870 Vent Rib barrel~bent. Can it be made straight?

.22LRGUY

.22LRGUY

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Hey guys~learned a very difficult lesson in the past couple of months. Bought a "like new" 870 VR barrel off of a CGN member here. When it showed-up, the bead sight was crushed...as though someone took a pair of vise grips to it, trying to unscrew a bead that is press-fit in. The seller made right on that aspect, but I hadn't noticed the barrel had a slight bend to the left. The only reason I think I DID pick up on that is because I had the barrel refinished (parkerized) to match my 870 Police, and had a mid bead installed. Only when you mounted the barrel in the gun, and sighted down the rib can you see the issue. Thinking maybe the mid bead was off center, I checked with calipers~nope! Test fired it @ 30 yards and indeed, it's shooting left. Here is post I put up in the black & green shotgun forum, showing the gun/barrel back when I was thrilled with the newly-finished barrel.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1182148-870-Police-Magnum-Bird-Gun-Yep!

Since I had a reputable gunsmith add the bead and parkerize the barrel, I figure I now have no recourse with the seller...but it will always be in the back of my mind that it was sold because the owner wasn't getting good results with it. I'm pretty frustrated to put it mildly.

So...I figure I'm stuck with this nice looking..albeit fatally flawed barrel. Or is it? Anybody ever have any luck getting one of these straight without damaging it? I'm kicking myself for spending what I have on getting this barrel to this point, so do I have something fixable...or the world's most expensive parkerized tomato stake?
 
Same as smoji - if it aint kinked its fixable. Mate had an A5 barrel that was bent for years, learnt to shoot it that way, never changed it, and he was a good shot. Check with your local gunsmith, a slight bend is an easy fix, but may take a week or two if it is done right.
 
You'll need some sort of press that you can control the pressure. Then you'll want to make up some hard wood saddle blocks to support the barrel either side of the bend and one for pushing against with the press ram. These blocks will need to be drilled and shaped to support the diameter of the barrel as well as the side of the rib.

You can likely use a decent size drill press for this job but brace the table with a vertical leg of metal pipe or whatever so it doesn't flex. The pressure needs to be carefully controlled as well as the placement of the pusher and support blocks so that you don't make things worse. It isn't something you would tackle with a bigger hammer.
 
Google how to straighten a shotgun barrel. The method of using a bag of lead shot and striking the barrel on it works well. I have used this technique and it works. Go slow and shoot between whacks. Trap shooters have used this technique for ever.

Darryl
 
Do you know how to look through a barrel and see if it is bent? Bending an 870 barrel is quite easy, padded jaws in a vise to hold it where you want and bend it by hand...

I have seen a trap shooter walk off the line to a tree and bend his barrel in a "Y" of a branch... and go back and shoot the next 25 straight.
 
I had a model 12 that was like that many years ago. Shot 1 foot low and 1 foot left. You could see the shadow down one side of the rib the way it was bent. A gunsmith buddy of mine had it fixed and shooting straight in 10 minutes. I wont say how but suffice it say it was an eye opener for me especially when I questioned him on it as he did it with me present and he laughed and said "how do you think they adjust them at the factory?" Since then I have noticed several NIB guns with a shadow down one side of the rib or the other from having been tweeked at the factory!
 
I have seen a trap shooter walk off the line to a tree and bend his barrel in a "Y" of a branch... and go back and shoot the next 25 straight.
Click to expand...

It would take a special sort to do that with something like a Perazzi.... :D
 
Precision Arms in King City can straighten it. Sounds like a trap/skeet barrel if it has a mid bead though. Not that it matters. An 870 is an 870.
 
There are several ways to straighten a barrel. I prefer NOT to use the hammer method. I prefer to use a hydraulic press and 3 wooden blocks. 2 blocks to support the barrel and one block on top of the barrel under the ram. You have much better control of the straightening process.
 
As Guntech mentioned, it is easy to "read" a barrel. Get it clean and shiny inside then look through it from the breech toward a bright light. If the barrel is straight you will see a series of concentric rings representing the forcing cone, choke and muzzle. If the rings are not concentric then the barrel is bent and it will be obvious which way so then a bit of TLC with a padded vice or whatever method you have confidence it can be employed to get those rings concentric. Lots of shotgun barrels have been tweeked to shoot a bit high. A left or right adjustment should not be too hard with a vent rib barrel. A vertical adjustment would be more challenging. Go for it!
 
I have the tools to fix a vertical depression in a bent rib. I think my buddy has a barrel straightening jig, if you haven't gotten it done yet.

I also have a forcing cone reamer. I can extend the forcing cone which seems to reduce recoil a bit as well as extend a 2 3/4" chamber to 3", if your receiver can handle the extra length.

PM me if you want more details,
 
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