Why is does my French Berthier 8mm carbine have flyers always to the right

[Patrick Chadwick]

Well forget the powder,

No, don't. If you refer back to my previous posts you will se that I recommended not worrying about the position on the target, but the group size and how it varies with the load. OK, the sights were really off target, and it is obviously useful if you make a correction to bring everything back in the black. But your original problem was the flyers - and that has nothing to do with sights. Unless, of course, the sight is actually loose!

So I repeat my recommendation to carry out the grouping test as I described.

Patrick


---------- Post added at 11:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:54 PM ----------

Maybe the sights were set different for the carbines shorter barrel to compensate for drift using full powder issue loads?

Possible in theory, but in practice it would be hardly noticeable at 50 yards. Drift is a matter of external ballistics, not internal ballistics. It would depend on, amongst ther things, just how fast the bullet was rotating when leaving the muzzle. The sights were wrong, period. BUT just maybe, something else is wrong... like the barrel binding hard on one side of the channel - or even being loose! Or maybe the muzzle has a defect - asymmetrical wear, or a burr? Examine it under a watchmaker's eyeglass.