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How's the recoil?
Price seems to vary quite a bit. Is $750 fair? Any particular configuration that's worth less?
Cast: Am I stuck patching, or can I run the 7mm low and slow? Light for caliber to manage recoil?
Rebarreling: giant PITA or reasonable?
Anything in particular to watch for?
I put a Limbsaver on mine and the recoil, while it didn't disappear, wasn't bad. It was a #1B. I sold it and a Leupold scope for $1K. I never fired cast from it. I also changed out the trigger and ground the safety down just enough so it wouldn't catch the ejected empties. I liked that rifle a lot, but my hunting days are pretty much over.
I still have my #1B in 30-06 A.I. though!
Recoil on the 7 rem mag is not all that bad. If you're familiar with the recoil of a 180gr. 30-06 factory load you wont find the 150gr. 7 mag all that different. Hogdon has a list of lite loads for many calibers with 4895 that may help also.
I have fired cast in my Encore with 28" barrel. While it did not lead it was not spectacular and I got distracted away from it. IIRC I was pushing a 140gr and 160gr around 2K fps. I think I was using SR4759 but it has been 5 years or more since shooting cast in it.
I have the boat anchor heavy #1S with the iron sights and the heavy barrel. Recoil is about like a .30-06.
My rifle has a chamber that is on the large side diameter wise.
It rarely groups better than 1.25" at 100 yards.
I have a #1 in 6mm Remington that shoots under an inch, with a 75 grain 'J' moly bullet. It's free floated. So the rest has to be close to the action or it strings a bit. It took me awhile to figure that out. When I shot from a bipod, the forend touched the barrel and the group opened up vertically. I'm about to load some 95 grain cast from an RCBS mold, with 11 grains of Unique...