45 cal. Traditions

[krag35]

I bought a 45 cal. Traditions "Hawkin" rifle off an online guntrader place. I only gave 126.00 for it including shipping, so I didn't really get burnt. The problem is it shoots to the right. Not a little to the right, but a LOT to the right. I drilled and tapped the T/C peep offset to the left, and pushed the front sight all the way to the right. Still shoots to the right. I adjusted the peep all the way to the left, still shoots to the right. I mean the sights are so catywampus on it it looks stupid, and it's still 8" to the right at 100 yds. The bbl "looks " straight, no obvious bends in it. There is some SEVERE pitting in the bbl at the muzzle (1/4") back from the crown, could this be the problem? I"m thinking the ball is traveling down the bbl and hits this patch of moonscape, hangs up momentarily and this throws some kind of weird english on the ball as it exits the muzzle. Should I try to lap this thing out, or is a Green Mtn RB twist BBl in my future?

TIA

[frontier gander]

it could the pitting. Sounds more like an ever so slightly bent barrel but who knows

[waksupi]

Krag, I would take the barrel off, and give it a whack against a tree. Little dab 'l do ya.

[FL-Flinter]

Look at the crown, with the cheap made barrels quality has to be given up to keep the price down, I've seen several production gun barrels with muzzles that were not cut straight. If that's not it, bend the bbl a little, I use a tree and strait-edge to gauge where I'm starting from and going to.

[mooman76]

I was thinking of bending the barrel myself. The metal should be a soft steel. Remove it from the wood first and then check it with a straight edge to see if it is in fact staight. Maybe you can can cut off the end and have it recrowned. One thing I am thinking though if there is pitting at the crown there may be or probubly is down the bore farther too. You might need to put the breach plug to see though. How does it shoot otherwise concidering it shoots 8" to the right and how does it hoot up closer like 25 & 50 yards?

[bobk]

moonman76,
Good ideas, and I hope here's another: It doesn't matter if the outside of the barrel is straight, it's the inside that counts. I remember seeing a picture of a bore being checked with the breechplug removed, and a string through the bore tied at each end to a bow. This held the string straight, and enabled you to see how straight the bore actually was.

Bob K

[725]

Good luck. I'd cut the barrel first to remove the offending patch. Square and crown and see what happens. If that doesn't fix it, build a quick H frame and use a hydralic jack to gently bend it. Visual inspection can reveal plenty. Is the bore centered in the barrel? After awhile, a costs / benifits analysis may have you buying a new barrel. Of course, it's always nice to have a hobby project.

[mikenbarb]

:-DTry shooting a Maxi-Ball thru it to see where the POI is compared to a patched RB. That should tell you if the patches are hanging up in the pitting.
I just reread your post and try going the other way with your sights and see what happens. If your going to the right in front and left in rear it will hit to the right. I believe you want the rear to the right and center the front. It looks like your going the wrong way with the sights.

[Underclocked]

Green Mountain

[mooman76]

:-DTry shooting a Maxi-Ball thru it to see where the POI is compared to a patched RB. That should tell you if the patches are hanging up in the pitting.
I just reread your post and try going the other way with your sights and see what happens. If your going to the right in front and left in rear it will hit to the right. I believe you want the rear to the right and center the front. It looks like your going the wrong way with the sights.

I believe he's right. The rear sight should move in the direction you want the bullet to go i.e. move the rear site up to move impact up or right to move impact right and the front site gets moved in the opposite direction, right to move left and left to move right!

[krag35]

FORS (Front sight Opposite, Rear sight same) The bullet impacts to the right. Front sight moves to the right (opposite), rear sight moves to the left (same)

I recrowned the barrel today, and checked it for being square to the barrel ( outside ) I put a straightedge (rafter Square) along the barrel and found out that the barrel tapers unevenly along both sides. I put the barrel on the bench supported on both ends by wood blocks and whacked it with a lead hammer. didn't seem to make much difference, so I whacked it again, still no difference. I'll take it out and shoot it tomorrow taking along the hammer and blocks. This'll be the first time I ever tried to sight in a rifle with a hammer. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[frontier gander]

Green Mountain

even that company is scary with the problems they've been having!

[northmn]

The front sight is to be moved the direction the bullet is hitting the rear sight is adjusted to the opposite or the direction you want to move the shot. Bending the barrel is a step. You can clean up a crown with a Dremmel and a V shaped grinding wheel. Used them a lot. Some put emery over a counter sink. A very common cause of barrels shooting off is what is called runout. Douglas used to make barrels in which you were to put the Douglas name on top or bottom as they were not centered at the breech. One I had was built with the name down and still shot a little off to one side at close range and off to the other at longer ranges. Rebarreling a rifle is not a bad option but you may need to buy a seperate breechplug to do so. Standard threads are 3/4 X 16 for one inch barrels at 50 cal and up and 5/8 X 18 for 15/16 barrels and smaller bore one inch.

Northmn

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Generally speaking if you need to bend a barrel it's best to whack it over the head of the guy who sold it to you! If that's not an option torquing it in the fork of a tree works.

another method that I don't recommend include copious amounts of 4F and half a dozen minie bullets - that should straighten her out, right-quick!

On a more serious note, you can drop a bright empty brase center-fire case down the bore, headstamp towards the muzzle. Then shine a flashlight down and you should be able to see what the rest of the bore looks like and even make some judgments on its straightness.

Otherwise you could just consider it a "project gun". You could freshen it out to .50 or .54 caliber. You could bore it out and line it.

[JDFuchs]

recrown the barrel before thinking about bending it. It takes a lot of training to bend a barrel. With the rust pit takeing a gash out of the crown it causes the gas to push on the bullet unevenley throwing the bullet off. Trying a quick and eazy recrowning can save you a lot of truble.


Edit: Oh and if your still not happy with it send some pic's and ill see what i can offer.