I did press forward on the rings when I installed them, so that shouldn't have been the issue. Again, those are being replaced so should be moot next time it's shot anyway.
Very close inspection of the stock revealed no issues that I could find. No cracks or distortions, etc. Action screws were not over or under tight and have now been torqued to 45 in/lb as stated above. Aside from the very small burn in the bolt face I mentioned in my "book", the face looks square, the lugs look good, the chamber looks fine and bolt lockup with a round in the chamber is solid and as it should be.
I really don't think the barrel is all fouled up. It was clean before initial shooting last week, but at this point it's worth double checking and cleaning again. I would think you would have to have put a fair amount of rounds down range without cleaning (or with bad cleaning) to get the amount of copper to cause problems and I don't think this rifle has all that many rounds through it, but I could be wrong.
I do think that this is the first time it's been shot (by me) on a lead sled. I've only been shooting 200 and 185gr bullets through it and it's not like we have the rifle immobilized with a ton of weight in the sled...but I suppose I could be underestimating it. A little hard to believe that in only a few shots two scopes would have been damaged so bad as to cause such issues. But, again, will try it off bags next time.
