Firing pin strikes are dead-center on the primers. Black Sharpie marker shows an even wear mark across the lock-up shelf on the barrel. The rear face of the barrel (where it butts up against the receiver) shows wear marks all around the edge in an even pattern. Most recent loads were 46.5 grains of Accuratee 2520 behind a 150 gr FMJBT Hornady with a 2.740 OAL, 46.0 grains of Varget behind a 165 gr Remington flat-base soft point, and 46.1 grains of Varget behind the 150 gr FMJBT Hornady. None of these rounds were crimped, and none of these combinations shot under a 2" group @ 100 yards.
I have some JB Bore paste that I can try this weekend to see if that helps, and Brownell's sent me notification that my laminate forearm is on it's way. I will fuss with it some more this weekend to see what I can do with it.
There seems to be two very different paths of suggestions forming. One is to continue to try to find the "magic answer" to the accuracy puzzle, and the other one is "cut your losses and leave while you can". I once had an AK47 that I bought to use in 3-gun matches. The smallest group that it ever shot was about 4" at 100 yards. I played with it for awhile, and finally sold it to buy an Armalite AR-15 that can shoot 1" groups all day with surplus ammo. I hope that this "handi-adventure" turns out better than my AK experience! I don't expect this gun shoot cloverleaf groups (it would be nice if it did!) but I do expect it to shoot 1" groups at 100 yards. If it can't perform at that level,then it's not fun for me to shoot.
