Ran into a strange one today. Story goes like this: Someone in the family tried to shoot someone in the family with this shotgun. Now this was 40 years ago mind you. At that time Grandpa took the shotgun and bent the barrel so no one would ever shoot it again. It ended up in the attic collecting dust.

Come to today. Grandpa is long dead and the grandson wants to make the shotgun into a wall hanger. Wants the barrel straightened, the chamber plugged and the firing pin hole welded over.

No problem on the last two but I am unsure as to the best way to straighten the barrel if it can be straightened. Looks to be somewhere between 60 and 80 degrees to the right.

I was thinking of packing the barrel with dry sand out of the sand blaster and applying heat hoping the sand would help with supporting the wall.

Anyway, that's a thought. Be glad to entertain any other ideas you all have.

Thanks,

It will have more character as it is. This way you all can tell the tale over and over, embellishing it as you go.
Will also cost less.

Arbor press slow and easy along the way

quote:

Originally posted by Ole Miss Guy:
It will have more character as it is. This way you all can tell the tale over and over, embellishing it as you go.
Will also cost less.

That's what I told him but he wants it straight. Told him I wouldn't guarantee that it would work. and he is okay with that.

I have an arbor press. Might just be the way to go. Just never straightened anything this bent before.

Duane, you need to just make up another fix. The notion of a gunsmith whacking your barrel over a retread to straighten it just sounds too Bubba. That is the way I work on things not someone like you.

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):
If it's "kinked"..you really have a problem, A slow even bend is not too hard to deal with. Forget the arbor press! Get a bag of shot , sand or even a tire. Use inertia to whack the out the bend by bringing the barrel down on the shot, sand or tire.

I've even straightened rifle barrels this way without residual damage

Now that you bring it up, I have heard of that method. Never tried it but why not?

Thanks,

That is pretty much the way all the old time trap shooters did it when they were trying to get their Model 12's to shoot higher. From there it has been up up and away.

The top gunmakers in the English firm BSA used to wack rifle barrels over lead blocks to straighten them after machining. Their trained eyes could pick the perfect circle (straight barrel) when looking down the bore, didn't need run out gauges or the like.

I knew an ole gunsmith that would take a shotgun that had a bend in barrel, and instead of using the trap shooters method of a bag of shot, would take the barrel out to a tree in his back yard and hit the barrel against the tree, he said that the bark would cushion the barrel and the centripetal force would cause the barrel to straighten, might take more than one wack..

.

Duane is right on the money. The best medium I have found to date is an old telephone pole with a nice hard knot in it and a bright, sunny day. Get the high spot on the inside toward the post and give the barrel a long, slow swing to the center of the bend against the knot, increasing force until the barrel moves back. The steel has a memory and will want to go back to the place it was originally if you encourage it. It actually takes surprisingly little force to move a barrel back, if you have done it a lot. I have shown a few people how to do it over the years by slightly bending a junk barrel over the bumper of a car and then moving it back against a post or large chunk of lead babbit and they are always surprised by how gently it's struck. This trick NEVER works with barrels which are drilled crocked. Those ones have to go into a press. In a happy world they really should be thrown away.

If its kinked of course, it has to go into a press. In my opinion it's not worth trying to straighten a kinked barrel. It will always shoot and look like hell. Been there, done that, far too many times.

I have straightened several shotgun barrels using a large, rubber mallet. It works just like the fence post or tree method, but I find I am more comfortable with the mallet.

Bill Jacobs

Don't knock smacking it on a tire. I watched an old guy doing just that. He used a mounted wheelbarrow tire, the rounded kind. clamped the axle shaft in a huge vise and started slapping the barrel on the inflated tire.

Appreciate all the good ideas. Finally rapped it out on a bag of #6 shot. Took a bit but worked out fine. Almost could have been put back in shooting order. All's well that ends.