This is a brand new rifle out of the box. I removed the factory sights so that I can install a large scope on it. I cleaned the barrel and then fired 7 shots to get the scope sighted in, then the following loads were fired through it. No cleaning was done in between groups at all. The velocity difference before and after lapping was very small – smaller than the difference between two shots in the same group, so I included only one velocity reading. Five 5-shot groups were fired with each powder charge.

The barrel was then completely cleaned and 15 shots were fired using 800-grit, then the barrel was cleaned again and 15 shots were fired using 1200-grit. The load we used was 6 grains of GREEN DOT. This load gave us a velocity of 1576. I ran a patch with Hoppes # 9 and then a clean one after every five shots fired.

Then the same loads as we used before fire lapping were fired for both groups and velocity.

This rifle was owned by at least three previous owners. I have no idea how many rounds were fired through it. Externally it looked in very good condition, and I checked the bore with a bore scope and that looked in very good condition too. There was no sign of any throat erosion at all, so I would presume that this rifle has not been fired very much.

No attempt was made to accurize the rifle at all, I just cleaned the barrel and put the scope on it.

We followed a different procedure with this rifle. I used the Nosler 95-grain Ballistic Tip bullet with 12 different loads before fire lapping. Then I picked the best load and fired five 5-shot groups with it. I used this same load after fire lapping.

Five, 5-shot groups with 44 grains of Reloader 19 were fired. I then cleaned the barrel and then fired 10 shots with 800-grit and 10 shots with 1200-grit. The barrel was cleaned and then five 5-shot groups of the same load were fired. These are the results.