Curious result from dumb gun smithing mistake

by stonewalrus, Wednesday, June 04, 2014, 12:06 (3767 days ago)

My wife tries to keep me away from power tools...
Awhile back I couldn't get the set screw out of the front sight of my Taurus Mil Pro and tried a small human powered hand drill. When that wasn't working I resorted to a power drill {note to self, disassemble gun first!!!}. Well, zipped right through and pinged/dimpled the barrel. It did not penetrate the bore so I put the new sight on and have continued shooting it. Never could hit with it so I picked up a new barrel on eBay figuring to trade it off. Strangely enough I shot it last weekend (was not going to trade it if it didn't function) and lo and behold it is a real shooter now!! Strikes me as interesting that with no visible damage to the bore by replacing the barrel it became much more accurate.

That is my dumb do it your gun smithing story of the day. I did learn something - if it ain't real simple, take it to a gunsmith and #2 THINK twice, drill once. Oh, and have I told you I HATE Heinie Straight 8 sights! I am not sure that the original barrel was any good - I started this mess because I couldn't hit anything with the gun, assumed it was the sights.