Barrel makers have always fought that evil tendency for drill bits to "run out" some direction other than out the center of the other end of the barrel blank. To my knowledge no barrrel has ever been drilled "plum center." Oft times we've sat around the camp fire and listened to our fellow shooters boast on how their beloved firearm shoots "plum center," but be wary of assuming that the bullet itself exits this person's barrel "plum center." Likely it exits going up or down, or left or right, and the shooter has compensated accordingly. All of us I'm sure have spent numerous hours on the shooting range getting the barrel and the sights pointed at the same place. Hopefully when the barrel under scrutiny was fitted to the rest of the gun, the"run out" was oriented up or down, not left or right, the latter often resulting in a front sight balanced precariously to one side at the end of the barrel in an attempt at alignment.
So recently when I sent a carbine barrel to Bobby Hoyt for a reline I attached a note expressing a forlorn hope to the effect, "This barrel shoots radically to the left, Bobby, so if you can shift the bore alignment to the right please do so." This Bobby did and achieved an almost perfect windage alignment. So accordingly I expect I will always and forever be sitting here in awe of this incredible Pennsylvania gunsmithmanship.
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