Bent Swamped Barrel

[Slowpoke]

To make a long story short.... I got a bent swamped 42', 40 cal, 1-48 twist barrel in the mail. I called the maker and he said it sometimes happens in shipping. He's sending me out another one, and he told me to keep the bent one.

Now I have a barrel that I don't know what to do with, any thoughts.

S'Poke

 

A gun maker friend had the same problem, but the seller took the barrel back in exchange for a new one....his was REALLY crooked, but if yours isn't too bad I have heard that you can straighten them. The old timers did it all the time. OR, depending on where the bend is, you could lop it off and make a carbine or pistol???

 

[Slowpoke]

I thought about a pistol but the twist is to slow.

S'Poke

 

[robinghewitt]

Hi S'Poke

If you can see that it's bent, presumably you could see if it was straight? If it was me I'd try and fix it.

All you need are two blocks of wood, a big G clamp, a sturdy work bench and an eye for locating the bend.

Barrels are springy things so you have to take it past straight for the bending to work.

If things don't improve dramtically on the first two attempts, stop and think about it before going for #3 ::

best regards

Squire Robin
GHH

 

[more powder]

Hi SLOWPOKE I would like to buy the barrel e mail me and tell me what you want for it. wireman @[url] montana.com[/url]

 

[musketman]

Depending on where the bend is located along it's length it could be cut back to make a carbine barrel...

 

[LRB]

Try what Robin said, it works. I did it with a smoothbore. Took a half dozen tries to get right, but it finally did. Of course a smooth bore is easier to tell if straight as you will see anular rings as you look down the bore. If the rings look round and not ovaled, it's straight, or straight enough anyhow.

 

or you could use the old way of stretching a string through the bore and looking for its shadow where it does not touch...

 

[Huntinfool]

I don't know how good the streched string thing would work on a swamped barrel. If it were mine I'd straighten it. I have a gunsmith friend that bends em all the time if they are bent he just straightens em out.

Or if I didn't really need it I'd sell it to RON Vaughn.

Chuck :m2c:

 

...uhh, the outside of the barrel is swamped, the bore should be straight-sided. The string was used in old swamped barrels! :shake:

I don't know how good the streched string thing would work on a swamped barrel. If it were mine I'd straighten it. I have a gunsmith friend that bends em all the time if they are bent he just straightens em out.

Or if I didn't really need it I'd sell it to RON Vaughn.

Chuck :m2c:

 

[tg]

If the barrel is not breeched one may use as is if the bend is up to down (the sights could compensate for the bend) or if all the bend cannot be removed this may work, the theory is similar to positioning run out on a bore to be vertical.

 

WAKE UP GENTLEMEN!!!

We do not have enough information to be giving this person advice! All we know is that the barrel is bent. It may be a "warp" or a 90% bend, he did not say. Is it an A profile Getz or a C weight Colerain? Is he looking down the bore or looking down the "swamped flats"?

We are arguing about how to build the bending jig when we are not sure the barrel is even warped or if it is salvagable!

And the "twist too slow for a pistol" thing, what is that about? 99% of the origional pistols were smoothbores. Until you get to the international competition level you will not be able to outshoot that barrel on a 12" pistol even with 1/48 twist. Look over on our smoothbore section. According to that group you can expect 10 X accuracy at 100 yds with your smoothbore, so why not a 1/48 twist pistol.

we're jumping the gun on this one. We need more information from the origional post. :imo:

 

[robinghewitt]

I couldn't tell the difference between an "A profile Getz" and a "C weight Colerain" if it jumped up and bit me in the knee. Is it important ::

Slow Poke isn't excatly what you might call a beginner, I think he'd have said if it was a total banana :thumbsup:

One solution might be to put it back in the box upside down, then post it to himself ::

 

[Slowpoke]

Hi Ghost,
It a Rice "B" weight barrel. If you look down one on the flats, it almost looks straight. It's bent around 3/4 of the way down the barrel. I guess I could make a pistol out of it, but you know, I probably wouldn't sleep well at night knowing that it was a 1-48 twist.
To be honest, for something like that to have happen they must have dropped it at the Rice's place. The box was damaged but he does a ood job of packing.
Anyway, the barrel is solid and all worries are gone.

S'Poke

 

My specs show that barrel should taper to it's narrowest point at about the 3/4 area, down to about .718. You will be dealing with .159" wall thickness. If you cut the barrel at that point you should wind up with between 26-28" straight tapered tube. A very light straight tapered tube. If the swamped flat is bent to a straight plane you should be around .141" out of line.

Almost half your bore should be obstructed from view! They really gave that one a crank on the packing line! I thought only airlines were equipped to do that kind of work.

You may be suprised at how much preasure it takes to bend the barrel enough to get the kink out. I believe that before i cut it I would give it at least a try. I know they bend smoothbore barels around trees and truck bumpers, but I believe that for a rifle tube aI would rig up some type of fixture with a good garage door lintel, 2x4 blocks and a hydrolic jack.

Remember that this thing is going to try to crawl back to its bent profile When it warms up. I would attempt to test the tube for accuracy before I put much time into mounting it into a stock. You may never be pleased with how it shoots.

But when you think about it, some of those origionals must have come out of the forge with kinks more extreme than what you have. The old timers straightened them out and went right on with the project.

Good luck with this one! But what do you have to lose?

 

[Donny]

I don't know why it should not bend back straight. I have seen on a couple of TV shows about centerfire gunmaking, where during production, the barrel is eyeballed for straightness, several times. The worker bends it back straight, and rechecks it by just looking thru the bore. :applause: What have you got to lose, you got a free barrel. eace: