To bend your barrel or not that is the question?

[Britsmoothy]

I guess there is only a few of us left that remember magazine add of the unmentionable gun manufacturer with the picture of the machine they used to straighten shotgun barrels.

Still in use today.

 

[waksupi]

On many trade guns I have shot, I needed to sight over the wedding band, and use the bottom of the front sight for point of aim. Once I figured it out, it was very consistent.
There is a tree outside my shop that I have whopped barrels on so many times over the last 40+ years, it thinks I'm mad at it.

 

[gemmer]

How far off is it? You can fill the notch or peep hole (depending on your rear sight) with JB Weld and cut a new notch or drill a new hole. You can also file off the front sight blade down to the base and hack saw a slot to the right and install a new blade.

 

[gemmer]

I would like to bend the barrel on my Armi Sport 1861 Springfield as it shoots right. I gave it a few pulls after clamping in a bench vise but haven't tried it at the range yet. I don't think it moved though....getting it to go past the yield point went past my comfort level and I pretty much abandoned the idea.

How far is it off? Fill the notch or peep hole(depending on your sight) on your rear sight with JB Weld and cut a new notch or drill a new hole to the left. There may be some trial and error before you get it right. You can also file the from blade down to the base, hack saw a slot in the base to the right and make a new blade to fit.

 

[springfield art]

Wow, one would have to be a real experienced technician to do something like that! I'll bet back in the old days, they did the "two trees" thing a lot, up in Appalachia, etc.

 

[springfield art]

Hahah

Hahaha sounds like a carnival game I played once, swore I was aiming dead center but was hitting the toys to the left

I saw that on an episode of Opie and Sheriff Andy, a traveling carnival had the sights cock-eyed or something; Andy caught on and they taught the carnies a lesson! Bet it was common at one time, I actually recall a midway shooting gallery where you were shooting real (I guess) CB cap .22's, imagine that nowadays. The older guys here will remember seeing that. Opie actually knew how to shoot, so was puzzled at his missing all the time. (Kids were taught to shoot responsibly at one time!)

 

[lbothell]

I saw that on an episode of Opie and Sheriff Andy, a traveling carnival had the sights cock-eyed or something; Andy caught on and they taught the carnies a lesson! Bet it was common at one time, I actually recall a midway shooting gallery where you were shooting real (I guess) CB cap .22's, imagine that nowadays. The older guys here will remember seeing that. Opie actually knew how to shoot, so was puzzled at his missing all the time. (Kids were taught to shoot responsibly at one time!)

I remember that episode! Hahaha

 

[dylan84]

I am not even seeing a rear sight on there. Add a rear sight....lol

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Frankly I have watched people do it, back woods style using a forked tree. Seemed to me a stupid thing to do. When H&H barrel shop was still near Baltimore, MD, I went up to order a special barrel and Hoppy gave me the tour and I remember him showing me a rack on a stand that had fine adjustments for straightening barrels. I remember him saying the thing could also straighten bores on off center barrels with the thing. (I doubt he ever had such a thing out of his shop, but they did sometimes work on other guns.) I would see if a guy like Bobby Hoyt had such a machine and could straighten it.

 

[akroguy]

How far is it off? Fill the notch or peep hole(depending on your sight) on your rear sight with JB Weld and cut a new notch or drill a new hole to the left. There may be some trial and error before you get it right. You can also file the from blade down to the base, hack saw a slot in the base to the right and make a new blade to fit.

It's about 5" right at 25 yds. I might resolder the front sight a little to the right and notch a new rear blade a little left (bought some from S&S firearms). Small tweaks on each to even out the adjustments Or just put on a rear, make a reference mark with a Sharpie and try some shots and file the notch IF it's not horribly off to the side....which annoys my symmetry OCD to no end. The bench is occupied with a Lancaster build and a Woodsrunner is incoming sometime early this (new)year so the Springfield is on the bottom of the to-do list!

 

[TC]

A question for those who have bent their successfully. Did it significantly change how the barrel fit back into the stock? Any problems with getting the barrel pins back in on a full stocked gun?

 

[smo]

I didn’t have any issues putting my barrel back in the stock..
But, I have seen others that did..
The main problem occurred when pushing the pins back thru the under lugs.
The pin tends too not realign with the hole on the opposite side…which can cause the wood to chip out …
Using a piece of wood as a backer will help & always put the same pins in the same hole and take your time reinstalling the pins thru the barrel lugs..

 

[Kansas Kid]

I’ve not had any problems getting them to line up. The wood will conform to the bbl. Just spring the bbl in the direction you want your ball to go.

 

[Alan Ruuska]

I guess there is only a few of us left that remember magazine add of the unmentionable gun manufacturer with the picture of the machine they used to straighten shotgun barrels.

I worked summers in a factory in Fitchburg, MA (Their relatives could be the makers of a paste wax ?). The call of "everyone outside to unload steel" meant a flatbed semi-trailer had pulled in with a load of 20 foot 1-1/4" steel bars. Their was no fork truck or overhead lift so it was all hands on deck. At my work station I received the now approx. 30" lengths of bar that now had a short tenon machined on each end. That allowed them to be mounted in the manual machine that I used to straighten the bars before the next machining step. The moveable scribe on the macine could be traversed along the bar and the bar rotated by hand to find the high spot. That spot was then placed over the ram of the machine and a large wheel like a ships wheel (but horizontal) was rotated to raise the ram against the scribed high spot. A much preferable job vs. working in the slag strewn miserably hot forge with open gas furnaces, power hammers, and deaf people.

 

[LRB]

On a clean barrel, pull the breech plug and look down the bore. If bore is straight, in good light, you will see perfectly round ring reflections all down the bore. If you have a bend, you will see where it is because the round reflections will have become oval where it is bent. Bend it back to where you see only round all the way.

 

[Sam squanch]

I read an article where a company was making trombones and saxophones. They would pour a mixture of water and plain dish soap in the tubing and freeze overnight. That allowed them to bend the tubing without it collapsing or getting a crimp in it. I guess the frozen dish soap would support the inside of the tubing. I may try this with an old shotgun barrel sometime…..

 

[French Colonial]

Bend it, if you support both ends measure carefully and use a press in the middle it works great.

 

[flconch53]

When I had my shop I kept an assortment of wooden dowels. I would find the one that fit and put that in the barrel to prevent kinking the barrel

 

[Crow#21957]

Like skwereater done except instead of body weight if you ca use a floor joist in basement or similar and use a small hydraulic hack. Or better yet bolt some angle iron to gather say 15 in or what ever to fit the jack in with barrel and go that way. I can see putting a slight arch in the barrel and then heating the barrel with propane torch.

 

[French Colonial]

Like skwereater done except instead of body weight if you ca use a floor joist in basement or similar and use a small hydraulic hack. Or better yet bolt some angle iron to gather say 15 in or what ever to fit the jack in with barrel and go that way. I can see putting a slight arch in the barrel and then heating the barrel with propane torch.

Why the propane torch???
to make the barrel take a set?