Russ - The tight group wasn't a fluke. I shot at least a half dozen groups (2 ea. R's and L's) and they all were in the 1" range. I believe I used up 3 or 4 factory S&B boxes of ammunition before trying my first reload. I had a hard time believing what I was seeing, and so the repeats. I have been thinking about the barrel breaking in, as you noted in your post. It most definitely is smoother than it was. That is backed up by it's reduced fouling. The rifle isn't loose. In fact it still is quite tight and takes a bit of an effort to break the action. I hope it loosens up a bit with use. If it doesn't, carrying a pair of cartridges in my forward hand isn't gonna happen, and reloads are going to be a bit slower than I hoped

. I've got some Swift 300 grain A-Frame bullets, but have not tried them yet as several on this board have indicated that they might be too hard for the rifle. That bullet (and a 250gr. A-Frame, plus Barnes TSX's)) will wait until I talk to the Chapuis factory folks at the SCI convention in Reno. They were there last year, and I suspect will be there this year as well.

As far as accuracy, I don't know where you have been buying your rifles but my first center fire rifle (Rem 721 .270 purchased used 44 years ago) was around an inch and the worst I've ever had was a Ruger # 1-B in .223. That one ws around 3" and had a bad barrel. As soon as the barrel was replaced, it too was <1" rifle. The only rifles in my safe that are in the 2" range are some Winchester lever actions and a couple of old Remington pumps (.25, .30, and .35 Rem cartridges). I've never owned a bolt action 3" rifle in my life!

Tinker - Thank you very much.

Pilgrim