Yes, hammer forging can induce stress. That's why there is heat treating.
More and more manufacturers are producing fine shooting rifles with hammer forged barrels. Remington, Winchester, Sako, H&K, Sig, and many more use them. Savage is about the only remaining manufacturer to use button rifled barrels.
FWIW, I bought a Rem. 5-R Milspec that shot .5 MOA out of the box with hand loads, even with the POS X-Mark Pro trigger. Also got over 10,000 rounds through it before I had to replace the barrel due to accidental damage.
There are many that feel "forging" creates a better piece of steel with the granular structure being more evenly distributed from one end to the other.
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