Wasn't there a time when Krags were banned from some contests because they were out shooting the then new 1903 Springfield?

On any kind of production when you have things a little out of tolerance you hate to scrap them, so barrel to barrel could show some variation, because of all the personalities of individual barrels, the one that could have been scrapped might shoot better than the one accepted after new tooling was installed in the line and the process dialed in. You just never know.