... They can generally be hammered out using a clean leather or small plastic hammer and a set of pin gages. You can't get the part between the ribs of course.
Richard,
I haven't been successful in removing dents or bulges with a polycarbonate (Lexan) headed hammer, no matter how hard I beat on the barrel. The plastic just seems to absorb all the deflection. I have successfully used a polished brass hammer (the other side of that polycarb hammer) and steel hammers, including steel hammers with commom clear packing tape on the barrel to protect the blueing. It does, however, need more forceful hammering to do the same work. The clear packing tapes are generally Mylar and even the thinnest seems to really help protect a barrel that won't be refinished. I place the tape on the barrel. I recently removed some dents in a .410 this way. A .410 barrel with a similar wallthickness to a 12ga, will be much harder to remove the dent as it acts like a thicker wall, due to the small diameter.
So, my new preference is to use a freshly polished steel hammer with Mylar packing tape. I highly recommend this method to anyone removing dents or bulges. But be aware, even this thin packing tape will require aurprisingly increased force by about double what you'd use with a bare steel hammer.
