Cheap gun as sacraficial lamb?

[300wmSlick]

I'll start out by saying I looked through the first several pages on here and couldn't find anything that might point me towards an answer....
I was listening to Frank talking about Ackley Improving on the drive home from work early this morning on the podcast and I had a thought/question come to mind, how well would it work/would it be worth it if it would work, if you bought a cheap(er) gun in the same caliber to save your barrel on your good gun that you're reloading in Ackley Improved for?
I understand that you have to fire-form the brass to reload AI, but does it have to be in the same gun? Or can you use a cheaper gun to help save you some rounds on your barrel life?

 

[RSA-Raven]

Hi,
I do not have any Acley rifles, but my firends who run .243AI shoot sub MOA groups with .243Win ammo and extract .243AI brass, so they get good use of the shot while fireforming. Thus over here in SA where shooting is expensive, you get better use of ammo and you form in the correct chamber.
Just my 2c
Rgds,

 

[Milo 2.5]

I've done my share of fireforming. I doubt I'd incur the expense of a dedicated action and barrels to fireform. Reason is as guy above said, you can accurately fireform brass when the barrel is new, then fireform brass for the next chamber at the end of your barrel life if desired.
The last time I fireformed 400 - 6 comp match brass at the end of a barrel, I had just under 175 bucks in components to do it, brass not included. I may have been at 210 using the regular components. A FF load can be damn accurate, so it may not be a waste of barrel life.
Edit: You also have the circus of fireforming, my last time I filled a cooler full of ice and water bottles. Shoot 10, pour water on the barrel close to the action. Thank God the bench I was using sloped away from me, one guy with a garden hose and one loading mags I would have 400 formed in 45 min. I did get 300 done in an hour by myself though.

 

[Sheldon N]

I run several different guns that require fireforming. My approach has been to use the first couple hundred rounds of barrel life for fire forming, since that's when the barrel is breaking in and speeding up anyway. You can use it for practice, or shooting a smaller club match, or whatever. All my fireforming loads have been very accurate. Then once you're done with fireforming your barrel is ready for load development.

The other thing to do is simply hang onto an older barrel as a fire forming barrel, after you've worn it out. That depends on how much you shoot and how many pieces of brass you're forming.