Emory,
I guess I missed this in other threads. What load was the WR regulated for, stamped on the barrel flats?

As I remember you did not fire the rifle over a chronograph, correct?

The more I read about this, the more I tend to agree that whatever damage was inflicted upon the rifle was there when Ernest bought the rifle. As I stated before Ernest doesn't know what to look for to determine if the rifle was damaged. It just looked good!

400 Nitro Express and a friend of his visited Moss, the guy Ernest bought the rifle from. They inspected 3 rifles as potential buys. 400 NE and friend walked away after the inspections.
All the rifles had problems!