Thread: WTF Bubba

Originally Posted by No good names left

5/8"-24 with thread tape, whats to bet the surpresor was M16x1

Maybe the previous owner wanted to time the suppressor accurately, OCD in overdrive

We clearly need to know which way the bend is so we can assess which corners it can shoot around.

Running a nice heavy bead with a Arc welder along the left side of the barrel might sort out the bend.Few slaps with a hammer on the bulge after a bit of Oxy on the bump followed by a "rattle-can" Cerakote job and its worth twice that.

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Cant you just adjust adjust your scope settings in the direction of the bend to compensate ?

Originally Posted by norsk

Running a nice heavy bead with a Arc welder along the left side of the barrel might sort out the bend.Few slaps with a hammer on the bulge after a bit of Oxy on the bump followed by a "rattle-can" Cerakote job and its worth twice that.

Follow me for more practical gunsmithing ideas

you forgot holding it with curve facing up and anvil attached to dodgy threads on barrel

There was a very good video floating about of a barrel straightening machine used In a US factory in WW2.
Must've had the odd bent one.
Also seen a video of a manufacturer straightening cam shafts. Thats was quite neat. All doable especially if you have nothing to lose

Akaroa has the right idea - a barrel is simply a metal tube after all.

Fly press it and eyeball the internals of the bore as you go. A bit at a time , gently does it . Cant make it any worse than the starting point so nothing to lose.

Originally Posted by sportco62

Cant you just adjust adjust your scope settings in the direction of the bend to compensate ?

That is probably how the base screw was stripped!

Some people do it on purpose

Originally Posted by sportco62

Akaroa has the right idea - a barrel is simply a metal tube after all.

Fly press it and eyeball the internals of the bore as you go. A bit at a time , gently does it . Cant make it any worse than the starting point so nothing to lose.

Actually gently does it doesn't really work when straightening barrels.
The barrel has a lot of spring back and you have to find the right spot in the fly press, flex it gently to check about how much force it needs and then give it a very quick turn well past straight.
And hope you went far enough to allow for the spring back.

Gently does it and you will be There all day with the barrel behaving like a spring

In my old fitter days we would straighten hydraulic cylinder spears. You always had to push them a little past the point of straight to allow the spring back.
Some would comply easily some had to be pushed quite a bit past it.
Using a dti under it for a good indication

If you saw the technique the old timers who made Lee Enfield barrels used, you'd be quite shocked. They had a chunk of tree trunk, and they eyeballed the center of the bend and whapped the outside of the bend right on center on the trunk. Effectively used the spring back against the bend so that after the thwack the tube springiness tended to hold the tube straight rather than springing back off the bend. The shocking thing was the speed at which they worked, less than a minute a barrel most times.

Originally Posted by No.3

If you saw the technique the old timers who made Lee Enfield barrels used, you'd be quite shocked. They had a chunk of tree trunk, and they eyeballed the center of the bend and whapped the outside of the bend right on center on the trunk. Effectively used the spring back against the bend so that after the thwack the tube springiness tended to hold the tube straight rather than springing back off the bend. The shocking thing was the speed at which they worked, less than a minute a barrel most times.

I would suggest the tree whack method is a gunsmithing myth

This book while only 65 pages is an absolute bible on making 303 service rifle barrels



It covers in ever stage and every machine in the process of making service rifle barrels in huge volumes



Even down to the multi story buildings for the cutting oil from dozens of machines to drain and be filtered to be pumped back to the machine rooms

There are many pages on barrel straightening and the hammer and block method is preferred to the machine method due to speed of experienced operators



This is a truly fascinating little book and I should make some copies
I expect there are some 303 tragics who would love a copy

Whacking a barrel on a tree brings real meaning to being a "Shade Tree Gunsmith"

I had a scan of an article on that process, there was one older lady at that particular armoury that did the straightness inspection on every barrel. Picked it up, held it up to a window with a shade line hung on it and turned the barrel twice while looking through it. "Straight, straight, straight, fail, straight, fail" - that quick. They went from her to the dudes doing the whacking and passed back to her for the reinspection. Might have even been in Longbranch factory with the canucks if memory serves. There was also a magazine article in one of the US rags about something similar, a guy took a fall of a horse and bent his rifle's barrel, broke the stock and smashed the scope. He took it into a gunsmith and sales outfit, the gunsmith took the thing out back stripped the busted stuff off it and straightened the barrel that same way. Then fitted a replacement stock and scope and sent the guy out back to sight in... I think we get a little precious sometimes with how accurate we try to get!