Jack K,
I watched my late friend Clovis LeJune hit one with a piece of 2x4, with a handle carved on it, twice. It shot where it pointed then. When he charged $25, the customer complained, asking Are you going to charge me $25 to hit my barrel with a 2x4? June answered No, that is free, I'm charging you to know where and how hard to hit it. After the customer left, he told me he had tried every way he could think of to straighten them, including putting them between centers in his lathe and pushing with the back end of a tool in the tool post. Since barrels are thin wall tubes, they are easy to "kink" if you don't know what you are doing. I've heard of others using the methods described above, and watched Helmut Kerner and Rudi Henneberger regulate one for me with a reamer. One turned the reamer from the breech end and the other "crowded" the reamer over to the side, with a "yoke". This just means "whatever works, works".
Mike
