Before going to the range with a new weapon-
1- Disassemble and clean with whatever you happen to prefer, provided that you have a little common sense, to ensure that whatever the factory coated the gun/parts in is removed. I do not know of any manufacturer that uses a quality lubricant, instead they use a protectant to prevent the formation of rust while being shipped/sitting on the shelf. It is a good idea to get this crap off your gun.
2- Clean the chamber and barrel to ensure that any little hangers-on from the manufacturing process are removed. A simple chamber brush on the chamber first, then wipe out with a wet patch. Then a few repetitions of a bore-brush, followed by a few patches.
3- Adequately lubricate all moving parts during reassembly. For details, there are numerous threads on the subject, and there are sure to be many more.
4- Conduct function check, which also has a few threads for details.
Break-in procedure-
1- Buy 500 rounds of quality ammo. I prefer M193 or M855 simply because I know it should work with 5.56 guns.
2- Ensure gun is properly lubricated. If in doubt, put a few drops into the oil holes in the BGC to ensure that your gas-rings are lubed, a drop or two onto the cam-pin, and a drop on the BCG rails. Don’t be worried about excessive lubrication- just ensure that lube is not dripping into the chamber. Excess lube will be gone by about shot #5, and anything that blows out of the gun before then will be stopped by your eye-pro (you all do wear ballisitic lenses when shooting, right?;)).
3- Fire a few rapid shots in an aggressive stance to check for proper function.
4- Begin zeroing procedure. This will probably take about 50 rounds if you are going to confirm at distance. I like to use 5 round groups for adjusting zero with 10 rounds for confirmation. I only fill the mags with 5 rounds (10 for the conf string) which lets me ensure that the bolt locks to the rear on each mag during live-fire.
Note- if you find that when you change positions from prone or bench to kneeling or standing you hit low, you are probably jerking the trigger, anticipating recoil by either flinching or bucking, or both.
5- Once the zeroing is done, increase tempo to get the gun warm. I let the gun cool every 200 rounds or so just because it makes the gun a little easier to work with if I decide to move something.
This is my current procedure for personal guns based off a little experience with the platform. My primary concerns with the platform are proper functioning of the FCG and smooth interface of moving parts. Secondary concern is to achieve a hard zero. Tertiary is to confirm precision potential.
