Quote:"Ask the "expert" as to how many 300ultramags that "he" has shot until the accuracy went away."
At this point, I am not worried about the correctness of what the "expert" said. What I need to do, is to establish if the bore is shot out or not, as elk season is only 5 months off. I have not fired the barrel hot. I fire 4 rounds and allow the barrel to cool for 20 minutes. I swab the bore with Hoppes #9 and dry same after every 12 rounds.
What I am looking at, if bore wear is the problem, is if I am loading the bullets close enough to the lands. I also need to tear the rifle/scope down and make certain that all is tight. I also need to have a gunsmith look at the chamber to see if I have already caused excess erosion.
In hindsight, I did not research the 300RUM enough, before I bought. I put at least 200 rounds per year through any hunting rifle that I own. Given what has been reported here, I would shoot out the barrel in five years! This is unacceptable, in terms of needing to rebarrel and begin the entire exercise of loading up a good round for a new barrel every five years. In the past, I have put more then a thousand rounds through rifles chambered for 30-06 and 270Win. I have loaded hot and have never experienced a loss of accuracy from those rifles. Losing accuracy within 1000 rounds is not worth the increase in range.
Any other suggestions?