[b][/b] I had an incident last deer season when I missed a very large buck twice with my favorite deer rifle. Once at 25yds and next at about 35yds. Not wanting to risk wounding the buck and in total disbelief, I just watched him trot off. First I blamed my new progressive lenses and later my rifle scope. Re-sighting my scope was frustrating and I believed it to be bad. Leupold offers a lifetime guarantee so I called to see what I needed to do. Prior to shipping the old scope I mounted another I had on hand and tried to bore sight it with my collimeter. This proved futile and I figured it was since it had been adjusted to another rifle and I decided to do it the old fashion way by removing bolt etc. Shooting the rifle was the last straw. My scope either wouldn't trac or hit paper at 100yds and moving in to about 60yds I hit in the lower left corner. The scope wouldn't adjust to move the impact or trac and the bullet would not group at all even if I didn't adjust the reticle. I gave up. Allowing the barrel to cool before putting in my case I was steaming. After a few minutes I felt my barrel to check if cooled and felt my barrel had slight bulging or deformation about midway and on to muzzle. This rifle was once a tack driver and my go to gun for deer and now I am looking at a big expense! I have never dropped the rifle and the crown looks fine and as a handloader I have never experienced a squib. I am at a loss as to what could have happened.
