It's all good.

I hunt a clean barrel. (My Daddy taught me never to sleep while a gun is dirty). My current "sporter weight" deer rifle drifts left as it heats up after the third shot. I can shoot 1/2" to 3/4" three shot groups on a 1" target plaster but a five shot group, 20 to 30 seconds between shots, invariably is 1-1/2". Fresh & clean or dirty after cooling down.


Can't remember the last time I needed a second shot on the same day of deer hunting. ;-) Twice I've had to drag two deer out. Never again.

One thing I have noticed is that if I forget to bump the stock when torquing the action screws that the first shot will be high. I was playing around to see if it had a favored torque value and discovered this. One of the reasons I will be doing a bedding & pillar job after the deer season.

When hunting I run a dry patch down the bore before I head out in the AM and, when I come back in, I either leave the gun sit in the cold barn or garage so it doesn't get condensation, or bring it in for a cleaning and wipe-down if it has been a snowy/rainy day. I'm not worried about rain or snow in the bore. It's the condensation and misc. crap (hemlock needles seem to be a favorite).