So the title says it all but let me now go into the details.

I recently became a member of the bolt action community after 12 years of no shooting. I decided to get my feet wet with this rig with the plans of getting a better rifle in the later future:

- Savage Stealth Evolution 300 Win Mag

- Atlas Bipod PRS

- Nightforce 7-35 ATACR with an illuminated

Tremor3 reticle

- Larue scope mount

- Area 419 Hellfire muzzle brake

- MDT V5 Buttstock

I also started reloading for the first time and after doing a ton of research and asking the right questions I average an SD of 7-9. The load that I originally worked up was the following:

Berger Hybrid 215gr

Norma Brass

Fed 210M primer

2.9 OAL (10 off the lands)

72.4gr of H1000

Muzzle velocity was 2860fps

(The node I found was 72.1-72.7)

Lab Radar chronograph used.

I wanted to really focus on the fundamentals of shooting so I never reached out beyond 100 yards. Starting off my groups were 1.5 MOA I went about 10 times if not more just shooting 5 round groups. I made tiny changes to my rifle and shooting style until I was finally shooting pretty consistent 1/2 MOAish (picture 3). I wanted to hit the range 1-2 more times before going to a longer range where I would start to learn to use my scope, reading the environment etc. Before doing so I made the great decision to clean my rifle (this is where is goes south).

SO NOW THE PROBLEMS STARTED...

I come from an infantry background and when your not shooting your cleaning so to not have cleaned my rifle yet was driving my gut crazy. After about 500ish rounds I decided to clean it. At the end of every range day I'd run the bore snake through it a couple times and that's it. Based off of research I went with boretech carbon and copper cleaner. It took forever for me to clean it.

When I went to the range that same load was shooting about 100-120 fps faster giving me pressure signs. The first couple rounds I attributed to possible cleaning solvents that I didn't get out burning but after a few rounds more it was just as fast and I had a primer blow out and I realized something was wrong.

I made another batch of 50 rounds to do load development again starting at the recommended 70.4 and even this load was shooting at 2900fps, 40-50 faster than my previous 72.4 load. I also started to see pressure signs shortly after, probably around 71.2 so I stopped. I had my rifle looked at by a gun Smith who checked for cracks with dyes and made sure everything was in spec which it was fine.

At this point I decided to do load development again and started it at 66.8gr going up by .4 up to 70.4 and this is when I finally started to make progress again. After being able to shoot the entire group of 50 rounds without pressure signs I shot my best 5 round group yet which was 70.0gr and it was shooting 2800-2812 fps (picture 4). I ran my bore snake through it before the barrel fully cooled like I normally do 4-5 times (possible mistake?) and called it a day.

Make note that after I cleaned my rifle, the first attempt at redoing my load development 70.4 was shooting 2890's-2900 and now at the end of this day 70.4 was shooting around 2800-2812

At this point I ran out of bullets but realized that the copper was possibly starting to fill in the imperfections of the barrel causing it to go back to the way it was or at least near it. With this in mind I decided to buy 3 boxes of nosler 180gr accubonds with the intent of fouling the barrel more and to do another 50 rounds 66.8-70.4 and compare it to my previous 50 and see what it does and base my next move on the data gathered. This theory was short lived as I started to have pressure signs with the factory ammo right away including blowing primers. The bullets were shooting about 150-200 fps faster than the boxes said they should.

I spoke to someone locally who said a lot of the ELR don't clean there rifles at all and If they do it's very rare and very mild and dont use copper cleaner so I decided to turn to you ELR guys/gals for some guidance.

So with all this being said... I've found myself moderately confused, mostly aggravated and entirely lost with my next best course or action. These are now my questions I have that I haven't been able to find through research...

1. Should i be running a bore snake through my rifle at the end of each range day?

2. Did i ruin my barrel?

3. Has anyone experienced this behavior from their rifle after a vigorous cleaning and if so how did ur story turn out.

4. What cleaning methods do you recommend. (I know this is a very subjective question with no right answer but I'm still curious to see if there is a trend among you ELR shooters)

I don't want to waste ammo and brass life if the barrel is trashed. I also want to learn from this and maybe educate someone else who reads this to prevent then from making the same mistake. Any input is welcomed.

As of right now, if no one gave me input I would make a couple loads at 70.0 go to the range and see If they are still shooting around 2800fps or if it jumped back up to 2900 from the bore snake being ran through. If it was 2800s I'd call it a day and make that my new load until something changes. If it was fast again around 2900 I'd run 50 rounds of 66.8 through it, or do load dev starting at 66.8 again to see If it slows down again.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, hope you enjoyed your beer(s).

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