Steel Shot + Barrel Dent = Easy Fix?

hansol

hansol

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Hey guys,

Another one of my ridiculous questions. Please don't disregard right off hand, I'm just looking for some input/experience on the matter.

My SxS 12 gauge has a small dent in one of the barrels. It's not a hardcore huge dent where the metal is creased and fatigued; it's just a small little ding. I passed a few of my copper slugs through with a ram rod to see if that would maybe press it out, and while it did smooth it a little bit, it still wasn't enough: the copper walls of the slug are too soft.

I read up more on barrel dent removal, and one method of fixing it was passing progressively larger steel plugs through the bore, until the dent is pressed out. Now because the dent in my barrel is barely there, I thought about maybe firing some steel shot through to maybe make it work.

Now yes, I know that it might be a bad/dangerous thing to hence, hence my asking here if anyone has heard or done this before. I wouldn't even consider it if the barrel was dinged more than it is, but as it's such a small indentation I thought maybe the steel shot passing by would have the same effect as the steel plug method listed above.

Thoughts?
 
Haha no it's not an old SxS. It's a modern spanish SxS that fires 3" shells, and is a cylinder bore. It's my slug gun for shooting my Hansol Slugs out of (there should be a write-up on here somewhere about that project.)

I don't really want to burst the barrel though, so yeah. Like I said, just seeing if anyone has done this before. I don't mind being the first to break ground on some things and doing string tests (most guys on this site can attest to that haha), but in this case I don't really want to burst the gun on something little like this.

You know, I wonder if rather than "pushing" the bulge out, if the shot will instead just erode the bulge away, thus making a thin spot on the barrel....
 
Well the reason I worry is because this is my slug gun, so that dent (from what I can tell) compresses the slug slightly when it's fired. If I was just firing lead shot out of it, I wouldn't worry near as much, but because it fires those heavy copper slugs I make, I am a little wary about how those will respond to hitting that dent at 1400fps.

Obviously the smart thing to do would play it safe and get it professionally fixed, but as it's not a severe dent I figured I'd see if I could work something out myself.
 
Post pics.

I don't imagine shooting shot through it would cause a problem if it's minor like you say. Slugs either, as they should deform around it.

I'll 3rd strapping it to a tree and letting her rip.
 
Here's the dent:

DSC00235.jpg


Side Profile
DSC00224.jpg


(dent is the small dark spot on left side of barrel)
DSC00234.jpg


We all know I'm not adverse to tying strings to guns; I've done it quite a few times with this rig and still can count to 10 with my fingers :D
 
If you are tying the gun to anything, tie it to a rubber tire. More importantly though, I don't think firing steel shot through the barrel will remove the dent. When I remove dents, I do two things; I use an expanding wedge on the inside to push the majority of the dent out but I also then finish by smoothing the remaining dent from the outside using a brass block with a hollow of approximately the same diameter as the barrel (actually a bit bigger) I use some hard taps (with a hammer on the block) down against the wedges which are on the inside under the dent. If you only expand outwards, you still get a certain amount of dent left. If you simply hammer on the outside, you will be left with a bunch of small flat spots from the hammer face

cheers mooncoon
 
I have an expandable mandrel designed for raising dents in 12ga barrels. You expand the tool until you can just push it in place at the dent. You then work the exterior of the barrel with a light brass hammer. The dent will raise slightly and the mandrel will become loose. Expand the mandrel and repeat, as often as necessary. Works very nicely. This is not a tool which forces the dent out, and which can bulge the barrel.
If you wish to borrow the mandrel, email me your mailing address. You get to pay postage both ways.
 
tiriaq said:
I have an expandable mandrel designed for raising dents in 12ga barrels. You expand the tool until you can just push it in place at the dent. You then work the exterior of the barrel with a light brass hammer. The dent will raise slightly and the mandrel will become loose. Expand the mandrel and repeat, as often as necessary. Works very nicely. This is not a tool which forces the dent out, and which can bulge the barrel.
If you wish to borrow the mandrel, email me your mailing address. You get to pay postage both ways.
Click to expand...

This is the correct way to raise a dent on a shotgun barrel.
If you have a lathe you can make your own mandrel with a slight taper on one end. Push the mandrel down and start tapping the exterior of the barrel lightly with the hammer.
 
tiriaq said:
I have an expandable mandrel designed for raising dents in 12ga barrels. You expand the tool until you can just push it in place at the dent. You then work the exterior of the barrel with a light brass hammer.
Click to expand...

I think my preference is still for the expandable wedges as per "Modern Gunsmithing" by Clyde Baker. You make them about 10 - 20 thou smaller than the bore and slightly cigar shaped at the ends and don't seem to create bulges as long as you are careful. Perhaps more importantly is using a concave brass block on the outside to avoid the small flats left by the flat face of a hammer. I am sure that I have not removed as many dents as Tiriaq but still have removed multiple dents in 15 or 20 barrels.

cheers mooncoon
 
Here is a photo of two sets of them plus two different brass blocks for the outside. The wedges are just mild steel; they don't have to be particularly hard unless you are doing hundreds of barrels. Most shotgun barrels are fairly soft, certainly those on old doubles like I like. The holes in the wedges are for 8-32 screws ---- I start with two pieces of 3/4" stock and screw them together then put a center hole in the ends so that they go in the lathe diagonally and ultimately turn them round. That leaves them round with a diagonal seam through them. Also I then cut one shorter than the other so that if you put a short piece of brass down the barrel, a little under bore diameter, when driven from one end it expands the wedges and from the other opens them. MAKE SURE it is smaller than the choke at the muzzle. I use two brass rods down the barrel (front and back) to position the wedge plus make sure that the seam is at right angles to the dent. Also if the rod from the non driving end is say 1/4" diameter, it will hold the wedges in place while you strike them from the opposite end with a 3/8" rod, to expand them. After the first blow, the wedges stay put. Once the dent is out and you have gone over the outside as well, I drop the roughly bore size piece of brass down the barrel on top of the thin end of the longer wedge. Give it a rap with the 3/8" brass rod and it drives the longer wedge back and looser and they drop out.
Hope this is somewhat clear.

wedge.jpg
 
Mooncoon, it seems that you and tiraq are doing the same thing but in slightly different ways. He's using a brass hammer and you're using a curved brass shoe. His will require less hits to form the area since his force will be on a small point but both of your methods will work.

In this case from the picture of the dent the metal is already scuffed from the impact that formed the dent. I actually doubt that the brass hammer as opposed to using a rounded shoe is going to matter in this case.
 
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