This question gets asked frequently, so I thought I'd type a general response for the FAQ section of our web site, as well as for general distribution for those who ask directly. The following is a form letter written generically to answer most all of the questions asked regarding break-in" of Olympic products. If all of these questions do not apply directly to you, or to your situation, please forgive me for being long winded, but you mat find the information provided interesting just the same.

First of all, let me start by saying thank you for your patronage of Olympic Arms products and welcome to a growing family of Olympic Arms owners. Olympic Arms is in its 26th year of existence and we are proud to have been innovators for many of the things that are common in the AR industry today.

Things like free-floating aluminum handguards, flat-top upper receivers, pistol caliber uppers, the 7.62x39 caliber AR, were all developed here first. We are proud top have been such an influence on the AR scene that we all enjoy today and take a great deal of pleasure in helping our customers with questions such as the one you asked regarding break in procedures.

The Rifle Itself

Most often, break in questions are referring to the barrel of the weapons, not the weapon itself. But, the proper over all functioning of an Olympic Arms AR style weapon does require a bit of TLC to ensure the best, and proper performance.

The first thing you'll probably notice about your Oly AR is that it has a tight fit. At least tighter than what you are used to seeing in most other manufacturers rifles. The rear takedown pin may be tighter than usual. The charging handle, and bolt carrier fit a bit snug. When charging the rifle you feel a bit more resistance than you are used to. The magazine well is tighter than most, in fact some of your aftermarket mags won't even fit in the lower. These are all common comments made by first time Oly owners. Keep in mid these are NOT deficiencies, these are nothing more than indications of quality.

ALL Oly AR's are made to minimum blue-print/mil-spec dimensions to make every AR we produce a Match Grade firearm. Even the carbines! As a matter of fact, even our basic PCR-5 model (entry level 16" carbine) is match grade, and can and WILL compete accuracy wise with most other manufacturers 20" rifles, and some of their "match grade" or "accurized" products. What this means is that there is a short 200-500 round break in period for our AR's. For this break in period we recommend you use a high quality ammunition. I cannot recommend one specific brand as the best or "Olympic Arms endorsed" ammunition, but I can say that we have had the best luck with the following:

Hornady
Federal
PMC (US manufactured NEW, not remanufactured ammo)
Black Hills (same as above)

I can also say emphatically that the following ammunitions have given our customers problems:

Winchester (mostly white box, or the Q3131 ammo)
Wolfe
Any imported ammo
Any steel cased ammo.

As a matter of fact, your Oly product is only warranted for use with US manufactured brass cased, factory new (not RE-manufactured or reloaded) ammunition. Keep that in mind During the period of the first several hundred rounds, what is going on in your AR is that the internal parts are rubbing against each other, and anywhere there is metal to metal contact, these areas are smoothing out. Areas I can think of right off the bat are in the upper where the bolt carrier is running inside the upper on rails, the buffer inside the receiver extension tube, the bolt itself into the barrel extension, etc. These areas will be smoother as time goes on. The same thing will happen with the rear takedown pin is tight. This will also wear in, or loosen with age.

As with any mechanical devise, it should be lubricated. In the AR keep a light coat of oil on all the parts at all times. We also recommend a good quality metal treatment as well as lubricant. Again, we do not specifically endorse a single product, but we highly recommend the following:

FP-10 (manufactured by Muscle Products Corporation, of Butler, PA)
Tetra-Gun (oil and/or grease depending on application).

The Barrel

There are many ways that people recommend to break in their barrels. The following is our recommended method, but certainly not required. Additionally, your warranty does not hinge on this method of break in. I have many customers who shoot sub minute of angle from their standard button rifled AR barrels and have done NOTHING with regards to break in.

A note of warning: Breaking in a barrel does not make a barrel inherently more accurate. What it will do, it make it more consistent, and give it a longer life. For these reasons we do recommend a good quality break in procedure. We will not attempt to go into great detail with regards to why this is important, what it does to the barrel as far as breaking it in, and any more of the more scientific reasons and causes for and of this procedure. Many volumes of books have been written with regards to this and I will not attempt to re-re-write history yet again on these pages. I will simply give you our preferred method of barrel break in that our experience has proven to be beneficial to consistency and longevity of our rifle barrels.

The Fire, clean, treat/lubricate, and fire method.

1. Clean the barrel well. Make sure the patches come out clean and white. Use the cleaner of your choice, although we do not recommend ammonia-based cleaners. Use of a lead or copper solvent is OK; just make sure you have it cleaned/neutralized in the bore. Apply the lubricant/bore treatment. Dry the bore with a clean dry patch. Use the quality ammunition of your choice (some preferred brands mentioned above) and fire ONE round.

2. Repeat this process for the next 24 rounds. 3. At round 25, repeat step 1, instead firing 3 (three) rounds before cleaning and treating the barrel.

4. Repeat step 3 until you have fired 50 rounds total.

5. At round 51, repeat step 1, instead firing 5 (five) rounds between cleaning/treating the bore.

6. Repeat step 5 until you have fired 100 rounds total.

7. After firing round 100 (100 rounds total), clean and treat the bore as in step 1, and fire for group. Your barrel is now broken in, in accordance to our recommended method.

You may choose to use another method if you wish. Again, if you do choose a different method, or choose to accelerate the process this does not void your warranty. We do not recommend lapping of the barrel.

If you are interested, additional information can be found at www.riflebarrels.com.

I hope that this helps. If you have any further questions, or any comments please feel free to call us at 800-228-3471.