Back in the day, i bought a 700BDL in 17 Rem... I guess i did just about everything wrong, cause i didn't break in the bbl., shot a couple thousand full power loads (25 grain Hornandy bullet) in it, and rarely cleaned it.
Yes the wind blew it around some, but accuracy was never a problem, and mine even shot well when it wasn't given a regular scrubbing. And, no the bbl wasn't shot out after 2 + thousand rounds.
Then when i took a job, to clean out some dog packs for a city, i learned what it really would or wouldn't do. I could clearly see it started running out of steam much past 150 yards, and proclaimed it an "under 200 yard gun" for beagle on up sized animals. I never thought of it as a failure though, it just wasn't up to taking bigger animals at longer ranges.
I also owned several CF 22's and used them too, but the BEST long range kill-em dead dog catcher was my .243 Win. All that "testing" is what made me decide to have P.O. Ackley build me a 240 Wby. on a Rem. 700 action for my "kill those coyotes/wolves as far away as you can see them" rifle.
DM