I have a really old shotgun that I just got around to playing with. It is nice since I am ambidextrous and it ejects the shells straight down. My problem is that there is a small dent in the mag tube that hinders the second shell from loading part of the time. Not a big dent, just in the dead wrong spot. First shell out is fine, but the second one hangs sometimes.

Is there a good way to "iron" it out, or should I just bite the bullet and send it to Kobe? The gun is not worth very much, so I would like to do it myself, if I can.

Thanks!

Turn a cylinder that is a close fit to the tube. Put a taper on one end. Push it down to the dent. Tap the outside of the tube with a small ball pene hammer around the dent. Advance the mandril to the cylindrical portion. tap with the hammer agian. The dent should be gone at this point.

Assuming a fairly thin magazine tube, you could use a dowel the same inside diameter. Chamfer the end and tap through the dent. There may be a better way, but this has worked for me...once (the only time I tried). Not perfect, but close and it feeds.

Scota4570 suggestion is the way to go if you have a lathe. I have use it several times on customer guns and you can virtually make it disappear. Any machine shop can make you a mandrel if you give them a drawing of what you want......Tom

quote:

Originally posted by Scota4570:
Turn a cylinder that is a close fit to the tube. Put a taper on one end. Push it down to the dent. Tap the outside of the tube with a small ball pene hammer around the dent. Advance the mandril to the cylindrical portion. tap with the hammer agian. The dent should be gone at this point.

I would second that!

Thanks guys. I appreciate the advice. Always helpful here!

Hardwood dowel works well on shotgun mag tubes like Dall85 pointed out.
The tubes are usually very thin sheet metal & they work easy.
A dowel is easy to make up even if you don't have a lathe.
Great for the occasional use.

Steel plug or a mandril is great if you have a lathe to make one. Old useless rifle bbls make great ones and leave you a handle on it as well.

Look over the tube carefully for a seam running lengthwise. Some are welded, some brazed, some nothing.
That seam can start to spread apart if you're not careful when trying to take a dent out. Moving metal around, pushing a dent back out like that expands the metal,,it wants to go somewhere.
Smooth and shine up the face of your dent removal hammer first and easy does it.

Thanks. I do have a wood lathe, although not metal, so I will try that first. I may even have an old 308 bull barrel that may fit as well. I will try them.

Midway sell an adjustable tool for this.