All SxS doubles bend their barrels in order to regulate. If you think about it, the chambers must be perfectly perpendicular to the breach face or the action wouldn't close on chambered rounds. If the barrels were left parallel for their entire length they would always shoot wide, as the gun swings to the right when the right barrel is fired and vice versa. I'm the first to admit that the idea of bending a barrel seems strange, but we are only talking tiny fractions of an inch. During construction the art is in trying to find the right amount of toe in for the selected load.

After that the art lies in finding that 'magic' load that balances a host of often conflicting factors (ie, more powder gives more recoil but less barrel time). My 10 bore took 3 years to go from crossing 9" at 30 yards (with the "historic" load)to parallel by going through almost 40 combinations of cases, powders, wads, cards, lengths, patches, crimps, and lubes. I think being able to simply pick the load YOU want then tune the barrels to that is a godsend.

I'm also interested in what you learn from this and what patterns you find. Please keep us posted!

Bob