MD,
That is a wonderful idea and I'm glad that our exchange here has prompted you into doing it. I have never personally fired a factory round in any of my 416Rem rifles, as I am an avid handloader and prefer bullets other than what Remington chose to use in this cartridge.
There has to be something that would cause these reports, and an experiment such as this might flush it out. Like I said earlier, I never go past 2400fps for hunting ammo and found that level to be absolutely no problem in any of the rifles I've had. If my experience with African PHs is any indication, I'd guess most of the barrels in question were not cared for to the same degree as most of us hunters would. That alone could cause troubles if the chambers got a bit rough.
