Let me start by saying that I have very little experience shooting. In fact the shots you see here represent approximately my 89th through 95th shots ever. 75 of those shots are through this new gun and I have been going through barrel break-in. I have 10 shots left to finish that (or maybe 5, but I'll do 10 anyway). My first 20 shots were through a friends Remington 700 in 270 about a month or two ago.
This 22" 700 VTR 5-R (model number 85506) has a Leupold vx3 2.5x8 on Leupold standard mounts and rings. I can say that the field of view at 2.5x is exactly what I was looking for when it comes to hunting (not that I've done any hunting to compare it to), but at the range, 8x barely cuts it for me at 100y. The trigger is pretty light (I would "guess" around the claimed 3.5lbs), I may dial it down after I prove to myself that my groups are truly consistent and have stopped improving. The recoil in my estimation is much lighter than the 24" 270 (130gr ammo) I had shot; at least 30% lighter on 150gr ammo in my opinion (purely subjective) and still lighter on 165gr. About the same on 180gr, but with a lot less muzzle flip. This is all based on personal opinion and memory, no measuring going on here, not even side by side comparison. For the record, the 270 I shot was wood and an orange recoil pad and I use the term pad loosely, clearly designed by a sadist, but that rig seemed heavier than mine.
The breakin procedure I used, I basically came up with from reading various threads on cleaning and breakin around the web.
12 groups of 1 shot (cleaning after every one)
11 groups of 3 shots (cleaning after every three)
10 groups of 5 shots (cleaning after every five)
cleaning:
bore guide and dewey one piece rod
2 wet swabs of Hoppes #9 solvent
5 strokes with a brass brush soaked in Hoppes #9
2 wet swabs of hoppes #9 solvent
2-5 dry swabs, as many as it takes to come pretty clean.
1 swab with a tiny drop of gun oil
1-2 dry swabs
Now I know that my gun choice is WRONG, my breakin or even the need for breakin is WRONG and my cleaning procedures are all WRONG. No doubt in my mind these statements will be proven demonstrably true. This gun was a perfect storm of catchy acronyms and marketing that sucked me in like a tractor beam, I admit it. 5-R rifling, VTR barrel, externally adjustable X-Mark trigger factory set a 3.5lb, built in muzzle break blah blah blah. They had me at 5-R. I'll post a pic of the rig if I can find my usb cable to take one off my real camera. The ones here are off my cell phone.
However, I am happy to report that my groups are tightening up nicely! I am noticing that the clean bore shot is wild (usually high), but the cold bore and warm bore fouled shots are pretty predictable. I do wait at least about a minute between shots and the barrel never really gets very hot. I did manage to find US Army field manual FM 23-10 in pdf, and chapter 3 is a good read.
Here is the 5-R stamp on the side of the barrel
This 100y group I am particularly happy with, because it started as a 2 shot group with Winchester 150 grain cheapo stuff, I cleaned the barrel then a cease fire was called. I walked out and noticed how close the 2 shot group was, but I was out of that ammo. I shot a fouling shot with with Hornady 165 gr SST's and then shot the group below this group. then I came back an fired the center shot on this group, at first I thought I hit the other side of the paper because I thought I noticed more green over there. Did I mention 8x sucks. I will say that these shots are going exactly where I want them, I was aiming to the left of the bulls-eye, in case I wanted to use the other side of the target and because it's easier to use the duplex reticle that way.
3 shot group Hornady 165 SST Superperformance.
