Allen,

Years ago when in school I worked at a gun shop and one task they assigned me was sighting in rifles for their "sighting and test firing" service.

What I noticed was that shooters did not use this service, but a lot of guys who were going hunting in Africa or Alaska or anywhere else dropped off rifles to be sighted in prior to a trip. These rifles were frequently brand new and unfired by the owner. The owner wanted us to sight in the rifle because he didn't want to shoot it himself until he needed to do so. Hence these rifles were regularly boresighted and fired at most 10 to 15 shots at a range before they went to their destination. As you know that is not exactly a "test" of any sort and constitutes taking a new rifle on a safari. When they returned home from their hunting trip, a lot of these rifles came back to the shop and ended up for sale on consignment in the rack with the used guns.

A lot of people in the USA who hunt do not shoot much...think of the people you know and you can probably dredge up a few who buy a box of 20 rounds of ammunition to hunt deer and they still have some ammo left from that box three years later. They fire four rounds a year and think their rifle is reliable because it does not fail during this horribly trying experience...

I would respectfully submit that most people do NOT actually test their equipment but rather just expect it to work. Most of them only test it at the time that they actually need it and as such I believe that a lot of those failures are frequently more the fault of the owner than the product.

Richard.