I was lucky enough to have worked for two rifle importing companies. One of my responsibilities was to test and report on rifles that had been returned from the customer for lack of accuracy. One of the tests carried out before the rifle was test fired was to visually inspect the rifle for any noticeable flaws. I can recall finding a very few with splits in the recoil abutment area in laminated and synthetic stocks. There were a couple of rifles with fibre glass stocks with thin spongy areas on the outside of the stock which were unacceptable but were not the cause of accuracy problems. Being short sighted, l could focus on the bore of a rifle barrel to check for defects. I could see defects which other people simply could not see. We didn’t have a bore scope in those days.  Chatter marks, rotary scratches, pitting and rifling deformation were observed. A batch of rifles turned up with chatter marks down the bore so noticeable that it looked like crocodile skin scales to my eye. You could feel the chatter marks as you put a cleaning rod down the bore. I went crook at the international sales manager, a real nice bloke, who said “ Bill, how do they shoot” I said “Fine”, so he said “What’s your problem then?”.  He was quite right of course; the objective of making a rifle was reliable function and appropriate accuracy which these rifles delivered. I pulled my head in. 

            While working on Remington rifles I can recall finding only four which failed accuracy standards. One was the first Model Seven in 260 calibre which we received. It was due to go for test fire. I was tasked with ensuring rifles were properly set up, scoped, screws properly tightened, and zeroed so that the journalist did not have to dick around. The rifle could not keep all the shots on an A4 page at one hundred. We abruptly changed the test fire for another rifle and looked at why the rifle wouldn’t shoot. Steve slugged the bore and found the diameter was .2649 (inches); within spec but definitely top end. The bullets miked at .263.  No wonder it didn’t shoot. Production rifles did not show this problem. We kept that rifle as a “loaner”, it racked up a significant tally of deer in the hands of all sorts of hunters some of whom commented on its accuracy.

            We had another rifle which had a bore diameter way too fat at the muzzle, Steve speculated that heat treating had caused this problem. We had a varmint rifle without obvious faults which did not deliver adequate accuracy, within spec but not up to the rifles reported accuracy potential. 

My own 7Mag had an unusual fault. It was a seriously accurate and effective rifle which I used a lot. One day, having access to a reverse electroplating bore cleaning system, I hooked up the 7 mil after cleaning it thoroughly. The charge flowed which I didn’t expect as it would only do so in the presence of copper. And it kept flowing. Much longer than I’d experienced with other rifles. When the light finally went out I took the rod out of the bore and saw a strip of copper exactly the width of a land and about three inches long stuck to the rod. It was situated about half way down the barrel. Clearly there was a segment of rifling missing which had filled up with copper. My rifle shot fine.

            While working on Sako and Tikka rifles I don’t recall seeing any flaws in their barrels.