Hi Brock,
Thanks for the schedule link, I printed it and will look at my home calendar.
Generally speaking, Sat. vs. Sun would not matter and could fit your window. All other things being equal, a Saturday shoot would be more convenient for me, due to the travel time & conditions.

I'll have to look at the rulebook again, weigh my rifle and sand my muzzle diameter down to .9495 - then I might be able to shoot either class. I thought I was barely in "light gun" before.

Ed, "...The only difference between my first round and others shows up on the chronograph, and would likely show up at very long range as well. My first shot is always about 50-60 FPS lower than any subsequent shot over the screens. After that first shot, the rest are OK. Go figure. After cleaning, I had been coating the bore with Kroil/Shooter's Choice, then running one tight, dry patch through to sop up any excess. It stays that way until I shoot it."

He Ed, I see the same thing you do, except I generally notice a Pressure change by watching the Case Head Expansion and Pressure Ring Expansion. On the rare occasions I bother to mess with a chronograph, I've noticed about the same fps variation as you do from a pristine clean barrel to the same one with only one previous shot through it.

Apparently we begin shooting with our barrels in similar conditions - clean and lightly oiled(greased in my case).

Also agree with one or more tight dry patches as a final cleaning step. Which reminds me, I make my patches from "Paper Shop Towels" which will be slightly more abrasive than plain old cotton. Can't remember exactly when I first started doing this, but I've never managed to damage a barrel with Paper Patches either.

As I read through your post, I was going to suggest you back out to 300yds or so and see how well your rifle was doing. Then I saw you and Brock are going to be shooting out at 1000yds, so you are well ahead of me there.

Did you make the rifle for Benchrest, for hunting, or both?

I'm here to report that I have been back out to the range for pressure tests.

My excess pressure signs are gone.

I shot loads from my current 82.0 grains up to 85.0 grains. My favored load of 84 was easily attainable, but the 85 grain load produced sticky extraction in three of five.

I shot six or seven times, then gave it a quick cleaning; dry brushed a half-dozen strokes, then soaked in solvent while it cooled, dried it out and shot it.

I was unable to accuracy test this trip, since I have since swapped stocks and caused myself some problems, either with my bedding or my rest setup.

I feel like accuracy will return when I either;
A) figure out what I've screwed up this time, or,
B) return it to the HS precision stock.

The reason I am confident is that while pressure testing with new loads and realizing my groups were really shoddy (1.5" to 1.75" @ 250yds), I shot some of my original loads and they sucked too. Good. The last time I shot it in the "good stock" since my radical cleaning,100 yard group size with "control loads" was fine.

I'll report back when I have solved the accuracy problem. I just wanted to follow up on the pressure test results and thank you guys again for your suggestions.

All in all, I think the Bon Ami idea was a good one, having straightened out my odd pressure problem without noticeably affecting accuracy.