Originally Posted by
Molly
I once bought one of those $25 Chinese air rifles that arrived with a badly bent barrel. It would have cost nearly as much to send it back as it had cost to buy it, so I decided to try to straighten it out myself, since I couldn't do any harm. It sounds like you're in about the same boat, so you might want to give it a try. It's simple, easy, and won't cost you anything but the time.
Don't laugh, but I went out to the barn where I had a set of really heavy steps. I inserted the barrel between two of the steps, with the bent area down and closest to me. In other words, put the bend right at the edge of the step or whatever you use, and lean on it a little bit. Did this several times, until a little progress was evident. You can get a good idea of progress by noticing how far you bent it last time, and bending it just a TINY bit further next time. The trick is to make haste slowly. No point in getting rid of one bend by getting another one. Then I took it out and looked it over to judge the effect.
There was some visible improvement, so I did it again ... and again and again, until I couldn't see any bend left. Then I took it out and shot it a few times, which showed me that there was still a little bit of bend left. Back to the steps for few more LIGHT treatments and test groups. When I was done, it shot very nearly to the sights at about 20 feet, so I just moved the sights to zero it in the rest of the way.
Result: A well salvaged barrel that gave groups plenty good enough for tin cans and mice in the hay. It would never win any benchrest matches, but then, it never would have anyhow. Results were good, cost was zip, nothing expended but a little time, and I was well pleased with the outcome. If it works as well for you, good enough. If not, you haven't hurt yourself any, have you? Good luck, and let us know how it comes out.