I've never before bored a hole this long with such a high aspect ratio through steel; ⅝" almost 5" long.

First try, I broke about an inch off the end of my pilot drill right in the middle and after a lot of work failed to rescue.

Second try, I used a larger 3/16" 6" aircraft drill as a pilot, but it wandered. I ended up using a 2-flute ⅜" end mill in both ends for alignment and drilling through, which got me close enough for final drill and ream.

#machining

I think I finally understand why it wandered. Read an eight-year-old thread on hobby-machinist.

https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/carriage-drilling-adapter.21869/post-948875

Carriage Drilling Adapter

The main thing that makes me hesitant about power feeding a drill is that you can't feel it. Other than subtle changes in sound, you have no hint that something is going wrong until something breaks.

The Hobby-Machinist