Well, I was able to wind this test up today after trap shooting. I drove on out to the rock pit and set up the table and the target.

Actually I was glad to get this over because part of me was really worried about the gun going off - but for the most part I was positive.

Remember this gun was loaded on Saturday 1-6-07 and has been in out since then. Yesterday I was a little more concerned than I wanted to be, the gun had been out all day in14 degrees and lower temps... It snowed on it a bit also.Then late that afternoon it was taken from the deck to the garage - temp in the garage was 36F. It stayed in the garage for 2 hours warming??? up. When I went out to get it from the shop it was 34F - then brought it into the rec room 66F - In my mind if failure was going to occur it was going to be now. But, as I observed it standing in the room the scope never fogged up so I remained confident.

Remember the scope was only bore sighted as I had just recently put it on the leupold base.

Setup at 25 yards - placed the primer and pulled the trigger - it felt really good and was I happy! Loaded two additonal shots to check accuracy and group - you can see the results. Moved the target to 50 yards - but did change bullets - I changed .451 300grain Speer SP bullets. I touched off two of these. Made a scope change (4 clicks right) shot another 3.

I really believe the thing that made this work is the gun never went from really cold to really warm at any time, but the gun did come in the house every evening. This is the same senario that occurs during hunting season - the gun comes from the field to a cold pick up cab warms slowly in the truck cab as the cab warms - Might repeat this process 2 or three times a trip and then finally goes in the house when I get back.