that's what i was wondering. i spent a lot of time and money on ammo thinking if i got all the copper out i would somehow end up with a great shooting rifle. i pulled out my old (40 yrs) 270 and when i cleaned it i discovered it had lots of copper fouling. i had never really done anything but swab it out with basic cleaner. i did clean the copper out and it shot a great group. nice old deer gun that i will never get rid of. i did ship my 338 back to remington yesterday. just couldn't get any consistency in groups. i was shooting anywhere from 2" @ best to 4 or 5". i talked to a guy that does a lot of competition bench rest shooting and he thinks it needs a new barrel. his suggestion was to give remington a shot at it and if that didn't work to go the custom barrel route. here's hoping this works. it's been a fairly long and painful experience to this point in time. i have always shot remingtons and felt they didn't make any bad guns so i tried to fight thru it before sending it back.