GUN BARREL STRAIGHTENING

If your drill was properly sharpened a good starter bushing, and the starter bushing was in good
alignment, the bore should be straight. In most cases the barrel will shoot as good if it is slightly
crooked, as it would if it was straight, but if it was very slightly crooked and turned and finish that way, it
would tend to walk the bullets as the barrel heated up.

In turning a barrel if you do not get the cutting tools sharp, take too heavy a cut, let the barrel get too hot,
let the centers get too hot, or out of round, the stress will warp the barrel. Then you will have to straighten
the barrel.

I will try to cover the main points in barrel straightening, and give you a guideline as what to do and what
to look for. You must realize that barrel straightening must be self-taught, and to accomplish this, it will
be advisable to practice on old barrels.

A shotgun barrel is good to practice on, as it is big, and smooth with no rifling to confuse you. It is next to
impossible to straighten a barrel with a rough bore. I will also show you here how to make
barrel-straightening equipment necessary to straighten the barrels.

Let me point out that a large percentage of the factory barrels, to the trained eye are not perfectly
straight. Any barrel maker will tell you that a slightly crooked barrel will shoot as well as a straight one,
and a rifle used for hunting a crooked barrel makes little difference.

As long as, (1) you let the barrel cool between shots when sighting in, (2) as long as you do not shoot
more than three consecutive shots, as it will then start to walk.

No amount of bedding will stop this. Now this book was original written in the late 50's before the
coming of computer machines for turning barrels. Before, the barrels when turned were checked at ever
pass on the turning lathe, but now the complete blank is turned complete on tape machines before being
removed from the machined. Then it is checked for straightness, and if crooked will be straighten.

I have gotten several factory barrels in the last few years that when put between centers of the lathe ran