Short story. In 1999 as a 17 year old, I purchased a new Remington 700 Classic in .17 Rem from the Powder Horn in downtown Bozeman Mt.
New nickel brass, Hornady Vmaxs, and I purchased my first 8 lb keg of IMR 4320 at our local gunshow for $105.
Loaded up the best shooting(hot!) load and shot jackrabbits by dozens, coyotes, crows.
Moly was the rage back then and I coated everything with Midways aerosol spray on moly. Couldnt clean the barrel squeeky clean so you wipe it out kind of clean every 100 rounds to keep it accurate.
Rifle was a solid .550” grouper.
Fast forward to today. After buying alot of rifles over the years, Neglecting the 17, and having never really cleaned CLEANED the barrel, I decided to shoot up the last of the 30 rounds I had loaded from 2004.

Theres not much in this story that would be recommended today. Times have changed.
I am going to work up a new load, a bit milder, with no moly. And clean the barrel. But after all these years the damn thing still shoots.
New nickel brass, Hornady Vmaxs, and I purchased my first 8 lb keg of IMR 4320 at our local gunshow for $105.
Loaded up the best shooting(hot!) load and shot jackrabbits by dozens, coyotes, crows.
Moly was the rage back then and I coated everything with Midways aerosol spray on moly. Couldnt clean the barrel squeeky clean so you wipe it out kind of clean every 100 rounds to keep it accurate.
Rifle was a solid .550” grouper.
Fast forward to today. After buying alot of rifles over the years, Neglecting the 17, and having never really cleaned CLEANED the barrel, I decided to shoot up the last of the 30 rounds I had loaded from 2004.

Theres not much in this story that would be recommended today. Times have changed.
I am going to work up a new load, a bit milder, with no moly. And clean the barrel. But after all these years the damn thing still shoots.