Id like to get a push feed rum or .375 length 110 action for a .300wm project.
Nice choice. I just learned that Savage uses the most hideous, unthinkable tool for the OEM barrels: STRAIGHTENING PRESS.
It's not all barrels that have received a brute force hydraulic press treatment. Just some. You might well get lucky and get an excellent gun but chances are that the barrel has been bent straight, in which case you're pretty much SOL unless you rebarrel.
That may well be the case, simultaneously implying that an average hunter doesn't practise anywhere near enough to be even somewhat proficient with his rifle. If they did, a stringing problem would become obvious rather quickly. One way around is to sight it in cold, one shot ever half an hour or so, and trust that you'll never need precise follow-up shots. Or participate in an european style hog, fallow deer and red buck hunt, where you'll easily take 15-30 game shots an hour, sometimes in matter of minutes. My personal "record" is exhausting an ammo reserve of 60 rounds of .375H&H in one afternoon.
In Maine, I've hunted and repaired rifles for many hunters over about 30 years and doubt that the average deer hunter hasn't fired a 20 round box of ammo in 5 years, yet thinks he can hit the end of a beer can offhand at a hundred yards. I think he'd be very lucky to hit the bottom of a 5 gallon can with one of 5 shots offhand at that distance.That may well be the case, simultaneously implying that an average hunter doesn't practise anywhere near enough to be even somewhat proficient with his rifle. If they did, a stringing problem would become obvious rather quickly. One way around is to sight it in cold, one shot ever half an hour or so, and trust that you'll never need precise follow-up shots. Or participate in an european style hog, fallow deer and red buck hunt, where you'll easily take 15-30 game shots an hour, sometimes in matter of minutes. My personal "record" is exhausting an ammo reserve of 60 rounds of .375H&H in one afternoon.
I try to put at least 50-100 rounds through each of the rifles I'm planning to use each season, on top of the regular annual practise of up to a dozen bricks of .22 and maybe a thousand centerfire rifle rounds, but then again, I consider myself a recreational shooter, too.
Admittedly some of my fast/hot caliber rifles like .243 don't see that much use, I have yet to wear out a non-racegun barrel out and with .223 it took me close to 10k rounds before it deteriorated to below a practical level of bench accuracy. OTOH, I have probably a dozen rifles I rotate in various hunts so the round count in most of them is still below 1000. The .308:s see the most use, doubling as my range rifles and at around 2500-3000 rounds they're still good as new accuracy-wise.
I just gave a friend of mine my lee 06 deluxe dies.....
Have you considered lapping the barrel while you're at it? Shilens are usually pretty good as-is, but IMO this would be a perfect time to cast a lead tap and give it a careful once-over. AI can be loaded pretty hot so I'd reckon the barrel would benefit from this even more than usual. I've also experimented with MoS2 as a finishing touch but found its benefits to be marginal and even debatable.
