It's .75" for the first group and gets bigger with each successive group after about 12-15 rounds it's over 2 MOA. I feel like I have tried a wide enough variety of ammo to see what it will really do. I'm hoping this is just a bad barrel. I'll bet it has about 80-120 rounds through it at this point- mostly 143 ELD-X Hornady stuff. No reloads at all.
I've read your posts and this thread and I have some follow-up, so please bear with me.
If I'm getting it right, you clean the gun, then go shoot it, and the first group or two is/are good (0.70" to 0.75"). Then the groups start to open up.
Question - if you stop shooting and come back another day, are your first groups "good" again until the gun gets hot?
**If groups are good again, on another day, then it seems your barrel just doesn't like to get hot, and that's okay. It is a very light, field gun.
**If groups are no good after those initial two groups after cleaning, even on another day with the rifle totally cold again, then I'm suspecting either your bore is rough OR the ELD-X bullets are just leaving a lot of fouling in a short period of time.
There was a thread on here many months ago where people were noticing that their guns shot fine with the ELD-M bullets, but fouling quickly with the ELD-X bullets, revealing that there was a difference in the copper jacket 'make-up' between the two and the X bullets were more prone to fouling the barrel. Some people loved the accuracy of the X's, but the fouling was unacceptable so they moved on to a different bullet (Bergers, Noslers, Barnes, etc.)
I just put that out there because if the gun shoots great at first, after a cleaning, but then never shoots good again until the next cleaning, it might just be the ELD-X bullets. And - no - the ELD-Ms are not the same, so those might be fine.
But if the gun ALWAYS shoots the initial groups well, then gets worse after that, it is just a '
hot barrel issue' and...you have to decide if the gun is going to be a one or two shot at a time
hunting gun, or did you really want a heavier, more consistent shooting
target-type gun.
Something you may want to consider if the barrel is fouling quickly and requiring frequent cleaning to 'maintain accuracy' (regardless of bullet brand) is to shoot the David Tubb FinalFinis
h® bullets through it to clean up the throat, leade, and rifling
http://www.davidtubb.com/final-finish-loaded-ammo