Barrel Turning??

[Lee]

OK, I know that filing the front sight, or adding to it, is one method of adjusting elevation. But in another thread I saw the term "barrel turning" as a method of adjusting windage. Can anyone explain, or point me in the direction of more information?? I'm curious how this works. Thanks...........Lee:wink:

[jobo12]

The cylinder is removed, the barrel is clamped into a barrel vise, and a piece of wood (or padded device) with a long handle is inserted into the frame "window" and the barrel is turned minutely to compensate for windage errors. All this is theoretical to me, I've read articles, seen pictures of the process, but never witnessed it for myself. I don't think its the sort of process that an amateur like me would like to attempt (at least not on a favorite piece).

[KCSO]

Hold 'er Knute...
Chunking a billet of wood into the frame window and cranking may get the job done, but it may also bent or warp the frame. If you want to turn from the frame end you need to make or buy a properly fitting jig to clamp the frame in to evenly distribute the pressure. I prefer to clamp the frame solid in a jig and turn the barrel with a wrench that is basicly a barrel vise with a 2 foot handle. Now on to the job itself...

If you need to turn the barrel tighter to correct the windage you have no problems as mostly just a scosch of turn is needed and you can always crank tighter. If you need to loosen the barrel to bring it in you have problems as you don't want a loose barrel. If I have to turn the wrong (loose) way on a barrel I always take it out and run the shank end in a rolling mill to expand the end that butts up to the frame. I then turn it in till it is some off the witness mark and try it and shoot and turn and try until the windage is in. All of this above is why in a lot of cases the old timers took a padded wrench or pliers and just bent the sight the way it needed to go. The old guns had a thin blade and this was as good a cure as any. With modern guns that have thicker sights this is a sure way to break the brazing on the front sight and if it doesn't fall off in your hand it will when you shoot it. I have found any number of old guns that have had the front sight replaced with a dovetail sight and that is a perfectly valid option.

[44man]

You can make almost any gun shoot to point of aim by changing boolits and loads. There is never a reason to ruin frames, over tighten or loosen a barrel. Front sights break easy too. If you shoot the same load only and hit way off, you have to bite the boolit and aim off.
My friend bought a new SRH and was shooting WW loads that hit so far left, the rear sight almost ran out of adjustment. He was cussing the gun so I brought over handloads with cast and jacketed. All of my loads hit center with the sight centered.

[Lee]

OK, that explain it as far as a small adjustment right??? But I once had a .38 special that shot over a foot:shock: to the left at a range of 12 feet. It seemed to me (intuitively) that I would be better off barrel "bending" that ********* to regulate the POI, that a minute turning would not be enough. I do understand this right? More than a minute amount of barrel "turning" would result in a "leaning" front sight??? Anyways, thanks for the replies..............................Lee:wink:

[44man]

Sometimes it is the gun. I bought a new Ruger Mark II once that when I shot, the bullets hit the ground right in front of me. There were no visible defects. Crown was perfect and the bore was straight and centered. Ruger replaced the gun but never told me what was wrong. I never seen a gun before that had bullets leave to bore and go almost straight down. It was fun to hold the gun out level and watch bullets tear up the ground about 10 yd's out.

[NVcurmudgeon]

[QUOTE=44man;167182]Sometimes it is the gun. I bought a new Ruger Mark II once that when I shot, the bullets hit the ground right in front of me.

That gives "Don't shoot yourself in the foot" a whole new meaning.

[44man]

Sure is. It was the strangest thing I ever seen. You could measure the gun for weeks and not find a single thing wrong. It was like the barrel had a hinge on top to bend down at the shot.

[ace1001]

I wnoder if you had recrowned the barrel? But better to let Ruger handle it.

[44man]

The crown was perfect and didn't even have the tinyest burr. They gave me a new gun and probably hung the other one on the wall as a mystery gun.

[scrapcan]

as a little more education material I offer some additonal findings in old gunsmithing books.

Another method is to use a press and use it to bend the frame slightly to bring poi into line. Then you would use the sight bend method to bring POA into line with POI. I have not seen this done but have read it a couple of times.

I have seen barrels bent many times for changing poi on shotguns. But hat is off topic.

[lovedogs]

Rugers are notorious for having leaning front sights. I've had two .44's, a .357, and a .38 that were that way. All were corrected "no questions asked" by Ruger by turning the bbl. in the correct amount so the sight was straight. As for attempting to correct a windage problem by bending a sight or turning a bbl. in, it'd result in a leaning sight if it were straight to begin with. Maybe I'm too much the perfectionist but I don't want a leaning sight. I'd rather have it right in case I want to get some elevation by holding high and still keeping things straight in line. If I couldn't get things to shoot right by altering loads I'd either have a good pistolsmith fix it or have it rebarreled. With a proper fix I'd have more confidence in the pistol and feel better about it knowing it was right.