Well I shot the rifle for the first time yesterday & using RWS 159gn soft point bullets, both using the peep sight and the 'iron' sights, the result was very encouraging.
Looked via a bore scope down the barrel and the rifling seemed not too bad. Certainly no copper in there, so the first group at 100yds around 1.25" MOA was quite good. The second was similar and put the two 3 shot groups into the same 1.25" MOA slot....that was using the peep sight.

Probably due to my eyes not as young as they were, the result using the rear iron sight was much more 'open' anyway, I think no new barrel just yet, but I will pay for the one I've found & keep it put by.

However...a problem occurred. Although the bolt action is as slick as it should be. The feed of rounds from the rotary mag into the breech is very poor and certainly not smooth, requiring some force and visibly incorrect presentation of the round to the chamber. Once aligned correctly the rounds chamber smoothly. The alignment seems wrong though and I just cannot see what the problem is...other than perhaps the cartridge lock plate on the right of the breech (spring loaded for releasing cartridges from the magazine) being a restricting factor...but I don't know as it doesn't seem to have been interfered with.

Thoughts from anyone?
Cheers, deeangeo