22 barrel reline gone bad ??

[Harlow]

I had an old Meriden 22 rifle barrel relined here a while back and find it hard to believe it shoots as far off as it does. At about 25 feet it shoots about 8" to the right and there is not enough sight to get it on center. The barrel does not seem bent and the liner appears to be in the center of the barrel. The bore seems straight when looking thru the barrel and the sights don't seem that far off when bore sighting. Could the liner be curved a bit in the barrel??
I had a local gunsmith reline a 22 WRF before and that shoots fine, so I had him reline the single shot. I finally got to try the gun out and it does not look good. I read another thread on bending barrels and am beginning to think that might not be a bad idea. Thoughts??

[MarkW]

I'd have the person who relined it inspect it first, especially the crown as it sounds like that might be the issue. The math doesn't work out for a crooked liner or bent barrel- 8" at 25' works out to be a little more than 1.5 degrees. If the barrel is 20 inches long, 1.5 degrees is about a half inch so no way to do that without the liner running out the side of the barrel by the muzzle. Anyway, if the gunsmith is not around any more try looking at the muzzle very carefully with a bright light and magnifying glass and start from there. If the crown looks damaged there's plenty of DIY's on the web about how to re do a crown with hand tools but since you already have a problem I'd say find someone with a lathe.

[Dufferin]

During relining it would be almost impossible for the bore to be drilled wrong or "off" as a drill will follow the existing hole and has to be in the same location as before. There has to be some tolerance obviously to slide in and glue the liner in place. That would not cause that large a impact change though . I guess like others have suggested to get it re-crowned with a piloted crowning tool so you can be sure that the crown will be "true" to the bore.

[Shawlerbrook]

Love to here from John Taylor on this one. This is a similar story on another site about a relined Marlin.

[country gent]

Look thru the bore at a bright sky. If the bore looks round its straight, maybe not parallel to but it is straight. if it appears oval then its bowed or warped.

[Harlow]

I have cleaned the barrel again and it does look straight and true. I looked at the crown in a very bright light and it appears there may be a crescent shaped shadow in the bore. This shadow seems to be about 1/8" deep and tapers off on each side. The shadow covers about 1/4 of the circumference of the bore. Could the liner have been collapsed a bit when cut off and is now deflecting the bullet? Re-crown or take 1/8" off the barrel and re-crown?

[Winger Ed.]

I'd take it back to the guy who relined it.

Even when someone here nails it, it will still most likely need to go back to a shop to be corrected.
Relining barrels, or correcting them is not a DYI sort of project.

[John Taylor]

Had a customer bring in a #4 Remington with the same problem, shoots 8" to the right at 25 yards. I could not see anything wrong with the liner or the work done. I had a few other gunsmiths look at it and we all agreed that there was nothing visible that would cause the problem. I don't know who did the work or who made the liner. I replace the liner with one made by TJ's and it shot to center. Never did figure out what the problem was but the new liner fixed it. If it is a TJ's liner he may warranty to liner, he has replace one or two for me in the last 20 years.

[Harlow]

I took this rifle back to my gunsmith over a month ago and told him the problem. I think he first thought I did not know how to adjust sights, so he first put the gun in the vise and moved the sights. He then went and tried a couple shots, came back and adjusted the sights again. A few more shots and he said just leave it here. He had been very busy and would look at it when he could.
He called a couple of days ago and said he had it done and it shot very well. Three bullets touching at 25 yards. He said he had done hundreds of reline jobs over the years and this was the first that he ever had a problem with. He cut a bit off the barrel and re crowned it. The liner must have been dinged a bit from the start or collapsed a bit when it was cut off. We think the bullets were actually tumbling some by the looks of the holes in the target. I am happy now with the reline and the gun shoots well