Shotgun barrel bending

[rockrat]

I had an H&R 12ga that shot about 2ft low @50yds. Put the barrel in a closed vise, just thru the opening and gave a tug. By the time I got it shooting where I wanted it, it had quite the "dogleg" bend in the middle of the barrel. Used it crow hunting and shot thousands of rounds thru it. Turned it into a slug gun, by cutting off the barrel and soldering on sights. Man , did I regret that later.
Tried to find a replacement shotgun like the one I had. Took me 35 years to find another one. It had a heavy, 36", full choke barrel

[quail4jake]

The bending process I've seen was done with shot bags on a table and a well controlled swing of the barrel done by 40+ year veterans of Trap all of whom are no longer with us. I think it is only done on single barrel trap guns without an adjustable rib, one I watched this process done on was a Kriekoff single...I would call ATA and see if they can set you up with anyone for advice.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I'm a bit disappointed...

There are photos of old time gun factories, like Mauser, where a device that looks like a steering wheel is mounted horizontally on the top of a vertical pole, with a window or a light behind. The factory worker would stick the barrel between the spokes and could turn it this was or that while looking through the barrel at the light source and observing the reflection's line in the bore, then bend it against the wheel as needed. DG

Barrel Straitening presses are not new, but are not needed as much now due to refined manufacturing techniques.

They also had a bow with a fine wire that was inserted into the barrel and used as a reference line to see where the tweak needed to be.

However, if you really want that gun, and don't want to destroy it, find someone who knows exactly how to do it and let them do it for you! Beating it against a Telephone Pole or Reefing on it between two pieces of wood is kind of a hit and miss type of technique.

Your chances of success on the first time are about 99:1 against you. And you only get one chance.

I have been a Machinist/Toolmaker for 40+ years. I own a machine shop. I am actually pretty good at what I do.

I am marginally good at things I don't know how to do, and as such I consult others more knowledgeable than me on those subjects,,, or I let them do it for me,,, after I have established that they in fact do know what they are talking about..

Sometimes it's better to be Lucky than Good. Sometimes it's better to know your limits. Sometimes it is better to know who is FOS and who's not.

Randy.

[samari46]

Remember the old workmate folding workbenches?. Of you still have the orange or black stick two on one side and one in the middle on the other put a piece of pine spacer on the middle one and slowly crank the handles on one side. The pine spacer should be positioned where the center of the bend is. Might need different lengths of pine so cut a couple ones longer than what you started out with. Either that or take out the plugs on one side and use 3/4" dowels on one side and use a plug with the pine. Frank

[Petander]

I have a nice Benelli Raffaello 20 gauge.

It was shooting one foot to the left when aligned with the barrel beads. No matter who was shooting. After reading the whole internet about the topic , I used a door opening to bend it.

You can see the bend part if you know where you look at. The barrel blueing shows it.


I like the gun so much, I thought I rather destroy it than live with the problem. Now it's great!

Up/down can be corrected with stock fit a bit easier. But there's a limit.

[Shopdog]

The pictures of what the factories use,that I have seen have been a Flypress. I've used one a little as a blacksmith friend has one. In fact,I picked it up for him. Can't remember the manufacturer but,was early 1900's. After cleaning it up a bit it's been in his shop now for 10? years seeing moderate to heavy use. Very hard to describe the "action". Oh,it looks simple enough studying pics but,that doesn't give you a clue as to how darn accurate these pieces are. When he got it,I was(and still am) committed to big,fully kitted hyd. H frame presses,yadayada. And they do a fine job,UNTIL you only want to "bump" things into alignment or to finesse a part into shape. A Flypress can't be beaten,blacksmith artisans love them.

[beagle]

Was "borrowing" a 50 yard range from a local gunsmith one time as it was the only one around. We were shooting handguns. The owner came out with a really nice Model 12 Winchester as said he needed to bother us for a few minutes. Put up a target, fired a shot, looked at the pattern and put up a fresh target. Went to the bench where I was shooting and there were two tree stumps there about 4 feet high that I'd wondered about. Took that Model 12 and put the barrel between them and gave a grunt. Fired another shot, replaced target. Came back and repeated the process. Fired again and replaced target and fired again. Said okay, you can go back to shooting. I asked and he said he was regulating the barrel. This was a pretty well known gunsmith with a fine reputation. Later on reading, I found that this was an accepted procedure among gunsmiths./beagle

[Boogieman]

Support the ends of the barrel on wooden blocks along the edge of a heavy work bench. Put a block where you want the bend use a big clamp to apply pressure. Measure to check for spring back

[Nobade]

A fairly recent Savage catalog had a picture of a guy in their factory straightening barrels with one of those tools with the big wheel. I would love to find one of those for the shop, so many recently made rifles and especially the Portuguese Winchesters are coming in with barrels crooked enough that they won't bore sight unless you use a windage adjustable base. Being able to straighten those barrels would sure be a big hit with the customers rather than telling them how much it's going to cost to install a new barrel on their brand new rifle.

[Petander]

It's interesting how loose tolerances there are for factory shotguns, even a bit more pricey ones.

One foot to one side @ 35 meters "is within specs". This is very clearly noticed when patterning shot ammo and makes a gun useless to me. You can not " adjust" your brain to that when shooting.

But it is surprisingly common.

[Geezer in NH]

My shop used the 3 bags of shot method of bending. Breech on on bag , muzzle on the second bag, Hit the barrel in the middle with the 3 bag.

Shoot to test, repeat if needed.

[skeettx]

RU shooter
Any update?

[RU shooter]

Yes I did get a chance to play around with it at work and did manage to move it about .030" the way I did this is after looking at a few pictures on the web I made up a jig and placed it in our press brake to apply the middle pressure . It's a cnc controlled hydraulic press so I could control the ram depth easily in calibration mode placed a dial indicator to see how much bend it took when I raised the press. It had a lot more spring back than I thought it would have . Haven't had a chance to pattern it yet but if it needs more it should be easy enough to tweak it a bit more .

[lightload]

Many years ago Remington taught law enforcement armorers to adjust 870 riot barrels by bending the magazine tube which was hit against a bag of shot. S&W taught armorers to adjust fixed sighted revolvers poi by hitting barrel with a babbitt bar which was included in armorer's kit. I saw both methods used at one of the nation's largest prison systems by factory trained armorers.

[ascast]

A fairly recent Savage catalog had a picture of a guy in their factory straightening barrels with one of those tools with the big wheel. I would love to find one of those for the shop, so many recently made rifles and especially the Portuguese Winchesters are coming in with barrels crooked enough that they won't bore sight unless you use a windage adjustable base. Being able to straighten those barrels would sure be a big hit with the customers rather than telling them how much it's going to cost to install a new barrel on their brand new rifle.

I made one years ago for a friend from a rotted out apple press. The frame was there and working. Bolted to a table, I used wood blocks to support the ends at whatever distance I needed. Another block on the shaft and it worked OK. I took the bend out of a bunch of Winchesters he had. I got them all back to shooting condition. Some were bent twice. Some bends were very noticeable like 2 inch off at the muzzle. Thge screw feed was fixed to accept a 2x4 and the square thread shaft was about 2 inch. I could generate a lot of force with that. None of these were very very good shooters to begin, rusty, pitted, cut barrels, but they were straight and would shoot when I was done. I had to make holding blocks of epoxy for the octagon barrels. Should make short work of a shotgun.

[gunshot98]

I chuck them up in my lathe and have a small scissor jack. I put a dial indicator in the middle of the barrel. I put pressure on it in the direction it needs to go. I go a little at a time till i get it where i want. Have done a bunch this way. Works for me.

[2152hq]

All this bending of bbls!

In this case, the bbl is straight. The OP says it's the aftermarket large dia orange bead front site added that is making the shooter point the gun low,,thus shooting low.

Bend all you want, but I'd leave the straight bbl alone and simply put a lace on cheek pad on the stock.
That'll make the shooter point the gun higher and it'll shoot to a slightly higher POA with that front bead.
In this case that's what you want.

Bbl's can be bent fairly easily. Best done with some control of the situation like clamps and/or a jig to hold this tight.
Yes lot's of them have been bent in tree limb Y's and over shotbags and other ways. Many successfully.
But they never show you or tell you about the failures, especially the shotgun bbls which are just a piece of tubing.
They can easily crimp and buckle. Then they become 'Riot Guns' if they can still be salvaged.

Packing the shot bbl solidly with damp sand was another 'trick' to help prevent the bbl from crimping on you when doing an out the back door bending project.

..and yes you can divert a shot pattern by carefully opening the choke in the direction you want the pattern to go. It takes some time and testing as you go and of course you are opening the choke up some by doing so. But a shot bbl that does not shot to POA can be moved quite a few inches by the technique.
Different loads and even shot sizes will all have an effect on the pattern before and after the work just like any other shotgun.

[turtlezx]

iam with 2152 a small front site would put gun back to point of aim
cheek pad if more is needed