To bend your barrel or not that is the question?

[lbothell]

So my trade gun has always shot low, to the point that needed a to add a makeshift rear sight (which I posted about here) bc it was hard to be consistent. Now I know the answer is shoot more shoot more, and I agree with that but I one am limited on time with the kids and two I really didn’t like the sight picture I was getting at that. I like my bead right above the tang screw and mine was so high I had way to much barrel showing. Iv talked to people about bending your barrel, the one gentleman said he was having trouble and his buddy wedged it between the bumper snd the car (this was in the 70s bumpers could handle that then haha) and bent it so shoot more true. I’m not against that at all but I wanted to try something first before I did that. Now my barrel is pretty thin compared to most so this might not work for everyone but it has worked so well for me I’m able to get rid of my makeshift rear sight and be consistent. I completely disassemble my gun removing the barrel, I then put a small square piece of leather in the front of my stock. I started with the tang screw and worked my way forward putting the pins back in. The pin right before the very last one I had to compress the barrel a little to get that pin in and it was a little tight bc there was the leather wedge in the front but by doing this it lifted the tip of my barrel slightly. The final pin I couldn’t get in obviously but it’s rock solid and I’m content with it. I could alway redrill it but I will wait to do that maybe at a later time but for now this works. What this did was give me a better point of aim, it raised the tip of my barrel up enough that I can pretty much use my tang as my rear sight and not have so much barrel in view, I’m almost shooting right off the deck so to speak. Like I said before this might not work for everyone and yes in time I’m going to make the front wedge more permanent but for now this will do fine to get me through the late deer season. The pictures below show the wedge and how it lifted the barrel off the stock and also it shows what my point of view was and how it now lowered it when I shoot. I did go out and shoot and it has proved to drastically bring my shots up and again making my point of aim much better. Hope this might help someone else

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Have bent a few, even rifles, and the late, great Kit Ravenshear even describes the process of bending MZL barrels to align the PoI to the PoA, in his booklet series on barrel work.

Beware that many here don’t advise it, nor think it possible … but yet they’ve never bent one either, so there …

 

[lbothell]

Have bent a few, even rifles, and the late, great Kit Ravenshear even describes the process of bending MZL barrels to align the PoI to the PoA, in his booklet series on barrel work.

Beware that many here don’t advise it, nor think it possible … but yet they’ve never bent one either, so there …

No I agree I know ppl wont believe it can be done there seems to be a lot of that at times haha but it is metal and metal CAN bend. Iv heard of guys also wedging it in between two trees to bend their barrel. I figured this method might be a good substitute to bending and for those who don’t want to bent the barrel they can try what I did with the wedge at the front end. Flint62smoothie I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and the fact that you have already done it

 

[akroguy]

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.

 

[lbothell]

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.

Well I agree with that! Like I said I’m not against bending not at all but I don’t want to go past that comfort level. That’s why I did what I did and it worked for me. You probably wouldn’t have to move it much to get it from shooting right it’s just a matter of like you said that comfort level.

 

[64Springer]

I've unbent a lot of bent precision things, but never a barrel.

If I were to unbend a bent barrel, it would be between to rollers with a dial indicator atop the bent area.

Try to remove some bend, reroller it and use the indicator to check progress.

Under no circumstances would I try it any other way.

.02

 

[skwerleater]

I bent a 14 gauge smooth barrel to hit point of aim. There was a noticeable whip, or curve in the barrel from breech to muzzle. The barrel was shooting very much to the left. I took the barrel out of the stock, placed wood blocks on the floor at either end of the barrel and bent it in the opposite direction by placing downward pressure on it via my foot and my body weight. After two attempts which required reassembling the piece and shooting it, the barrel was shooting to point of aim on the windage.
You should be able to do the same for your elevation.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

The old story back in the day was to "put in in the crotch of a tree". While this sort of works, it requires lots of shooting and tweaking the barrel and then maybe the sights as well. Most gunsmiths have jigs that can do this fairly effectively using screws and optical bore sighters. I don't think I'd care to try to bend one by hand.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Go ahead and bend your barrel I have bent lots of them in the past 40 years. It's easy. Your wedge is clever. It will cause your front barrel lug to fall off shortly.

 

[Fitzhugh Williams]

I have done it using a steel table (used in building race cars) and some very large c-clamps. I took careful measurements and made sure I got the bend that I wanted. Worked fine.

 

[Rawhide67]

I bent an octagon swamped barrel to correct poi. I would be hesitant about bending a thin walled barrel. Seems like it would be easy to get a link, if not done with proper tools.

 

[Anvilboy]

I have an old Stevens single barrel 12 ga modern gun. I bought it as I hunt turkeys and didn't want to carry more gun than necessary. The seller said it was a turkey shoot gun - everyone shoot at a paper plate and who ever puts the pellet closest to the center wins. But, here in SC anyone can use another's gun to shoot the match. This gun had the barrel bent so that only the owner knew where it would hit - this one hit high and right. I tried and tried to bend it back and finally ended up taking to a gunsmith to get it closer to point of aim.

 

[lbothell]

Hahah

I have an old Stevens single barrel 12 ga modern gun. I bought it as I hunt turkeys and didn't want to carry more gun than necessary. The seller said it was a turkey shoot gun - everyone shoot at a paper plate and who ever puts the pellet closest to the center wins. But, here in SC anyone can use another's gun to shoot the match. This gun had the barrel bent so that only the owner knew where it would hit - this one hit high and right. I tried and tried to bend it back and finally ended up taking to a gunsmith to get it closer to point of aim.

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

 

[ohio ramrod]

Almost every barrel I've had shipped to me came through with a bend. I made a simple way to accurately "straighten" the barrels. 1. Take the edge of a solid table.2 place known thickness blocks at each end. 3.place barrel on the blocks "high" side up 4.. Use a heavy pipe clamp in the middle and draw the barrel down to the table. Repeat with higher blocks until the barrel comes out straight. The barrel will always have some "spring back". The same method could be used to bend the barrel.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Almost every barrel I've had shipped to me came through with a bend. I made a simple way to accurately "straighten" the barrels. 1. Take the edge of a solid table.2 place known thickness blocks at each end. 3.place barrel on the blocks "high" side up 4.. Use a heavy pipe clamp in the middle and draw the barrel down to the table. Repeat with higher blocks until the barrel comes out straight. The barrel will always have some "spring back". The same method could be used to bend the barrel.

I do the same thing on the floor then bounce up and down on it till it bends.

 

[lbothell]

Go ahead and bend your barrel I have bent lots of them in the past 40 years. It's easy. Your wedge is clever. It will cause your front barrel lug to fall off shortly.

Why’s that??

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

It will, mark my words.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Has this method simply bent the wood? The barrel is stiffer than the wood!

 

[Britsmoothy]

Trade guns are usually shot in a head up position so you do see plenty of barrel.

You may be better off trading for a smooth rifle. That is an assumption.

 

[JHB]

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.