Alternative to the Menck Chamber Iron to fix dry fire peening?

[OldDirtyGatMasta]

So I have an old H&R Sportsman that a previous owner dry fired a few too many times, as a result about four of the nine chambers require more effort than I'd like to load a round. In fact one required so much force to seat a round I ended up cycling the action to eject the rounds and never fired the gun, figured the fired casing(s) would get stuck.

Anyway here we are a few years later I've finally decided to look into fixing this little bugger and after a bit of internet research, the ideal way seems to be using a tool called the Menck .22 Chamber Iron to swage the metal back into place. Problem is I can't find any retailers with the tool in stock and some of the bigger ones actually list it as discontinued.

Anyone know of an alternative? another make perhaps?

A few people on the net have mentioned to others looking for a menck that a tapered punch can be used by lightly hammering it into the chamber, wiggling it loose, then rotating and repeating as necessary. I'd rather use a purpose built tool to be honest though.

Anyone have experience using a punch?

 

[elimsprint]

Do you know anyone with a lathe? It looks like it would be easy to build without the handle and then just tap it lightly with a hammer to swage the burr out.

I don't see why the tapered punch wouldn't work though, it's the exact same thing, a tapered piece of steel that you're using to push the burr back into place.

Use a punch, go slow is my advice.

 

[OldDirtyGatMasta]

For future reference.

So after not being able to find a used Menck online I decided to give it a go with a tapered punch. I cleaned all the peened chambers, gave them and the punch a generous amount of oil. A very light tap on the end of the punch and light consistent pressure rotating the punch about 50 degrees showed immediate effect. The metal swaged back into place and a snap cap fit in nicely. I continued on taking my time, repeated this process on all the chambers needed, making sure I delivered light taps and kept even pressure on the punch during rotation.

A few days later I hit the range and for the most part it worked. Rounds loaded nice and easy into most chambers, but there was one chamber that still had some issues. Still was a bit tight loading a round and delivered light primer strikes. I marked that chamber with a sharpie and repeated the process again once I was home. Haven't been out to the range since. But doing a before and after test with a snap cap, the hammer is now delivering a solid strike.

I'm expecting solid primer strikes on all next time

So if anyone needs to repair a .22 just take it slow, keep everything oiled and keep in mind you're just moving the metal back into place, not trying to ream anything.