Flexing a barrel

[Juniata]

Everytime I bring up this practice it seems like people's heads want to explode.
I bent the barrel on my smoothbore upwards to get it shooting... Since then killed 2 doe. (I did this even after I filed my the front sight down it still shot low.)

I did it with my rifle after building it.
The gun shot too low and I didn't want to try to the file the front sight and potentially scuff my barrel which I worked so hard to get to the desired finish it had.

Barrels are soft, it usually doesn't take much to "bend" it and get it shooting to your desired POA.
On multiple occasions a barrel manufacturer and gun builders both told me they do this with their barrels if need be.
Obviously if sights can be altered some, you just as well do so.

I originally bent my rifle barrel because of original low impact and had it shooting high...I then realized over time it just shot too high for my liking. This week I took it in and out of the gun firing a few shots per alteration and flexing it in my vise till I got it shooting just perfect.

I will say I went too far the one time and could physically see the hump in the barrel. Scared the tar out of myself... But realized its nothing I can't undo.... I flexed it back and it straightened back to how it was originally, at least to the naked eye. It then shot high just like before I started. Then I was more gentle with the multiple pulls of the barrel in vice. Bingo....got it shooting perfect.

Have you ever done this?

 

[Nameless Hunter]

I guess you're not alone...

 

[muzzlediscipline]

every manufacturer had a barrel straightening step Don't know if the do it now with modern machinery but it seems a trained eye can easily set a barrel true

 

[Sam squanch]

I have a old Lorenz musket that was converted to a shotgun years ago. The barrel is bent slightly upward and to the left. Best shooting shotgun I own. Patterns where you look, which was the original idea.

 

[oldwood]

Think I'll just keep doing the same thing I've been doing for almost 50 years. Slightly higher front sight , and put some tape on the top of the barrel so file doesn't touch the barrel finish. Shoot and file. Never fails and didn't have to remove the barrel to bend it.

 

[mhb]

Altering the sights is a far better plan than bending the barrel in cut-and-try fashion.

mhb - MIke

 

[Muddly]

But it is HIGHLY traditional! Bully for you for taking the risk and doing it old school.

 

[martin9]

I'm a barrel bender myself. We just had a discussion about bending a fowler barrel yesterday.

 

[Juniata]

Altering the sights is a far better plan than bending the barrel in cut-and-try fashion.

mhb - MIke

I agree unless it takes a lot.
In my opinion I like sights true, so if it needed moved left or right it could be shot in by moving the sights but then then one or both sights are off center and that would bug me.
Up and down adjustment can be filed within reason. I took my front sight to the shape I wanted and domed it during the build. Not something I wanted to touch with a file once I got it looking rounded and slender.

 

[EC121]

I have seen a few barrels that were off beyond sight adjustment. The only fix was to bend them.

 

[rchas]

I have bent a fowler barrel to get it to pattern to point of aim. I've never done a rifle barrel -- I've never needed to. But if it was a choice between having badly off center or too high sights and bending a barrel, I would bend it.

 

[akroguy]

I have an Armi Sport 61 Springfield hitting high and right. Put the barrel across a couple of sand bags at the ends and stood on it.

Yeah, graceful. I hope it works!

 

[ohio ramrod]

I had a trade rifle that needed bent to bring the point of impact up. But every time I remounted it it would "unbend" So I put some shims in the stock and bedded the barrel with beeswax, so that the pins would draw the barrel to the "bent" position when I clamped it into the stock and inserted the pins. Problem solved.

 

[Brokennock]

I had a rifle with a bent barrel, bought it used, didn't realize the barrel was bent to the right. I got the sights dialed in at 25 yards, putting the group far right at 50 yards, when adjusted for 50,,,,,,
yup,,,, you guessed it, shooting left at 25 again. For windage adjustment, bending seems a bad idea. If the sights are both so far off that to get dialed in they are at opposite sides of the barrel flat, something else must be wrong. And even at that, it's just an esthetic issue if one doesn't like how it looks.

I can almost see doing it for extreme elevation problems. How does the stock fit the barrel after that?

 

[Artificer]

I had a rifle with a bent barrel, bought it used, didn't realize the barrel was bent to the right. I got the sights dialed in at 25 yards, putting the group far right at 50 yards, when adjusted for 50,,,,,,
yup,,,, you guessed it, shooting left at 25 again. For windage adjustment, bending seems a bad idea. If the sights are both so far off that to get dialed in they are at opposite sides of the barrel flat, something else must be wrong. And even at that, it's just an esthetic issue if one doesn't like how it looks.

I can almost see doing it for extreme elevation problems. How does the stock fit the barrel after that?

GOOD question!

I'm not completely against bending barrels after the gun leaves the factory, but that is the question one has to consider when doing it. If you have to bend it too much, you risk the fore arm cracking when you put it back in or when shooting it.

Gus

 

[bubba.50]

Whatever you do, don't do it after consuming a quart of moonshine. My uncle 'flexed' his 870 trap barrel at a turkey shoot one time & ended up being able to shoot around corners with it. LOL

 

[Juniata]

I had a rifle with a bent barrel, bought it used, didn't realize the barrel was bent to the right. I got the sights dialed in at 25 yards, putting the group far right at 50 yards, when adjusted for 50,,,,,,
yup,,,, you guessed it, shooting left at 25 again. For windage adjustment, bending seems a bad idea. If the sights are both so far off that to get dialed in they are at opposite sides of the barrel flat, something else must be wrong. And even at that, it's just an esthetic issue if one doesn't like how it looks.

I can almost see doing it for extreme elevation problems. How does the stock fit the barrel after that?

It is so minimal of a bend you can hardly see it.
The gun was only 5 to 6 inches high at 50. It didn't take a while lot of flexing.

 

[M. De Land]

Everytime I bring up this practice it seems like people's heads want to explode.
I bent the barrel on my smoothbore upwards to get it shooting... Since then killed 2 doe. (I did this even after I filed my the front sight down it still shot low.)

I did it with my rifle after building it.
The gun shot too low and I didn't want to try to the file the front sight and potentially scuff my barrel which I worked so hard to get to the desired finish it had.

Barrels are soft, it usually doesn't take much to "bend" it and get it shooting to your desired POA.
On multiple occasions a barrel manufacturer and gun builders both told me they do this with their barrels if need be.
Obviously if sights can be altered some, you just as well do so.

I originally bent my rifle barrel because of original low impact and had it shooting high...I then realized over time it just shot too high for my liking. This week I took it in and out of the gun firing a few shots per alteration and flexing it in my vise till I got it shooting just perfect.

I will say I went too far the one time and could physically see the hump in the barrel. Scared the tar out of myself... But realized its nothing I can't undo.... I flexed it back and it straightened back to how it was originally, at least to the naked eye. It then shot high just like before I started. Then I was more gentle with the multiple pulls of the barrel in vice. Bingo....got it shooting perfect.

Have you ever done this?
Lots of barrel makers used to do this and apparently some still do but no straightened barrel will ever be as good as one that is bored straight in the first place. That is why Harry Pope would not waste the time to rifle a barrel that did not bore straight. The reason is because when a barrel is bent straight it is a stressed barrel and usually they will move when they heat up and move the point of impact.
I've had a few brand new barrels I've mounted on HIght power rifles that would hold point of aim for three or four shots and then start scattering them as they heated up . My guess they were factory straightened barrels . I see no reason the same would not happen to a straightened muzzle loader barrel that heats up in a match in hot weather.

 

[Britsmoothy]

I have done it several times but just don't like knowing it is bent and being able to see it so I my preferred method is to influence the muzzle or crown. It is more discreet but equally gets folks panties all in a flap.

 

[Okie Hog]

Bent some barrels myself, will probably do that with .54 caliber barrel i,m having trouble sighting in. Juniata is right , if you overdo the bend a little it can be corrected. My old muzzleloader mentor was an accomplished gunsmith who built his own locks. He had a fixture for bending barrels.