My "Benchrest Buddy" - Al Forsland, tore the rifle apart and spent the better part of a couple of days blueprinting the action, mating the lugs, recrowning the barrel, bedding the action and working on the horrible trigger - and through all this, he ended up giving me back a rifle that now shoots 3/4 inch groups.
If I had to pay him the going rate - for his hours of work on my behalf, the cost of the rifle would have almost doubled. Fortunately for me, our friendship enabled me to save a considerable amount of money.
But, even as he handed me the rifle back he said "It's still a horrible fouler due to that internal barrel swell an inch or so in front of the chamber and because of the general roughness of the bore." The internal swell is so great that when pushing a bore brush or swab though it - the rod will jump (with no resistance) past the swell until the bore narrows down again.
He said, if it were him - he send it away and get a "real barrel" from a custom quality barrel maker put on it. "Then you'd have a rifle!" he said.
So far, I haven't done that, I love so much about the rifle now - that I put up with its faults - and just clean it thoroughly every 5 to 10 rounds or so.
But, someday, it will get a REAL barrel.
Well, it MUST be true. I mean, you posted it on the internet.
