A barrel's outside contour is less important to me than how the rifling is formed inside the bore. Most all factory barrels are hammer forged and are not made with the tight tolerances that many custom barrels are.Theyare also quite rough compared to a custom hand lapped, button or cut rifled barrel. Go to Lilja's site and check out the video he has comparing the inside of a factory Remington barrel to one of his own. It's pretty interesting.You'll find it at www.riflebarrels.com