bigcountry did say:
Like I tell everyone, this is a finicky cartridge. Don't expect it to be like a 308Win with 15fps velocity spreads. Get used to to those 70fps spreads. But when you find your combo, it can be very satisfying.
I do not know, on average, how many rounds a 300RUM can swallow before going off it's feed and throwing wide patterns. I have heard that this will occur in a 300RUM between 800 and 1200 rounds. Someone told me earlier that if I expected to get 3000 rounds out of a 300RUM, then maybe the 300RUM was not for me. I now acknowledge, that the gent was correct. I want to fire my deer elk rifle, at the range, throughout the year. It would not be unusal for me to put 1000 rounds through my rifle, between seasons. A finicky cartridge is simply not worth the stretch and it has nothing to do with the cost of rebarreling. Rebarreling only means that the exercise begins all over again. The only thing that may have helped, would have been an OAL gauge, but when I got into the 300RUM, I just didn't realize how finicky the thing was.
The 7mmWSM, although new to me, is very similiar to loading for a 30-06. Load up five or six hot loads and one or two of them will print inside 1" @ 100yds, or better. I have to put up with PITA situations at my clock shop, but I do not have to put up with same at the range.