Although my recently-acquired borescope has not yet arrived I must, with some chagrin, report my shame in front of you all.
:-(
After removing the bolt retaining screw and bolt, and swabbing the chamber & part of the bore with Wipe-Out Carb-Out, the amount of brown grunge coming out of there was despicable! While I could not detect a carbon "Ring" per-se, I did notice quite the build-up of "stuff" just in front of the leade. Repeated the exercise, followed with wipings of Kroil, then dry patches, then Wipe-Out Patch-Out, dry patches. I repeated the Carb-Out/Kroil/Patch-Out routine several times over 24 hours. The bore & chamber finally appear to be clean, which I will confirm once the borescope gets here.
Unfortunately, no range test for awhile, as it is currently -27 with the windchill here in Winterpeg.
I think, however, that prior to adding a piece of bicycle tube to the bedding, I will re-confirm some groups (I hate adding more than 1 variable at a time when I am testing something), following which I hope to join the 1/2" club.
I'll post some photos here once I receive the borescope & can figure out the photo down-loading procedure.
In the meantime, THANK YOU all for the advice.