[Jeff Higgins]

P.O. Ackley's Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders includes a brief treatise on a smart ass wildcat he developed sometime in the late '50's to early '60's. He used the then new .378 Weatherby Magnum case, which was a belted round based on the beltless .416 Rigby, to build the ultimate .22 caliber varmint round. This thing held 120 grains of powder and achieved over 8,000 fps muzzle velocity. Mr. Ackley called it, tongue in cheek, the "Eargeschplitzenloudenboomer". He made note of the short barrel life. So short, in fact, that it made it impossible to either develop a suitable load or to zero the rifle before the barrel wore out.

I think these Russians are in the same boat, along with their unwitting customers and the clueless press that has latched onto their story. At least they acknowledge the short barrel life. They appear, however, completely unaware of the logistics problems with the rifle's zero that that situation entails. The technically less than savvy might assume one can replace a rifle's barrel with no change in zero and just keep shooting as one wears out barrels. Those familiar with the vagaries of rifle accuracy, particularly at long range, know better.