I like my barrels to seat on the frame with the front sight about 5 - 10 degrees before vertical. This would equate to about 12:30 - 1 o'clock if the middle of the topstrap is considered to be 12 oclock. This is a good bit less than the factory settings. If the barrel starts getting tight too far in advance, by the time the sight is vertical the bore has been squeezed down in size where it goes through the frame. This contributes greatly to leading and poor accuracy. I have seen them as much as .002 smaller in this area than the rest of the barrel. You can check this by dropping gage pins down the barrel one at a time. One that just fits in the muzzle should slide all the way through with no hesitation. If it stops at the front of the frame, you can try smaller sizes until one goes on through. A small dial bore gage will give more information, but those are very expensive and few gunsmiths have them.
If you have a gun like this, you can remove the barrel (it will spring back to shape when the pressure is off), turn back the shoulder a bit and reinstall it. With less "crush" fit, the barrel will then be the same size all the way down and work much better.
