correcting a bent barrel

[ducky_0811]

Hi, I dont really know a whole lot about what a gunsmith can do in this arena so dont bite my head off. I have a swiss K31 that has a slightly bent barrel, causes it to shoot about a foot low and ten inches left at 50 yards. I confirmed the barrel bend by rolling the barrel on a table and laying a strait edge along the barrel.

Can this be corrected by a compentant gunsmith? if so, is anyone local to the camp pendleton area available to do this?

thanks in advance

[Cheezle56]

The M16 armorers manual Army TM 9-1005-319-23&P Air Force TO 11 W3-5-5-42 has a chapter about straightening a bent barrel, it basically involves removing the barrel from the firearm, clamping the barrel into a vise at the point where the bend is and apply pressure opposite to the direction of the bend and checking for straightness. I do remember that is doesnt take a whole lot of pressure to straighten the barrel, something like the neighborhood of 25-50 ft-lbs on the end of the barrel, and to do it incrementally, as in apply some pressure, check, apply pressure, check, and slowly increasing the amount of force with each attempt, and viewing down the bore for straightness, do not use the outside surface to check straightness, view down the bore or if possible, find a bore straightness gauge for your caliber(finding one is like finding a unicorn). The eyeball is surprisingly capable of checking barrels for straightness, as having a light source on the other end of the barrel, you will see the rifling form rings, if the rings are concentric, the barrel is straight, a bent barrel will show non concentric rings in the direction of the bend. Personally, the best solution is to rebarrel as a lot of the stuff in the M16 armorers manual is stuff that many civilian shooters won't do.

[jfifer]

If you can't find a replacement try the method described above.

[TKM]

See post 7 in the following.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?117229-Barrel-straightening