I did look for a bend. I did it by looking down the bore and looking down the length of the barrel like I did when I shot aluminum arrows and didn't see anything obvious. I didn't see a bulge but I admit that if it was small I could miss. would it stand out or is it a "trained eye" sort of thing? The bore does look real shiney and clean though. When I picked it up I cleaned the bore with lead and copper solvent and then cleaned until patches were clean. I would think a bulge would stand out right?