I had one shortly and the cold bore flier was not consistent, so sold it after 3 range trips. Have 3 friends with steel and none have had the issues like carbon did.
My Carbon will be off in the first 3 or 4 rounds then it goes back to center and stays there as long as it's kept warm.
I won last summer at a LR Varmint bench match shooting it when I went through 10 rounds rapid fire into the berm just prior to the start. Only dropped 2 shots from a perfect run during the event with no sighters of any kind. Shooting 145 - 205 yards.
And this wasn't always the case. This issue started around 7K rounds. I cleaned the bore an average of 400rnds or so. Never more than an entire brick between cleanings.
A few months back, I scrubbed the living dogshit out of it. Scrubbed more so than normal using boretech rimfire blend. But the gun just won't stop with the early cold/cold-ish bore shift.
I can't afford to waste 3 or 4 shots on a NRL stage getting the gun warm. So I've been effectively sidelined for NRL since I don't have the funds to be buying shit whenever I feel lately.
My carbon barrel shoots just fine. No real difference from carbon and steel except weight. Sure it’s a pencil barrel in sleeve but mine shoot dead on. No flyers unless cleaned. Then takes some rounds to get back to grouping. But apparently not the case for others. Oh well.