How to figure out where barrel is bent?

[Ames]

Perhaps the barrel is straight but the bore ran out the whole length. Not a bend but around the corner shootin gun.

 

[oldwood]

Ames , you may have pulled me out of the fire. Reason this might be possible , evidence.....Back in the day , late 1960 's , and early 1970's , just about all the rifle barrels used , had bore run out. Barrel makers simply flipped the run out end to the breech , rifled and plugged the barrel , with the run out to the bottom flat No harm , no foul. All those barrels were used with great success. I'll re examine the bore with you're suggestion in mind. This barrel may have needed to be flipped before outside milling and breeching, and in error , wasn't..............Thanks Ames...oldwood

 

[Ames]

Even a blind squirrel.........................

 

[Zonie]

Ames , you may have pulled me out of the fire. Reason this might be possible , evidence.....Back in the day , late 1960 's , and early 1970's , just about all the rifle barrels used , had bore run out. Barrel makers simply flipped the run out end to the breech , rifled and plugged the barrel , with the run out to the bottom flat No harm , no foul. All those barrels were used with great success. I'll re examine the bore with you're suggestion in mind. This barrel may have needed to be flipped before outside milling and breeching, and in error , wasn't..............Thanks Ames...oldwood

Another "fix" for the runout found in old muzzleloading barrels like the ones made by Douglas was to determine which way the bore was headed relative to the outside octagon.
Let's say the muzzle end of the bore was close to a side flat on the right.
By rotating the barrel so that right flat became the top flat, the bore would be pointed uphill if it was installed that way.

With this in mind, the builder would mark that new "top flat" and install the breech plug so that the "top flat" was on the top of the barrel. The barrel was then inletted into the stock.

By doing this, a simple adjustment to the height of the sights would be all that was necessary to get the gun to shoot to the point of aim.

 

[oldwood]

Zonie....... Question ...memory test...Do you remember if Douglas and G.R. Douglas barrels were marked on the bottom flat according to bore run out , so as to make sure which side the bottom of the plug was to be oriented ? I don't remember having to fuss around finding which flat had the run out. I think I just installed the plug into the barrel , label down. Also a comment, When I started visiting Getz's barrel factory in the early 1970's , I questioned Dick about bore run out , and he said drilling run out was a thing of the past. He did confirm they occasionally had to straighten a barrel bent in milling the exterior flats .. ........ oldwood

 

[Pete G]

Older barrels were marked on the bottom flat to compensate for runout. A bent barrel is a different matter.

 

[Boomerang]

So what makes you think it is bent?

 

[Col. Batguano]

Check out you tube and the Springfield armory for WW II Garand production. They did everything by eye, and it seems that almost every barrel got at least a little bit of tweaking. It was a big wheel they cranked to apply leverage between two fixed points. Even with that relatively crude method, and eyeballing it for straightness, sights were remarkably centered on the barrels.

In the ones I've had to straighten I just clamped a couple of wood blocks in my vice and pushed on it. You fan feel it when the bend in the barrel is starting to yield, but I have to admit that it's something of a "pucker factor" process because I certainly don't want to wreck the barrel and put a kink in it.

 

[oldwood]

Boomerang.......I've seen a bent .58 cal an oct. to round barrel. Was easy to determine if bent because the barrel could be layed on a counter and rolled on it. The bend could be seen about 1/3 back from the muzzle. Conversely , the bend could be discerned where the external bend was located by looking through the bore. The only unusual rings in the one in question seem to be w/in the last 6" toward the muzzle. Beginning to think I might just put the barrel in a stock, and see if it shoots. I give up........oldwood

 

[Rudall]

One of the Pedersoli videos shows a barrel being straightened by hand. It seems to be a standard procedure there.

 

[oldwood]

Thanks Rudall for the help........oldwood

 

[Rudall]

It’s right here at 6:12 if anyone is interested.

 

[Eterry]

It was, is, and will be standard procedure to straighten bent barrels.
My gunsmith friend took an old brake band machine with foot pedal and modified it to bend rifle and shotgun barrels.
He says there's nothing to it...
Good luck.