1.How far does the bolt go up until it stops?
2.You say the Smith fixed the issue. The issue was....
3.Highly doubtful your custom is going to consistently shoot less than an inch at 200 with factory.
1. From what I remember (not in front of it right now), less than 1/2" upwards. When taking the safety off, the bolt naturally would go down a touch, maybe a 1/4".
2. I will ask the specifics to learn what it was. I don't know offhand. He was able to fix the issue in about 1 hour or less.
3. Good point. I won't be using factory ammo in my new rifle. I expect that I will still find a precision handload load that will be sub-moa or better.
I got lucky with this factory rifle using Barnes ammo in 190 gr LRX. Early lot numbers (from late 2017) shot 0.5 moa or so (I kept 6 cartridges from this lot for this hunting season) while the most recent lot numbers shoot around 1 moa. Barnes couldn't explain why this is the case given the load data they were able to look up for me. That said, my factory barrel only shoots that well cold or slightly warm. If I try to fire two rounds without waiting at least 3-5 min in between shot, my groups spread out quickly. Also, interesting to me, this rifle won't shoot factory 150 gr or 165 gr bullets well at all. Worst groups were with Hornady Superformance GMX ammo which were consistently shooting 3-4" groups at 200 yards and up a bit to the left.
