Well I got the Smoothbore, but now...

[Billy Boy]

Not sure I'm confident enough to do this properly but I like the idea. I'm assuming the barrel will be bent in the same direction a front sight would be moved, which means follow POI correct?

I bent one of mine by placing it on a covered work bench, shimmed up on each end. The shims brought the barrel up about a quarter of an inch. Mine was only ’adjusted’ for windage. I struck the barrel with a 3# dead blow hammer, put it together, shot it, repeat as needed. The closer to the breach end the blow, the bigger the change downrange. Go slow,

 

[Dismount]

How do I make it shoot straight? As you can see, the gun shoots great, but for me, it shoots high and right, even with shot. I was able to play with my sight picture a little bit and bring this bad boy down to zero, but whose to say in the "heat of the moment" I'll be able to to maintain that sight picture? The gun in question is a Centermark Fusil.

I flung that shot closest to the black, but this is the load. 90gr of Olde Eynsford 2f, .600 roundball dropped onto the powder, held in place by a wad of flax tow at 25 yards. This is repeatable, tested this more than once, same results until I started playing with different sight pictures, so I'm not asking for load ideas here.

View attachment 99738

So with all that being said here, what should I do? Install a rear sight? I can't do anything with the front sight as it's soldered. Just keep using the sight picture that brings it down to zero, and stop pole vaulting over a mouse turd?

 

[Dismount]

Bend the barrel in a tree fork with padding against the tree. Put a straight edge on it to determine how much to bend. I have watched it done and it works

 

[Britsmoothy]

The only time I bend a barrel is for vertical adjustment. Horizontal I file the muzzle. If its a double barrel I only file the muzzles.
One of my guns shoots right if I mount it all centered up. If I mount it relaxed my eye is looking down the left side of the tang. It shoots good enough then and is repeatable so I've left that one be.

 

[Toklo Etee]

Travis,
Every flint smoothbore gun I shot in competition had to be flexed to get it to shoot point of aim.
In your case......if that was my gun I would pull the barrel.....get two 2 X 4 blocks(really only 1 1/2" tall) .......place the blocks on a hard floor......place your barrel on the blocks at the muzzle & breech........ because your shooting right.....your touch hole should be against the block.........take the heel of your hands and flex the barrel in the middle moving a few inches from center....... Then turn the barrel so the top flat of the breech is on the block and repeat.....this is to drop the impact of your ball..........the pressure is always applied to the side of the barrel opposite of the ball impact......... The goal is trying to cause a long gradual bend that may only a few thousands of an inch but it will move your POI at 25 yards......assemble the gun & shoot from a bench to check results.........the attached picture is the final results from a gun my son bought........it was shooting 6" to the right and about as high as your group........
.612 ball, Spanish Moss for wadding & 60 grains of fffg.
I had to pull the barrel a couple of times to get what I wanted but now he can take the same sight picture & we know the gun Is on @ 25 and just a little high @ 50


Good luck,
David

 

[Texas Gil]

Try a stiffer load, my smoothie likes 120 Gr 2f. It was shooting left with 80 Gr , kept increasing load and it centered at 120. Good luck

 

[Travis186]

Try a stiffer load, my smoothie likes 120 Gr 2f. It was shooting left with 80 Gr , kept increasing load and it centered at 120. Good luck

I did try this, which obviously brought POI down but it was still right, and my already bad shoulder was none too happy. 90gr is fun and sounds cool, 120 just flat out hurt.

 

[rj morris]

use a patch round ball. check bore diameter. ball maybe to small. i shot smoothbore for 30 years always used a patch

 

[sawyer04]

So am I supposed to bend this barrel right in the middle then?

I would study the barrel first, especially on the muzzle end. Is the barrel exactly square at the muzzle? If it isn't is letting the explosive gases exit early on one side, thus throwing the round one direction or another. Yes, I have seen barrels bent, and it works, but I would scrutinize the barrel muzzle first.

 

[Texas Gil]

I did try this, which obviously brought POI down but it was still right, and my already bad shoulder was none too happy. 90gr is fun and sounds cool, 120 just flat out hurt.

Ok then add a simple v notch rear sight, attach it with temporary glue without a dovetail. Then shoot and adjust left or right as needed.

 

[martin9]

Ya'll need to read the whole thread...he already bent the barrel and now needs to test it. Not a good idea to try 3-4 different things at once.

 

[Timber Wolf]

Good stuff, but I hope I never need to bend a barrel. I recently fitted an Investarms 20 gauge smooth barrel to a T/C Hawken stock. No rear sight, just a front bead and full length rib. I took it out and benched it with PRB and it was dead on for windage but wwaaaayyy low. But when I stood up on my hind legs to shoot like a man and brought it up to my shoulder where it pointed naturally and put the bead on the target and bang, dang if it was not dead on! Seemed like I was looking at a lot of rib but hey, if it is dead on when I just throw it up and pull the trigger I call that a big win.

 

[Travis186]

I would study the barrel first, especially on the muzzle end. Is the barrel exactly square at the muzzle? If it isn't is letting the explosive gases exit early on one side, thus throwing the round one direction or another. Yes, I have seen barrels bent, and it works, but I would scrutinize the barrel muzzle first.

Excellent point. Looks fine to me, but time will tell.

I will say, after further analyzing the front sight, it does appear to have been soldered on the barrel a little left of center, which would put POI far right. The barrel was bent as well though, and now it's actually straight after doing some adjustment last night. I suppose my next range trip I can take a torch with me and if it's not hitting perfect, I can pull the barrel out, heat the front sight up, and move it on over a little if possible.

 

[Woody Morgan]

Excellent point. Looks fine to me, but time will tell.

I will say, after further analyzing the front sight, it does appear to have been soldered on the barrel a little left of center, which would put POI far right. The barrel was bent as well though, and now it's actually straight after doing some adjustment last night. I suppose my next range trip I can take a torch with me and if it's not hitting perfect, I can pull the barrel out, heat the front sight up, and move it on over a little if possible.

That should freak out the black gun folk.

wm

 

[Travis186]

That should freak out the black gun folk.

wm

Whether it's antique BPCR guns, BPCR match rifles, or flintlocks, I usually get lots of stares, strange looks, and skepticism, until I offer for them to shoot them, and then they never stop grinning. If they only knew what they were missing.

 

[Britsmoothy]

One of my guns came with its front blade soldered on via a muppet!
Some folk nowadays just don't take their job seriously.

 

[flintsteel]

Almost every flintlock barrel I have has had the barrel bent. Back years ago over the course of several years I had rifles built for me. I had noticed on many originals that the sights were nearly always dead center on the barrels and was convinced the gunmaker sighted in his finished product and made adjustments by bending the barrels. With the malleable iron they used this was pretty simple. Steel used today requires much more bending to take a set. So I used to send the barrel back along with a sample target I had shot to Don Getz and he was a past master at giving them the proper adjustment. I seldom had to sent one back twice. All my guns now have sights dead center on the barrels. I believe Don would place 2x4’s on each end and use a hydraulic press to bend with.

 

[Travis186]

Well I'm here to report back, that the barrel bending has been successful... somewhat. Instead of 6-1/2" right we are just now a mere 1-1/2" right, which is something I can live with. The smoothie does still shoot about 4" high, but this may not be so bad considering I put 5 shots into a nice 2.5" cluster at 25 yards. I'll have to test it at 50 yards to really be happy. I don't reckon I'll be pulling the barrel out of the stock from here on out, unless that 1-1/2" right and 4" high ends up being twice as bad at 50 yards, which I imagine it should be about dead on at 50 and still just a little to the right, which I can live with.

I'm not sure how it's going to do with shot. I still need to test it.

 

[Travis186]

Couldn't leave good enough alone, so I did a little more bending. I noticed apparently my method was putting tiny tiny dents into the bore. Either way, I think I put just enough into it this time to bring it to dead center, and hopefully down a little. If I can get to the range tomorrow, I'll report back how it goes.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Dents!! How you getting dents?

I can see this barrel looking like a monkeys tale soon