I am thinking about crushing up some viagra and mixing it in with some gun oil, Maybe that will straiten out the Barrel!!

I once met a known poacher in the Grahamstown area who was tipped off that the police were onto him. This very clever man heated the tips of his ZKK BRNO 308 and BRNO .22 rimfire barrels and bent them upwards!!! Clever man then cut about 200mm off the barrels with a hacksaw!

It looks to me like it was run over by a vehicle over soft ground, which allowed enough give for it to bend. Someone probably leaned it up against truck and truck backed over it.

But here is the weird part for me. I can't imagine being handed a soaking wet, soft gun case with one of my rifles in it and not immediately opening it and taking the rifle out of it the very instant I realized it was wet.

Larry: Yeah, those f'ing fools too! Jaco: Thanks. I'll add tools to the list!

On a "trophy" buck hunt in Aug '70. Cousin had his '06 in a saddle scabbard when the cinch came loose enough the saddle turned under the horse that hadn't been packed before. OF course it panicked and pulled Bill over backwards and took off down a real steep hillside busting everything up and scattering the rest. Tore a big hunk of flesh out of her hip too, destroyed a like new $400 saddle.

His rifle stock was broken at the wrist, barrel bent enough to be off 100 feet at 50yds, scope tube smashed, rails bent enough the bolt wouldn't come out at all even with butt of hand hammering on it.

My late gunsmith had another used stock on hand. Straightened the barrel til Bill claimed it had never shot as true before. Weaver swapped a new modle scope for $20. Gunsmith charged $20 for his work and 5 more for the stock. So for $45 he got back a better shooting rifle than it had been. Rifle was worth around $100 at the time.

Do believe I'd take a picture and hang that and the bent barrel on the wall to back up my reasons for "NEVER EVER loaning my rifles". Then stick to it.

Surely you'll have a new barrel put on and have the rest stripped down for a good cleaning and polishing, if the rust is bad enough it might need a rebluing too.

Surely you should bill the client. He just might offer to pay it, or part of it IF he's honest.

Wish you the best in getting satisfaction on the damages.
George

No possibility that the lion was around the corner?

Actually saw this twice while I was in the Army. True to the axiom that a soldier can break a crowbar...

One M-16 had been caught between the tank hull and turrent when it rotated, while the other had been run over by an armored personnel carrier. Replacement cost for the rifles at the time as I recall was about $98.

I think he hit a tree or a gate post. I have done that, not on a snow machine but on a four wheeler. I will bet a quarter that is what happened.

Tom

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:
I have read where the gun-makers in the old BSA factory in England straightened barrels after boring and rifling by belting them over lead blocks and looking through the barrel until they could see a perfect circle. This was the job of the good makers who could detect even the slightest bend by eye.

There is a photo in Jack O'Connor's book The Rifle in which a Wetherby employee is doing just that.

I have done that with shotgun barrels on trap guns to make them shoot higher or lower, but it would be a lot harder with a rifle barrel. You look down the barrel at the concentric circles created by the chamber, the forcing cone, and the choke, if off center up, shoots high, etc. It was a common thing in trapshooting circles, usually left a little kink in the rib, so you could tell one that had been adjusted numerous times.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
"Arif, listen to me. STOP THE BLOODY CAR RIGHT NOW! There is another snake in it"

He dropped the phone, and the last I heard was tires screeching and swearing.

Arif doesn't come to my house any more.

I let a friend borrow a rifle once. He returned it in two pieces. He did get me a new stock for it though.

I can't imagine the force needed to bend a barrel like that. Please let us know what he says when you contact him. I am sure I am not the only one who is curious about the situation.

This is one reason I HATE letting other people borrow my guns. Few people will treat your guns like their own.

quote:

Originally posted by Wendell Reich:
Few people will treat your guns like their own.

Bring a few up Wendell. I'll treat them just like their yours. (Drive it like a rental)

What was that about "Haters gonna hate"?

I bet it was damaged while on the sled, by hitting a tree, or slipping off the sled and getting run over, or backed over, or something. Odds are a million to one against the client and your crew not knowing about it.

I saw a barrel get bent, albiet considerably less than that one, when it was propped vertically (barrel down) in the back seat of a pick-up, and the person in the front seat forcefully pushed their seat back against the pinned barrel.

Your risk, entirely, IMHO.

Unless it was intentional, which likely cannot be proved.

But shame on the hunter for not telling you about it.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

Jeez that sucks!! My best friend loans rifles on a regular basis and gets screwed every time! I tell him not to, but he does it any way. One time a mutual "friend" kept putting my friend off about returning his gun, and did so to a point I felt like he was refusing to. J finally went and got it after almost a year, and found his 7Mag covered in mud in the guys garage. Thank goodness for stainless and synthetic! Another time he specifically provides ammo with a rifle to another guy who had just started reloading, and tells him not to use reloads in his rifle. Gets the gun back, then hears stories of how the guy had worked up max loads that flattened primers where he had to beat the gun open! very few people I would loan a gun to, but that's just me.

quote:

Originally posted by Hntnhrd:
I loaned a rifle to a client from Europe while he was hear in Montana on his Mountain Lion hunt. When I was at the trailhead with him before sending him into camp, I took the gun out of the soft case and showed him the safety and such and the gun was fine. When I picked them up after being in camp for a week the gun case was soaking wet. I dint look inside but took him back to town and dropped him at a hotel as his flight home was early the next morning. When I got home this is what I found!!!!!



Besides being covered with rust there was no other damage to the gun. The guides told me that they did not get into an accident with the snowmobiles and have no idea how this could have happened. I haven't been able to contact the hunter as he is traveling back to Europe. I didnt charge him for the loan of the rifle but I am dam sure going to have a contract from now on about covering damage like this. NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.

Yep! Mounted forward on a quad. My guess is it was mounted on a skimmer and met with a tree.