.
 
I bought an older pistol that had some slight rust pitting in the barrel. I decided to pour a lead slug in the barrel. The slug matched the rifling perfectly. I then attached the slug to a cleaning rod and used it to lap and polish most of the pitting out of the barrel. It was a two day project and very tedious as I used 4 different grits of polishing compounds. The barrel polished up really nice and the pistol was still very accurate.
yeah theres even Eutectic metals you can buy, specific alloys that will even shrink ever so slightly so when coumpound or grit is added its more towards original size. theres a great one here in the northwest called Hi tech. they supply bloeing for things like fixtruring turbine blades for machining. (not that Bloeing makes thier own engines yet) i use these for casting chambers. they work fantastic just dont use a detergent "cleaner" oil. use a straight up pure mineral oil it wont stick to the walls.
 
Getting back on track, concerning .22 rimfire barrel break-in. Most .22 rimfire barrels, these days are either "cold hammer forged", or "button rifled", so the only actual cutting done is when the chamber is reamed into the breech end. During that actual metal cutting process the reamer is cutting in a clock-wise direction, so as the reamer begins to lose its edge, it will often produce a slight roll-over burr on the trailing, cutting edge of the lands in the barrel. Consider, the lands in a .22 rimfire barrels are only 0.0020 to 0.0025 thousands of an inch high:

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These lands don't have the sharp edges that "cut-rifling" edges will develop when a hooked carbide cutter is pulled through the bore to create said lands to their final, proper depth, usually done 0.0001 deep with each pass, times the number of grooves the barrel will receive. That's when proper lapping will indeed pay off to remove sharp edges and burrs, and even-out, the bores diameter.
So, from my findings, using a bore scope on new .22 rimfire barrels, the only true area that may need some judicious roll-over burr removal with careful lapping, might be in the area of the little red arrow in the above picture. Or, they can be left as received with the hope that the flame from the .22 rimfire gunpowder, being ignited, will eventually burn off that slight burr and minute amounts of lead will no longer be stripped off the .22's bullet bearing surface as it passes over that burr.
Lapping a .22 rimfire bore, especially "fire-lapping" with grit imbedded bullets has been known to move the leade forward as much as ¼ of an inch, to the point where the fired bullet will need to jump forward, "freely", before it engages the actual rifling, which will NOT help with accuracy in the least.
 
I bought a Kidd target barrel some time ago. There were not any break-in procedures listed. The first 100 rounds weren't very impressive and I started to get concerned. After 200 rounds it started to settle down and print some decent groups. After another 100 rounds I was down to 3/8' groups. This group is ave. for me. This barrel likes 1) Lapua Center X, 2) Eley, 3) CCI Green Tag. I run one wet patch and two dry ones down after each 100 rounds.

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One thing I was told is to try high velocity rounds in my Savage 64F. Velocitor more specifically but I'm unsure of other .22 ammo that is high velocity at the moment. It wasn't meant to break in the barrel but to prep the recoil spring. Now I don't know how much credibility this holds but for a new gun that wasn't spitting out spent rounds, the ejector must be needing more oil or something as well but so far I'm not having issues. Also the same person who told me this info, broke down my rifle to get all the parts working well, make sure there weren't any factory burrs or whatnot. Rifle just needs to have oil if you're running that cheap ammo and clean it. Take the time to get to know your gun well.
 
Well, I know Ruger Mark pistols pretty darn good, and have learned over the 50+ years of working on these various iterations, that when NEW, the springs, especially the recoil spring in the bolt needs to be exercised. These springs when first installed are quite a bit longer, by design, so they need to develop what the spring manufacturer refer to as "set", or better yet, working length. So, over the last many years I recommend to my customers who receive a new Ruger Mark pistol is that they first shoot several hundred CCI Mini-Mags through their new pistol. Now, there's no set number of rounds that will get the job done, but anywhere from 200 to 400 rounds and then after that, try some CCI Standard ammunition to see if the pistols runs OK with those now.
WHY CCI Mini-Mags? Those are the rounds Ruger uses after a Ruger Mark pistol has been sent in for some reason as their test/verifying ammunition and if function is fine with a magazine full of those, the pistol gets shipped back to the customer.
One thing Ruger does not want Ruger Mark pistol owners to use is "hyper velocity" rimfire, those with FPS velocity 1450 and above, so stay away from Velocitors and Stingers, because as Ruger has found, those cartridges create too much "recoil impulse energy" and the bolt beats the snot out of the bolt stop pin at the top of the mainspring housing assembly. I have a bolt stop pin here that a customer admitted using a LOT of Stingers in his Ruger Mark II 5½ Target pistol. That pin is slightly bent, and it's very visible, but what's not visible is the slightly elongated hole in the top of the receiver for that pin to protrude. A bolt stop pin is easily replaced for around $12.00, a new receiver costs many times more than that.
As always, it's your pistol and you can treat it as you want to.
 
I bought a Kidd target barrel some time ago. There were not any break-in procedures listed. The first 100 rounds weren't very impressive and I started to get concerned. After 200 rounds it started to settle down and print some decent groups. After another 100 rounds I was down to 3/8' groups. This group is ave. for me. This barrel likes 1) Lapua Center X, 2) Eley, 3) CCI Green Tag. I run one wet patch and two dry ones down after each 100 rounds.

View attachment 852521
Phred,

I use many of Tony Kidds parts, triggers and barrels. I feel they can't get much better than that. I also use his :tang attachment" that he sells to eliminate barrel droop when a heavy 0.920 diameter barrel has been installed to assist the only action screw that Ruger provides:

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By the way "Phred", that Ruger revolver L@@KS great. Was that done by Turnbull?
 

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