Mirage and Bending barrles

[flint62]

Is there any difference in mirage between a browned barrel and a bright one? I shoot a 62 fowler that is browned and after 2 or 3 shots the mirage coming off the barrel is horrendous.
I'm wondering if a...non-browned barrel would be a better choice.
Secondly, the thought of bending the barrel on my gun is giving me apoplexy.
Ithas one of those small turtle sights on it. Has anyone ever tried using a lower sight instaed of bending the barrel?
thanks in advance for your interest. YMHOS Kevin :hatsoff:

 

Kevin, if ya whittle off the front sight you'll get more mirage. Bending barrels is as easy as falling off a log. Get a piece of bar steel about 1 1/2" sguare and about 20" long and put a wood block at each end for padding the barrel. Put the barrel in a good heavy vice(I use a post vice for this) with your straightening jig. If your barrel is shooting low, put the top of the barrel facing away from your jig and start cranking the vice. Look through the bore(Breech plug out) and look at the concentric rings reflected through the bore. Bend the barrel past what you want to finish up with as most barrels have spring to them. If it has given and you have bent the barrel some, stick it back in the gun and shoot it. If it isn't bent enough bend 'er some more. Takes a little time but if I can do it you can do it. I used to be nervous about bending barrels to but there isn't anything to it. I would think a shiny barrel would give you more mirage than a browned one. JMHO though.
:hatsoff:

 

[Stophel]

I'm finishing up a smoothbore gun now and I have NEVER seen as much mirage as on this gun, the barrel was barely warm, and it was warm outside (the barrel is still quite shiny). My barrels are always left white, and none before has caused such shimmering. I'll gray it up before I'm done.

I am bending the barrel too since it was shooting about a foot low at about 25 yards. I bent it some yesterday and now I have to shoot it to see what it is doing.

 

[squirejohn]

I too have thought about bending the barrel on my 20g - 42" barrel fusil. However I'm concerned the barrel may kink since the OD at the muzzle is .73" and at the transition point just before it goes to octogon is .95". This is quite a difference in barrel wall thickness.
The OD barrel on another 20g smoothbore is .813 at the muzzle and .930 at the transition - not nearly as large a differential in barrel wall thickness.
My question is: Has anyone bent a barrel with such a large difference in wall thickness? Can it be uniformly bent throughout the barrel?

 

[squirejohn]

A brown barrel would have less mirage than a bright one. A gentleman who was on the U.S. International smoothbore team told me that to minimize mirage they painted their barrels flat black.

 

[Mike Brooks]

The bend doesn't take place uniformly from end to end. I bend mine somewhere between 1/2 to 2/3 of the way from the breech.
The only bore I've seen "Kinked" from a bend was involved in a car wreck and was bent at a wicked 90 degree angle. Even after straightening the bore was ruined.

 

[Runner]

I used several clamps to put the pressure on mine so I could keep a smooth continuous arch to the barrel. Mine starts octagon and has no wedding band. It then tapers slightly to the muzzle. It also has an under rib that I left in place. Using a block under the front of the rib and one under the octagon part with three clamps along the length allowed me to bend where I thought it was needed without putting too much pressure in one spot. I have bent mine three times so far. I still need to move it a little more. My next adjustment will be on the ribbed portion only. Mine bends a lot under pressure, but then returns pretty much to the original shape when you let off, so I am going real slow.