When I got my 597, I scrubbed the barrel with solvent as I do with every new or used rifle till it's clean. You can't expect the rifle to do its best with a dirty barrel. My 597 was new and it took over an hour of soaking and scrubbing till all the "cosmoline" was out of the barrel. I then ran 400 rounds of ammo through it and cleaned it again. The end result is that the rifle is very accurate with ammo that it likes (like any rifle).
Actually, I like the 597 with the 3x9 Remington scope (Green stock/Dick's version) so much that it is now my main use 22 rifle. Feeds, functions, and shoots wonderfully. I's a keeper!
