doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Barrel Bending

Trying not to make a mistake and have to redo it. I have this 20ga fowler that I built and it is shooting low. There is no rear sight, but the PC/HC notch that is filed in line with the tang screw, screw slot. The front sight is also the traditional short front sight so there is no material left to remove. So, I need to bend the barrel to raise the point of impact. Here is my dumb question. To raise this "point of impact", which way do you bend the barrel, up or down?

Let's see, raise=up, lower=down. We're going to see if you can figure this one out, Dave.
JR

Whoa!!!!
How about changing the stock drop dimentions before bending the pipes???
Or am I missing something??
franc

Hey.....this is April the 8th!

John, that is what I was thinking as well. Move or bend the barrel in the direction you want it to impact.

Bob, help me! What is significant about April the 8th?

Dave,
A friend had a spanish double sidelock from a well known mid grade maker that had definite bend upward. It was very evident when you turned the gun on it's side and looked down the barrels.

On your gun, I'd turn it on its side and look down the tubes and see if they're straight. If they are already bent down, I'd straighten them.

I have no problem with bending barrels and have straightened some here for a member after they had been impact damaged by what looked like they were slammed in a door.

However, if they are straight now, like Franc I also think a look at the stock fit check is in order first. If the stock fit is right, then you might consider bending them. Your sight picture needs to be verified first, IMO.

If you do decide to bend them or straighten already bent barrels, I'd recommend soft wood blocks and a large hydraulic arbor press. I used simple 2x4's. Barrel sets bend up and down pretty easily, but require over bend due to the spring-back. figuring out the spring-back is trial and error.

When I built flintlock fowlers that were regulated for both shot and round ball shooting I regulated by bending the barrel, up. I did it at the gun range while sighting in. The gun on the right is one of these 38" octagon to round, swamped and bent barreled fowling pieces. They won many matches in the Northwest. I build, own and shoot all four of these guns.

Thanks all. The barrel is straight at this time. It is a Colerain's 44", oct. to rd. 20ga. barrel. The front sight is considerably lower than is shown in this picture. Maybe only a 3rd of what you see here. My plan is to then bend it forward of the wedding band. [img:center][/img]

I'm obviously out of my depth here. I thought bending the barrel was a late April fools joke. Guess it's real. You learn something every day!

Am I missing something here? If you want the gun to shoot higher, lower the front sight. Since you have very little left to remove, you need to lower the muzzle end of the barrel. I would work with the wood. Slope the channel the barrel sits in downwards toward the muzzle, or bend the stock up a bit. Nice looking gun but apparently not stocked properly, at least for you.
Jim

Here's one we did earlier.

T

Note Well; Lowering the bbl's muzzle is not the same as lowering the front sight. Lowering the front sight in effect "Raises" the muzzle as it brings it closer to the sight. With it already shooting low, you definitely do not want to lower the muzzle.

Bend the barrel. I plan on bending a long barreled Flues that shoots way low with all loads and the comb built up.

Thanks all, it sounds as if I am on the right track as far as which way to bend it. Now, if the weather would cooperate, I would get my buns to the range and start tweaking it. I will be shooting patched rd. ball to get it where I want, with a follow up of shot to see if it all runs true.

Jim, I am sure you are correct about the stock. The whole thing about stocks are, I am not that smart to know, until I shoot it, exactly what fits me. You can shoulder a gun and the sights or the barrel feels all lined up just right, but until you see where it prints, it means little.

You are on the right track, and some just can't seem to believe it. There is no amount of stock changing you can do to rectify the situation.

I have a Win Mod 12 in 20ga, 2-barrel set numbered to the gun, with Simmons vent ribs on both barrels. The 30" Full barrel shoots to POA, but the 26" IC barrel shoots way left. Don't want to bore an eccentric choke in the IC barrel because I want as much choke as I can get. Have not fixed that barrel because I'm reluctant to try bending it. Anybody know what the likelihood is that the rib solder will pop loose during a minor bending operation?

That's more in line with my thought processes......

I'd say it's quite low that the rib will come loose bending laterally. It's almost for sure silver brazed anyway. But the ribe might look funny when you're done. You can aways send it back to Simmons for re-setting the rib if it looks bent.

You might look down the barrel from the underside to see if the barrel has a curve left. I've seen a few barrel sets that had curved tubes in them.

When bending a shotgun barrel, where should you support it and where should you apply pressure? It would seem that the support should be as far apart as possible and the pressure applied at the center. Am I right or wrong? I have a Winchester Model 97 that appears straight, but patterns far to one side. The bore appears undamaged and unmodified.

If you use a rear sight, bending the barrel up will do the opposite of what you want.

If you want the gun to shoot higher, and the front sight to stay the same height, bend the barrel down.

This assumes you leave the rear and front sight alone

BUT by lowering the front sight, you are also having to bend the barrel down and thus sending the charge lower, YUK!!!

To me, seems easiest to increase the rear sight (slot) height and do not bend the barrel at all

Mike

Raising the rear sight is out of the question?

The rear notch in the tang is of course centered in the tang and about 1/16" deep. I chose to stay with the period correct style of sights, as I attempted to reproduce a British Style fowler. I copied am unsigned gun, that is in a book. There was not rear sight on them except for the notch I provided. Here is the tang before I filed in the groove. I debated about doing it, before shooting it, but I couldn't or wouldn't be able to stand having a groove off of center and would bend the barrel anyhow. The groove follows the slot in the screw and travels forward in the tang, to the back of the barrel, but not into the barrel. As an original I was referring to was done. I just want to make darn sure, that as it is now, the gun shoots low. So, it appears I want to bend the barrel up. [img:center]http://[/img]

Definitely bend up to get a higher POI. You might try using some sort of reference to check to see that you indeed bent it, as it will have a surprising amount of spring back. A straight edge may help.

One More time, If you bend the bbl the impact is going to move in the direction you bend the muzzle. If you want to raise the impact bend it up, if you want to lower the impact bend it down.

When woirking with sights you move a rear sight in the direction you want to move the impact, but you move the front sight opposite. "BUT" in bending a bbl we are not working so much with the sight line but changing the exit Direction from the bore. It will thus change the direction of the projectile in the direction you move the muzzle.

Simply visulize the bbl is shapped like Granny's rocker. Put the two ends level & it should be quite obvious to any one both Ends are pointing "UP". If the line of sight were thus level the projectile would be launched upward at a substantial angle dependent upon the bend. Of course nowhere near that much is needed here, just a gentle bend Upward to raise the impact.

That was done as a matter of course after installation of Polychokes and Cutts Compensators.

The muzzle pickles raised the front sight, thus the barrel had to be bent UP to keep the rig from shooting low.

Chuck, thanks for the input on the Mod 12 barrel bend. Speaking of Simmons, I just this afternoon got to see a Mod 1912 20ga that started as plain barrel gun. It just came back from Simmons with a new solid rib that looks like Win factory stuff, and a very nice reblue. Very nicely done.