400Nitro:

When I inspected the rifles, ALL (and I do mean all of them) had dirty bores with big powder residue flakes in them.

When I cleaned the barrels, I noticed SEVERE pitting in the grooves and on the rifling. This was not a little bit of pitting mind you.

All this happend shortly after Fred blew a barrel on his H&H. So, the deal ended right there.

At Bill's house I looked at the other rifles and took my cleaning kit with me. I swabbed a number of barrels and guess what? Same problem. BAD pitting in my opinion.

Bill didn't know how dirty the rifles where until I showed him.

That made me wonder about the condition of the rifles as a whole. I walked away from that immediately and Bill was not a happy camper.

Now after what you said, I'm glad I did!

Can you tell me more about the .500 WR that was at the dealer you mention? That may very well be the one we were going to buy - I'd like to know what else you know about it.