Bent Barrel?

[eaglesnester]

Have a 54 Lyman flintlock Hawken Great Plains. She shoots right about 4-6 inches at 50 meters. Have moved rear sight left and front sight right to compensate. This rifle was a kit that I put together and finished. What could be the possibilities for this barrel shooting so far right. To check this I fired the rifle from a gun vise strapped in and from a shooting table bench rest.

 

[nchawkeye]

It could be a bent barrel but before I tried bending it back I would take a good look at the patches...If the crown or rifling is cutting the patch and it's burning through that could push the ball in the opposite direction...

After that, it's possible the stock is pushing on the barrel, causing this to happen...

The next step I would do after the above is see if Lyman would ship you a new barrel...

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The barrel is probably not bent...the barrel may be incorrectly bored and when breeched it was off-right. If you have a micrometer, measure the thickness of the walls of the barrel at the muzzle, and see if the barrel is just a fraction of an inch thinner on the right side...that will tell you.

You can also take a hard look at the crowning of the barrel and you may find the crown is way off, which will cause gasses to vent in an uneven fashion as the bullet exits the barrel so the bullet is "pushed" off course...but yours sounds a bit worse than that problem.

LD

 

[MacRob46]

I agree with Dave that the barrel is probably bored off center. Had that problem with a Numrich barrel on a rolling block once and my rifle was shooting about like yours. Easy enough to tell if the barrel is bent because you can check that with a straight edge. Poor crowning which is not uncommon in mass produced guns could also be the problem and that can definitely be fixed if you want to spend a little money. Good luck.

 

[Tom Compton]

Runout is not uncommon in barrel making. Some manufacturers bore a bar then put it on centers and mill the flats to be parallel to the bore. Many barrel makers stamp their barrels on the flat that should go down to keep runout vertical and avoid a situation such as yours.

I would contact the manufacturer and ask for a replacement barrel.
TC

 

[trigrcreep]

I think Im in the same boat on a build.My barrel fits the channel just right one way butif its flipped a few flats-it is off center and must be forced in the channel.Im on the verge of ordering another barrel.

 

[EC121]

It might be the flats that are off a bit. The bore might be fine. If you have a good metal yardstick, lay the edge of it on the sides of the barrel and look for light.

 

[azmntman]

I have had two different guns (rifles) that had the rear site all the way right and the front all the way left. Shot very accurately but looked like hell! I had no mentors or forum to discuss this with back then and sold em cuz the looked so "off". I would bet now that they were bored off center. I know they were not bent per the use of a straight edge. :idunno:

 

[pa woods roamer]

Contact Lyman. They did have a run of Barrels that were drilled off center. I`m betting that they will replace it.

 

[azmntman]

I replaced it (sold it) and as it was "back in the day" likely replaced it with coors :shocked2: :idunno:

 

[LRB]

Problems with POI can be corrected by bending, so long as the problem is an off centered bore.