[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.
Did you sight it in prior to missing that buck? Do you keep it in a safe or the corner of a closet? A bulge half way down tend to be from a squib or insect nest, although I don't expect a lost patch would help the barrel.
My guess is rain water in barrel
I have to admit to not checking my rifle at the range prior to deer season. I keep it in a safe in the off season and would think a squib load would have been detected at shooting. The year before I dropped a buck in its tracks before putting rifle up. I know I should have fired my rifle prior to the season, I know better.
I thought of rain water, is that possible?
Well, you live in North Carolina. Lots of bugs there, so yep, probably a dead critter was in there.
Lots of things can happen in a year. No matter how long a gun has been sitting, no matter what it is, I always, ALWAYS make sure the bore is clear, either yank the bolt before loading, or drop the mag and unload, open the cylinder. Every time. Why? Hard lesson.
Cousin borrowed one of Dad's rifles. Came back whining about missing a close deer, put in back in the safe, "cleaned." Well, later that year, Dad got around to getting it out. Peeked diown the barrel, hey, THAT doesn't look normal. Ran a patch down and ooooops, nice loose spot about four inches in, you could feel a ripple on the outside of the barrel.
Cousin no longer borrows ANYTHING.
Thing is, because you didn't check the bore before loading, you'll never know WTF happened. But your barrel is almost certainly toast.
Anytime I take a gun out to shoot I run a dry patch down the barrel, even if it was last put away a few days ago, fouled or clean. The