AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: John SMOthermon on November 27, 2016, 03:20:01 AM
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Has anyone here every tried bending a barrel to adjust the sighting ??? My smooth bore is hitting 3" low & 3" left at 25 yards . The more you move back the more off it gets.
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This is contained in the tutorial:
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=19603.msg185221#msg185221
However, I have heard that this process is a lot more difficult to use on modern made barrels. The tutorial shows a forged wrought iron smooth bored barrel.
Jim
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Thanks for the post James your way sounds a lot better and more precise than in a fork of a tree
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What do you have against forks in the tree? If your barrel is 12L12 it will bend easy.
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What do you have against forks in the tree? If your barrel is 12L12 it will bend easy.
ahem, "12L14"
Also, I have no problem with bend, shoot and see (rebend as necessary), using tree or trailer hitch mounting tube.
What works, works. Always has. ;)
And when it's an uncommon and inconsistent issue I'm not setting up fixtures for it. More power to those who do.
We was just talking about it the other day:
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=41760.0
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=37783.0
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=13924.0
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=13725.0
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=302.0
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Thanks Mike. I don't have nothing against trees , kinda' like em'. Alltho I have shot a couple by mistake. I will check to see if I can determine the type of steel used. Is there somewhere in perticlur I should look ? Call the Manufacturer maybe? It a Colerain barrel octagon to round 44" long 16 gauge that the inside mics at .653.
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If it's colerain it's 12L14.
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Thank you Sir. Easy to bend/flex or not?
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Has anyone here every tried bending a barrel to adjust the sighting
Just my opinion on the subject:
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefatcontroller.co.uk%2Fportfolio%2Falbums%2Fuserpics%2Fmy_brain_hurts.jpg&hash=83f4067d037cf9de9a5d3e7ad94dc9c41aeda4d4)
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Thank you Sir. Easy to bend/flex or not?
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
You can also throw a couple 4X4's on the floor and place the barrel on top of them and the jump up and down in the middle. I have done it both ways and find the tree method to have more control, I can feel the barrel "give" better. 4X4's on the floor are better for stiffer barrels, in my opinion.
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Thanks again for the replies.
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I think I would anchor both ends horizontally like against two blocks of 4x4 and then pull on the center with a long clamp measuring deflection applied until I got the desired zero.
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You might consider moving the sights 0.12" in the correct direction. All rear or 1/16" for the front and 1/16' for the rear if it looks better. If moving the sight makes it worse you are moving the wrong way. There is no possible way I would bend a barrel using a non controlled strong arm method. You'll just end up with a junk barrel.
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You might consider moving the sights 0.12" in the correct direction. All rear or 1/16" for the front and 1/16' for the rear if it looks better. If moving the sight makes it worse you are moving the wrong way. There is no possible way I would bend a barrel using a non controlled strong arm method. You'll just end up with a junk barrel.
I wish it were that simple... The front sight is soldered on and it does not have a rear sight. :o
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Scott4570,
You'd get a lot of protests from many members of this site, that have bent straight barrels quite successfully.
Smooth or rifled, it works.
Sorry Mr. Brooks....
I've not yet ventured as far as a tree fork, but I've bent a few with a little more control.
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Not many evergreen trees out here in the Pacific Northwest with forks in them. ;D I bent one .40 caliber swamped rifle barrel in a tree on my property. Did it right in front of the guy who brought it into my shop to ask me if I could straighten it for him. Now I use a couple of 4 x 4's on my bench with a large C clamp.
David
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You might consider moving the sights 0.12" in the correct direction. All rear or 1/16" for the front and 1/16' for the rear if it looks better. If moving the sight makes it worse you are moving the wrong way. There is no possible way I would bend a barrel using a non controlled strong arm method. You'll just end up with a junk barrel.
Well, I've turned several dozens of barrels into junk in my day. ;)
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Using a pair of trees or a fork, or whacking the barrel against a pole is not a random method. But it does require some sensitivity to what is happening, and some of you may not be comfortable with that. Some of us have a tendency to overthink stuff, and so it never happens.
I worked for a gunsmith in the last century who taught me many things. One day, a trap shooter brought a Pirazzi shotgun into the shop, complaining that it shot high, and he would sometimes miss more than one bird in a hundred - completely unacceptable. Don sighted down the barrel in front of the client, and proclaimed, 'sure enough, it is bent upwards. I'll fix it". While the customer was getting into his car and leaving, Don cleared off the front counter in the shop, seized the barrel by the breech end, sighted down it rolling the rib perfectly straight up, laid it against the counter, then raised it to the ceiling and brought it down hard and flat against the top of the counter. He sighted down it again, and said "there, now it's straight. Easiest hundred bucks a guy can make." The client was just leaving the parking lot.
So using his tutorial on barrel bending, when it came time to increase the elevation in my Long Land Pattern Brown Bess, having fired several balls to determine point of impact, I removed the barrel from the stock, seized it by the breech, and gave it a whack against one of the uprights to the shooting shed. I replaced the barrel, fired a few more rounds and then repeated the process a couple more times, each time increasing the bend until the Bess shot through the centre of the target. Looking down the barrel after this treatment, I could only barely see a deflection upward in the barrel, along the outside, but it was exactly the right amount, by trial and in this case, no error.
So my advice, FWIW, step out on the limb and take a chance...you will learn something no matter what happens. And don't make things more complicated than they already are.
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Taylors advice reminds me of my Grandfather who used a gunsmith in my hometown of Corydon Indiana named Armon Best. He would take a large sand bag on the bench and rap the shotgun barrel on it to change the point of impact and grab some shells and step out of the shop and test fire the gun. Repeated the process until a satisfactory result. By the way,Mr.Best was the father of the late actor James Best.