old douglas barrel

[Gaeckle]

I have been gifted an old Douglas barrel, the dovetails for the underlugs have been cut in......there is run out (usual) and the underlugs have been cut on the side where the stamp is. This side is also the thicker side of the runout, the topside of the barrel being thinner. How will that affect sighting it in once the rifle is completed?

[mikeyfirelock]

Built a few rifles “back in the day” with Douglas barrels with run out.   This is not a great concern.....standard advice was to make the run out vertical so the sights would be more or less centered.  Generally so that the runout would be “ uphill”  and the ball drop less ...at least that was what I was always told.    Sounds like that was what was done in this case.

[jerrywh]

I bought some douglas barrels back when and that was the standard. Answer is yes.

[Stoner creek]

I recently finished a rifle with a runout Douglas barrel. I breached the barrel with the runout at the bottom. I’ll be shooting it on Thursday.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I presume the run-out i9s at the breech end, and the bore is in the centre of the muzzle.
If that is the case, and the bore is closer to the top of the barrel at the breech, the bore is pointing low while the barrel is level.  That will in effect mean that you'll need a lower front sight and a taller rear sight to get the ball in the bull.  Another way to think about it:  If your sights were the same height above the top flat, as they frequently are on parallel octagonal barrels in the .45 cal range, your gun will shoot low, as that's where the bore is pointing.  Unless i"m all wet!

[Daryl]

 Much depends on the last 6" of the bore, whether they "run-out" off centre or not.  If the last 6" are square with the world, there will be no angling of the 'shot'. If, however the hole/bore
is straight, but on a straight-edge angle inside the blank, then the ball will follow that angle, compared to the sights & as Taylor indicated, the ball will be projected at that angle, compared to the
top flat.
When a barrel heats up, it will likely bend towards the thinner flat/direction, causing even more shot displacement. It's best to have a perfectly straight hole obviously, but that doesn't always happen, even when the holes come out in the middle of the blank, both ends. The drill can wander inside the barrel and it does, at times. The better the equipment, the less likely this can happen
but it still does.
It's a $#@* shoot, but will likely be OK.
Oft times, the hole comes out not in the middle of the blank, however the rough bored barrel is  then chucked up on centres and the flats milled giving the appearance the hole was bored straight. Douglas bored octagonal blanks, with the flats already there, thus when the drill wandered, that became a standard barrel, not a XX (special) higher priced barrel.

[Bob Roller]

Bill Large got an undrilled octagon blank and was drilling it at 5/8 of an inch per minute
and the drill hit a flaw of some kind and was twisted like a corkscrew and broke it off.
The drills were single point carbide and were on a hollow shank that had a "V" groove
so the oil pressure generated by the drill's oil pump could get rid of the shavings.
I remember it was 32 caliber and later,by turning the blank in a lathe I did recover the
carbide point.I THINK the material was 1144 "Stress Proof"and was not normally sold
as an octagon bar.I don't know where it came from.MAYBE someone had a round bar planed or
milled octagon and sent it to Bill to be drilled,reamed and rifled.Too many years gone by
now to remember a 'one off" incident.
Bob Roller

I thought it was the LAST INCH of the barrel on any kind of rifle that determined the
value of the shot.

[Daryl]

Could be Bob, but 6" for sure, that magic number.

[JBJ]

I seem to recall that Douglas stamped name and specs on the thin side of the breech and that SOP was to stock the barrel, trademark down. Following the "conventional" wisdom of that time period, that was what I did on my one experience with a 13/16" Douglas barrel in .40 caliber. It was an absolute tack driver and I wish  it still belonged to me! I have a vague recollection Douglas barrels that were centered front and breech were marked XX and priced accordingly.
J.B.

[Marcruger]

I was taught that runout was not an issue as long as it was oriented up or down. The only difference is the relative heights of the front and rear sights.

Now anything other than up or down....yikes. I had an amateur build rifle with runout oriented side to side. The sights had to be hung way off the sides to print on paper. Not what you want.

Even on modern barrels claiming no runout , I’d spend the five minutes to make sure.

God Bless, Marc

[Daryl]

I had a longrifle made by a fellow here in Southern BC, with a .50 GM barrel, mounted with the runnout side to side. Unfortunately, the run-out was inside the bore, with
muzzle and breech ends in the middle of the barrel.
It was impossible to sight the rifle in, without having front and rear sights opposite and at the very outside of the dovetails. Weirdest thing possible, but the only recourse
was to re-barrel it, which Taylor did. That one, another GM barrel, was perfect.