Bending a barrel

[gumboman]

I have a 12 gauge fowler I built and finished this summer. Had a jug choke put in. The barrel shoots a nice pattern but it is about 15 inches low. Would like to look into bending the barrel for correcting this low pattern. The barrel is a 44 inch American Fowler by Colerain. Do any of you forum members know of anyone that can do this work?

[Mark Elliott]

I have just done it myself a little at a time by clamping the barrel to my bench and bouncing on it until it gave a little.   I found out that it is a lot harder bending a barrel than you think.    However,  I did get a fowler sighted in that way.   It took two or three tries to get it close.   Someone with a press could do it a little more scientifically by measuring the deflection.

[Hemo]

I once straightened a 20 ga fowler barrel using the same technique, worked well.

Another time I had a warped rifle barrel long ago that I took to Keith Neubauer (former Browning gunsmith, and at that time (70's) well-respected restorer of antique firearms. He took a look down the barrel, pulled a large oak stump from under his bench, grabbed the muzzle end of the barrel with both hands and gave it two strong wallops in the middle of the barrel on the stump. He then looked down the bore, said, "Looks okay", and handed it back to me. Done!

Gregg

[jerrywh]

  Send your barrel to Hemo. He can slam it over a stump at practically no cost.  Good luck.
 PS, Don't forget to ask him if he will pay for a new one if it doesn't turn out right.

[Mike Brooks]

Place two 4X4's on the floor 44" apart. St barrel on 4X4's, make sure you are going to bend it the right way. Step on the barrel, you may even have to jump up and down. It's scary, but easy to do. If it bends too much just bend it back, no big deal. I used to use the crotch of a handy apple tree, stick in crotch, give it the old heave ho and pull untill you feel it give. There are also some more scientific ways to do it too, but my primitive ways have never failed me.

[Robin Henderson]

I remember M. V. Highsmith down in Memphis didn't like to tell customers that he was going to "bend" their nice barrels. He preferred using the term "adjust" instead. 

[moleeyes36]

I remember M. V. Highsmith down in Memphis didn't like to tell customers that he was going to "bend" their nice barrels. He preferred using the term "adjust" instead. 

"Adjust" might be a wee bit PC, but it could have prevented a few customer heart attacks.

Mole Eyes

[hudson]

On bending barrels I thought I would add my two cents. I have a pretty heavy and level bench. I place the barrel along the edge, place blocks under the ends. Using a large heavy duty c-clamp in the middle to bend, measure constantly between the barrel and the bench, additional blocks or shims are placed under ends as needed. I once had a skinny G.M. barrel that that took around two inches of blocks as I recall.

[jerrywh]

 In truth most barrels that are perceived to be bent are not bent at all. The problem is usually something else.
I once had a barrel on a rifle that shot off a lot. I re-cut the muzzle and coned it with a coning tool that had a long pilot. That fixed that barrel.  I usually ask myself how did this barrel get bent to start with. One thing to remember is - a barrel will shoot where ever the last 6" is pointing. The middle portion is not relative to the point of aim.  Another thing is how much do you value your gun? Would you send a $20,000.00 gun barrel to someone to be jumped up and down on? $10.00 methods are for $10.00 guns. I will give $25.00 for a photo of Mike Brooks jumping up and down on a barrel.  I get to post it on my website though.

[T*O*F]

Since this is a fowler (shotgun) with a choke, we must assume you only shoot shot in it.  Shotguns are pointed rather than aimed and generally should shoot low anyway.  That's why they put vent ribs on them.  There are various holds depending on the angle your game is moving.  You should do your pattern testing at 30-40 yards and see where it's shooting.  If you have a tapered or swamped barrel, it should shoot high, not low.  Most likely the stock way not layed out properly.  Older shotguns were regulated somewhat by filing away part of the muzzle where you want to move the pattern.

[Mike Brooks]

I will give $25.00 for a photo of Mike Brooks jumping up and down on a barrel.  I get to post it on my website though.

Deal. That's more money than I make most days.

[Roger B]

Just ship it by USPS to a close friend and it will arrive bent.  Ask me how I know .
Roger B.

[Daryl]

Since this is a fowler (shotgun) with a choke, we must assume you only shoot shot in it.  Shotguns are pointed rather than aimed and generally should shoot low anyway.  That's why they put vent ribs on them.  There are various holds depending on the angle your game is moving.  You should do your pattern testing at 30-40 yards and see where it's shooting.  If you have a tapered or swamped barrel, it should shoot high, not low.  Most likely the stock way not layed out properly.  Older shotguns were regulated somewhat by filing away part of the muzzle where you want to move the pattern.

Are you aiming down it as if it was a rifle with sights right on the barrel?  That is, aiming right down the top flat like many of us do with round ball loads in our smoothies, or is your sighting showing a portion of the breech and middle of the barrel below the bead or blade on the front end?

Off centre crowns, as Dave and Jerry noted in their posts, will oft times 'throw' the shot or balls to one side, up or down.  Some of the 1800's double rifle builders in the States filed muzzles off centre to 'regulate' the barrels to shoot together.  As late as 3 years ago, one modern double rifle builder actually regulated his barrels using crooked crowns to direct the projectiles.

Taylor has used Mike's method of bending the barrel between two trees [usually aspen trees (poplar)], to make a Bess shoot properly with ball.

[jerrywh]

 Mike. Send photo with postage paid and return address.

[James Wilson Everett]

Try the process shown in this tutorial.  It works easily for a wrought iron barrel, I think that bending a modern barrel is a bit more difficult.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=19603.msg185221#msg185221

Jim

[jerrywh]

 James
 Looks good. Much better than a tree crotch.

[gumboman]

Thanks for the great feedback fellas.

The barrel is tapered and swamped. It rests in the barrel channel nicely without any load or stress when pinned.

The aiming style is the same as with any shotgun. The proper sight picture places the bead just above the top of the barrel at the breech. My front sight is 1/16" high.

At this time I have soldered on a peep sight at the breech. The center of the peep is around 3/8" from top of the barrel flat. When sighting I can see nearly all of the barrel including the wedding bands and octagon transition and several inches back toward the breech. This sight picture places the shot pattern pretty close to center. Good enough probably. But I would rather not have to use the rear sight. Instead I would prefer the standard shotgun sight picture.

[Bob Roller]

Place two 4X4's on the floor 44" apart. St barrel on 4X4's, make sure you are going to bend it the right way. Step on the barrel, you may even have to jump up and down. It's scary, but easy to do. If it bends too much just bend it back, no big deal. I used to use the crotch of a handy apple tree, stick in crotch, give it the old heave ho and pull untill you feel it give. There are also some more scientific ways to do it too, but my primitive ways have never failed me.

If the last inch of the barrel is pointed in the right direction these methods will work.
A lot of us saw Bill Large on the primitive range at Friendship straighten a barrel by
giving it a few hefty whacks across a log.

Bob Roller

[Hungry Horse]

 I use a couple of large C clamps, with modified contact points on the screw ends to hold the barrel end down. And a hydraulic, or scissor jack, with a conduit bender head attached, to spread out the pressure, and prevent kinking. There will be a lot of spring back in a modern barrel, so you need some kind of scale to evaluate that. Most of the barrels I have done were old surplus barrels from the late nineteenth century, bought from Dixie Gun Works years ago. But, I have bent a few modern muzzleloading smoothbore barrels as well. Some of the modern ones are very springy and must be over bent a lot. The bend in some barrels will straighten out with heavy use.

  Hungry Horse

[rich pierce]

James, excellent tutorial. I admit surprise at the table saw. I'm guessing you just use it as a workbench. Ha!  A pit saw, a bow saw, a hand saw, a coping saw, a jewelry saw- I'd expect to have "saw" all of those.

[jerrywh]

 Here is a photo of my barrel straightener.  Here I was straightening a double shotgun barrel made of 1137.
 A person can look through the barrel at a vertical line on the wall. The shadow of the line in the bore will tell exactly where the problem is. Double barrels are very tricky to straighten. This barrel was flexed almost three inches to achieve a .010" correction. The barrels in the photo cost about $5000.00.
 Every time you bend a barrel it gets a little weaker. Also if it needs to be bent back as a result of being bent too far it will not bend back in the same place as the original bend. Try this with a piece of scrap metal. First bend it and then try bending it back with your hands. The second bend will be in a different place. This is because the first bend work hardens. This one of the first things Auto body men learn.

[gumboman]

There is another element to consider when bending this barrel. The jug coke runs for a length of 5-6 inches and starts 1 inch from the muzzle. The barrel ID was enlarged by .030 making the wall thickness less in this area. Surely this will affect the method used to bend since I would guess the barrel is weaker in the choke area. Input, ideas and suggestions are welcome on this subject.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

The picture above is an attempt to put a bend in an otherwise straight barrel.  This barrel is a 20 gauge x 42" from the Mold and Gun Shop, and was made for a Tulle musket.  To determine the addition of an arc to the barrel, I applied a straight edge alone the top and measured the added deflection with number drills.  My bench here is a solid core door which as you can see is arched heavily by the C clamp, yet I was not able to add any bend to this barrel using these V blocks.  I gave up on this one.  I could have used those 4 x 4's Mike has for this job.

[jerrywh]

 Because the riflings on a rifled barrel prevent the use of the standard visual procedure I use a laser on rifled barrels. Jacob Dickert never had one but he always wished he did.

[Daryl]

Back in 1975 I visited Les Bauska in his shop in Kalispel, Montana.  While I was there to buy barrels and talk over our mutual friend, Lester H. Hawkes, I had the 'run' of the shop and spent some time straightening barrels for Les using his barrel straightener. Wonderful machine it was.
This is as I remember the machine that Les had in the shop. This one listed as a model 1903.