Need to bend my barrel.........

[Macon Due]

Hi all,I guess I need to bend the barrel a little on my fowling piece.It shoots shot and round ball both to the right.With shot it is not too bad but with ball it is several inches to the right at 25 yds.The sight [front only] has already been set off to the right enough to notice. but has not solved the problem.
I have an arbor press and have been thinking about the process but unsure of exactly how to proceed? Could someone give me some guidence please?
Thank you.........Macon

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

Sorry see your having this issue.

There are actualy 3 processes that can be used to solve this issue.

The first is to wedge the barrel in the crook of a tree and spring the barrel a bit and try it.

The second I found in the "Gunsmith Kinks" series, it involves a couple bags of shot and "whacking" the barrel on the shot to get the adjustment.

The third involves a solid bench, some blocks, a c-clamp, and an accurate way to measure the applied deflection. Put the barrel on a couple blocks at each end and a third block on the barrel in the center and apply the clamp and pressure.

Alot of try and shoot with each of these process'

I am sure that others will chime in here as well.

Good luck.

 

[Dausener]

I know this sounds like scary stuff. When I finally got the nerve up to bend the barrel on my fowler I was terrified. :shocked2: Mine was shooting about 6" low at 25 yards. I tried the "C clamp" idea first but I didn't have much luck with it. I ended up taking out the barrel and setting it on a couple of short 2x4s on my garage floor and stepping on it. Yep I put all my weight on it about 180lbs or so. I tried a few time first with less weight or pressure, whatever you want to call it. However, those barrels spring back and it take some force to get them to move. In my case the gun was shooting low so I set the barrel on the 2x4s right side up and stepped on the center area.(top side) I think if your gun is shooting to the right you'll want to set your barrel left side up on the 2x4s and step on the center area to put the pressure on for the "bend". Go slow. It may take a couple tries. Place a rag or towel over the barrel so you don't mess up the finish on it. Have shooting sessions as you go to check your progress. I thinks it took me 5-6 times before I felt it was acceptable. Others may have better ideas but this worked for me. Good luck

 

[Mike Brooks]

Last one I did was with 4 x 4's on the floor and jumping up and down on the barrel. Check with a straight edge between jumps to see if or how much bend you got. Repeat untill it shoots where you want it to. No big deal really. :idunno:

 

[Rifleman1776]

No big deal really.

Sez you. I'm still trying to unpucker just at the thought of doing it to mine. :wink:

 

Let me add a fourth method.
Place a soft board, pine or something like that, on the ground to protect the muzzle and use the tire of a truck or car. The tire gives enough to prevent kinking and spreads the bend over a longer radius.
The guy that showed me the trick built a lot of percussion shotguns over the years and won five national trap championships (NMLRA) in a row so the method qualifies as tried and true.
I have to admit that it scared me a little the first time I watched him do it, it was a barrel from one of my guns, but I became a quick convert.

 

[roundball]

Surely in this day and age some outfit other than T/C has a laser guided barrel alignment machine...they've already had one for at least 15 years I'm aware of.

If it was me I'd find such a place, send the barrel to them and get it done right, as opposed to forks in trees, hammers, cars, etc...start out by calling barrel companies like Rice, GM, and so on.

But that's just me...

 

Surely in this day and age some outfit other than T/C has a laser guided barrel alignment machine...they've already had one for at least 15 years I'm aware of.

If it was me I'd find such a place, send the barrel to them and get it done right, as opposed to forks in trees, hammers, cars, etc...start out by calling barrel companies like Rice, GM, and so on.

No disrespect, but barrels were ”¦.regulated”¦. for centuries before all the high tech stuff existed.
I have successfully tried and used the method I described, and I’m sure others who have posted can say the same of their methods.
It isn’t necessarily about making the barrel straight, it’s about making it hit where you point it.

There is an old story about one of Bill Large’s customers complaining to him at Friendship about a barrel that didn’t shoot straight. Bill fixed the problem by placing the barrel across two pieces of firewood and hitting it in the right spot with another piece of firewood. Sometimes you just have to make do with what you have.

But that's just me...

 

Well, I screwed that one up.
Somehow I managed to insert my reply in a quote of Roundball's post.
I'm sure y'all can figure it out.

 

[roundball]

And worse, no reply was even necessary.
I think we're all aware of how things used to be done...barrels used to be made of iron too but we're all not rushing out to buy iron barrels. I simply added my opinion on a more precise capability available today.

 

[AJFedak]

Here is a link to my setup to bend a barrel. You just have to try to get past the yield point in order to get the barrel to take a new set.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/554849/

 

[fyrfyter43]

Last one I did was with 4 x 4's on the floor and jumping up and down on the barrel. Check with a straight edge between jumps to see if or how much bend you got. Repeat untill it shoots where you want it to. No big deal really. :idunno:

That's exactly how I did mine. Sure, it was a bit scary doing it for the first time, but it only took a minute and certainly helped. My gun was shooting about 10" low at 25 yards. Now it's about 1" low at 25 yards and 4" low at 50 yards. After some more load development I'll tweak it a bit more to get it shooting right where I point it.

 

[Ft. Jefferson]

I've had to bend several barrel to get them shootin true, and the first lesson i learned was that it takes a whole lot more pressure than you'd think, at first. I used a 20 ton press and a dial indicator to measure my progress. I was shocked at how much movement it took to gain results. Sometime as much as 7to1. Modern barrel are so much stronger than the old wives tales would have use believe. The "spring back" in our steel today is phenomenal. Bending barrels is not for the "faint of heart", but then, shootin smoothbores isn't either. We are a nation of rifleman, and will always be! Smoothie shooters are a separate state, er state of mind. And must be approached as such. A local, now defunct, club had for decades reigned supreme in the smoothbore community. Many of it's member's using original Curly Gostomsky Old Northwest gun's. They/We all understood the difference, and the fact that we're in the minority. Using the term's accuracy and smoothbore in the same sentence was simply silly. Kinda like Indy vs. Nascar. Same game, different rules. If'n when ya'll step over that line into the world of smoothie's, ya gotta understand it's a whole nother world, hell, it's a whole nother planet. It took me almost 3 yrs to figure it out, but then again, i'm a slow learner. Since then, I've became a better rifleman because of it. And a better smoothie shooter as well. All that has changed is my expectations. It's hard to fight an uphill battle if'n ya don't know what's at the top. My retrospect; Buzzard

 

[Mike Brooks]

I have an original ca. 1730's French trade gun barrel that has more bends in it than a dog's hind leg. :haha: This bending stuff isn't rocket science and it certainly doesn't take lasers or high tech equipment to accomplish. :shake:

 

[ohio ramrod]

I find the best way for me to control the bend is to use a bench with two blocks and the barrel set between the blocks and clamped solid at the blocks. Then I use a pipe clamp in the area I want bent and bend the barrel using the pipe clamp. I measure both the amount of bend and "springback " using an indicator. The use of the indicator allows me to measure both the amount I bend the barrel and how much the barrel actually springs back. Also I have noted that when you get the desired bend you often have to relieve the inleting in your stock so you don't pull the barrel back towards the origional straightness.. Until you have actually measured the bend and spring back it is amazing how easyily a barrel will bend and then spring back. :idunno: :idunno:

 

[Macon Due]

Gentlemen
Thank you all for the input I believe you have given me the courage to bend my barrel. I really appreciate your time.
Macon

 

[ApprenticeBuilder]

You Can Do It !!!!!!

:thumbsup:

 

[sutherland]

Some years ago I did some experimenting bending a 28-inch long 20 gauge shotgun barrel. I used a section of 2X4 the length of the barrel, on each end of which was fastened a short piece of 2X4 with a vee cut in it. And I used a separate piece of vee-cut 2X4 about six inches long on the opposite side of the barrel near the middle of the barrel. I put this whole assembly in a large machinist vise and tightened the vise carefully. It was actually pretty easy to bend the barrel this way, almost too easy. A little tightening on the vise handle goes a long way. The barrel tended to spring back some after loosening the vise. There is kind of an art to doing this and it may not work with ML barrels. I realize your barrel is longer and probably thicker than the above but I hope this information helps. Good luck with that project. Let us know how your straightening job turns out and how you did it.

 

[Dane]

I've done both rifle and smooth barrels with a 4x4 on each end and a large c-clamp in the middle. Use a straight edge and varied sized drill bits between it and the barrel to measure your progress.

It's really quite easy. It may take a couple of times to get it where you want it.

(My split the difference between a crook of a tree, and a laser bore sighter)

 

[Capt. Jas.]

I've done both rifle and smooth barrels with a 4x4 on each end and a large c-clamp in the middle. Use a straight edge and varied sized drill bits between it and the barrel to measure your progress.

It's really quite easy. It may take a couple of times to get it where you want it.

(My split the difference between a crook of a tree, and a laser bore sighter)

That is close to my approach. I have "adjusted" many a modern shotgun barrel over shot bags back in my Remington repair days though.