Not good with math so please bear with me. Your original group was about 1 1/4" seat .003 off the lands. But you improved it to .88 by going to .007 off the lands. ! 1/4 was good for what you do according to you but by experimenting you got it down to .88". So you actually only improved .370"! Was it worth the effort? The best one of my rifles does is 1 1/4" from a rest. Strictly a hunting rifle for big game and I have never bother to improve it. On the other hand I have a couple 243's I don't use on big game that do right at 1/2". Would like to improve them but haven't a clue why! My best guess is simply, "just because".
I like your limiting your shot's to 300 yards, probably because I do the same! Yet I have shot at only one deer at 300yds in my life. I didn't need to, I did it just to say I had, just because! I think we might all be guilty of that.
Actually the “jump” numbers were .03” and .07”. Regardless, I agree with you that the difference between .88” an 1.25” groups isn’t gonna make a whit of difference for putting meat in the freezer. Your stated best guess, “just because” is totally correct. It was in interesting experiment.😁
