Hi
Some time ago, I found (I'm an Internet Junkie) and read a rather long article on barrel break-in. It spoke at length about the metallurgical properties of a rifle barrel.
The author, a real, honest-to-goodness engineer, thought that breaking in a rifle barrel was all about, "educatiing," it about where its home was and how to get back there reliably. To this end, he focused mostly on the HEAT and STRESS of firing the weapon.
Pretty much what he said was to let the weapon cool back down after shooting. If I remember aright, he said that was why the one-shot and clean, two-shots and clean, five-shots and clean method actually worked - it allowed the rifle to COOL THOROUGHLY between sets of shots, what with the cleaning and defouling taking so long.
It was all about the crystaline structure of the barrel settling in during the heat and wringing-stress action of the bullet travelling down the barrel, and not so much about lapping/burnishing/polishing of the barrel itself. While the lapping/burnishing/polishing does occur, the author said that the crystaline structure settling in and the resulting reliable return to a home position was key to the rifle's accuracy and lacking of wandering/walking shots.
He said that cleaning every five shots or so was enough to keep down fouling, but a thorough cooling between shots for the first couple of hundred rounds was vital.
Being a technogeek myself, this appeals to me because:
1) I love sounding like I know what I'm talking about when I say stuff like, "crystaline structure of the barrel,"
2) I'm a dead slow shooter, anyhow, and
3) I've seen more barrels ruined by/during cleaning than I ever have seen ruined by being shot out.
I wish I could find this thing again. His description of the processes of barrel making and the materials used was great, and the whole thing was hip-deep in actual science and technology. The only thing I CAN find is
this article which seems to reference the original, but which seems to pretty much be a rah-rah piece for
Badger Barrels, Inc., which, in my opinion, NEEDS no rah-rah. (Badger has its own
break-in instructions, too.)