Savage target action, Right bolt Left port, 26" bull barrel, 223 Rem, 9" twist, 2500 rounds.

I bought this rifle about 2 1/2 years ago and have been able to shoot .5moa groups with pretty much any bullet/powder/primer combination I have tried. This spring, at about 2200 rounds, the groups started to open up. Since I'm always trying new loads (new bullets in this case) it took a while for me to realize it wasn't just the bullets. I loaded a batch of my "go to" 73 grain Bergers and couldn't shoot 1 MOA! Got the comparator out and discovered that to get the bullets to the lands I had to load them .040" longer than I did a year ago! I haven't borescoped the barrel yet, hope to do that before it makes the transition to scrap metal.

This rifle has always had a "long throat", I never could load 52gn boat tails out to the lands, they'd fall out the end of the case.

Curious what experiences the folks here may have had.

Oh yeah, Jim an NSS was nice enough to get a Shilen ordered for me 2 months, 1 day, and 7 hours ago, not that I'm counting.