My bad, but still excited.

I made a mistake!! The Savage Weather Warrior is not availbile in the 7 WSM.

I went to pick the gun up Monday and immediately noticed it was a long action. I looked at the barrel and it said 7mm Rem. Mag. I told my friend that ordered it for me. He apologized and said he misunderstood me. I almost took it but we decided I wanted a short action so he would exchange it. Later that night he called and said Savage didn't offer the 7mm WSM in that gun. Apparently they offer the .270 WSM and .30 WSM in that gun, but not the 7mm.

I picked it up the next day and am pretty stoked to get going. It's a Savage Weather Warrior with the Accu-stock and Accu-trigger (standard) in 7mm Rem Mag. I already load for the .338 so am familiar with this case. I want to do this right so these are my questions:

1) How do you guys condition a barrel?

2) What are your opinions on the Zeiss 3X15 scope. Don't remember the exact model#.

3) And I'm thinking a 150 gr Accubond or Barnes would be the perfect longer range bullet for this gun/caliber, thoughts?

All opinions are welcome and will be considered.

I have a Conquest HD 5 3-15x50 on a 25-06 and I really like it. No turrets on it yet, I might consider some in the future, but I need to learn more about the different options out there.

I would like to hear more from people here about conditioning the barrel. The way I have been doing it is like this-

Clean after each shot for 30 rounds,
Then after 3 rounds for 30 rounds
Then after 5 rounds for 50 rounds,
Then I can go crazy.

It is not a quick simple cleaning, it is as if you were normally cleaning.

Captain, I've done similar. After every round for the first 20. After every 5 for the next 20-30. Then once a shooting session after that until I have 100 rounds through it. Then seasonally on a big game rifle, more frequently on something I shoot regularly. The cleaning consists of a wet patch on a wire brush, then a dry one on a seperate (dry) wire brush. Until it comes out clean.

But I've read about lapping compounds and other items to basically smooth the bore before the first round goes through it.

I just had a Zeiss HD5 3-15 mounted on a 300 Win. I had rebarreled. The gun is still at the gunsmith so I haven't been able to tinker with it yet. I bought the scope with the Rapid Z 800 reticle. They also come with the Rapid Z 600 if you'd rather go that route. With the ballistic reticle you just punch your info into the Zeiss calculator and it gives you the yardages for the hash marks. I'm excited to get it home and start working up some loads for it. Just so you know, Cameraland has some great deals on demo model HD5s. I believe there's a guy has one for sale on the MM classifieds as well. Good luck!!!

That's the exact scope I was looking at.

Another break in procedure, from Calhoon's rifle web site if you do a google on that. Its extensive cleaning between shots but only 3 shot break in. If I use his procedure it takes me approx 3 hours to complete.