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Bending A Gun Barrel

dav1965dav1965 Member Posts: 26,543 ✭✭✭
edited September 2018 in Ask the Experts
When someone says to bend the barrel what do they mean and how do you do it.

Comments

  • navc130navc130 Member Posts: 1,193 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bending a gun barrel has often been a topic over the years and is generally a topic in gunsmithing books. It can be as simple as securing one end and applying pressure to the other end, striking with a lead hammer or done in a sophisticated jig applying screw pressure. It is usually: bend, shoot, see results and do some more if necessary.
    Barrel bending USUALLY applies to shotgun barrels. I did see one article bending a revolver barrel to shoot to point-of-aim.
  • kannoneerkannoneer Member Posts: 3,350 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I bent a gun barrel, but it wasn't on purpose. Believe me, a little goes a long way.
  • 11b6r11b6r Member Posts: 16,588 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    And at one time, rifle barrels were bent after being bored and rifled- since the boring might not be perfectly straight. I have seen one of the manufacturers that used a device like an arbor press with a big hand wheel- and the straightness of the bore was checked BY EYE- of a very experienced worker.
  • andrewsw16andrewsw16 Member Posts: 10,728 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sensitivity of the POI cannot be emphasized too much. Stop and think how much the POI changes with almost microscopic movements of the sights. So, when attempting barrel bending, less is best. However you do it, do just a little at a time. As mentioned above, minor pressure, shoot, measure POI, repeat bend. Keep doing this a bit at a time until the POI is close enough to finish adjusting with sight movements.
  • nononsensenononsense Member Posts: 10,928 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    dav1965,

    There are several methodologies for barrels bending depending on whether it's intentional or not.

    Shotgun Barrel bending fixture:

    photo-745.jpg

    Barrel Straightening
    P1020126-vi.jpg

    barrel_straightening_m1903.jpg

    German barrel making factory straightening stations
    veranstaltungen-ersten-weltkrieg-wwi-1914-1918-deutschland-rustungsindustrie-arbeiter-in-einer-gewehrfabrik-begradigen-fasser-fur-gewehre-und-db659a.jpg
    First World War / WWI, 1914 - 1918, Germany, arms industry

    This was a war production plant where hundreds of arms had to be built per day. Those charts are rifle barrels. The knotted rope was the 'assist' to turning the arbor wheel.

    Douglas Barrels was once famous for stating that they hand straightened every barrel before it left the factory. As barrel making technology has advanced, the geometry of the drills, reamers and cutters or buttons has improved tremendously. The holes in the barrels are straighter and the implementations of stress relieving curtails most of the distortion once seen in barrels.

    Best.
  • hillbillehillbille Member Posts: 14,121 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Once knew an old time gunsmith who kept a big sandbag in his workshop, he would just hall off and swing the barrell like a baseball bat into the sandbag, know he did it for shotguns not sure about rifles.
  • jaegermisterjaegermister Member Posts: 692 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    That alamy stock photo is strange. That is a lot of set ups, whats the twisted
    fiber bundels at each station, the strange aprons and chart shuttlel,
    are those barrels or some sort,of tubes
  • patt7638patt7638 Member Posts: 363 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Once upon a time when you could tour the Remington Arms plant in Ilion, NY you could see a machine in action that straightened rifle barrels. A light would shine through the barrel while it was turning on a lathe like machine. Then 4 arms would come down and they would bend the barrel and you could see the barrel bend. Then the arms would retract and the barrel would spin some more. I did not see this operation a second time on a barrel. The only thing that was done by hand was to keep the magazine of the machine full of barrels. Quite a show.
  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,579 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Back in the day, shotgun barrels were straightened back out by wacking them over the top of a padded high back chair.
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