404, I can't see that potato 'flesh' and steel comparison really works. Raw potato can't be bent into different shapes that will retain any strength but steel often can. Without cooking and mashing a spud there is no way it can be forged into different shapes the way steel can.

Risking another false analogy, the pattern left on the outside of hammer-forge-rifled barrels shows that patterns emanating from inside the tube can be seen outside.

Akjeff, I've thought about your point, too. I seem to remember reading somewhere that firearm barrels can bulge as projectiles go through them and contract again, anyway, like a a snake digesting a mouse. This sounds hard to believe, especially because it might affect the solder in double guns and rifles, but maybe some of these mono bullets don't just shear off the offending bits of driving band as they hit the rifling but cause more than the allowable stress all the way up the barrel.

- Paul