Anyone ever have a bent barrel? Guy I know just bought a new rifle and I could swear as you look at the barrel it appears bowed.

Pats got one.

But its on a shotgun so it doesn't matter.


But he shoots it VERY well...

It helps curve bullets around objects

The lefty stainless Ruger Hawkeye 223s had the issue. JiminIdaho and the former member formerly known as Bricktop, before he got booted out of here, had one. Ruger had a batch of bad barrels but made it right.

I had one on a Rem. 700 Youth in 7mm08.

I bought a Winchester Featherweight from a local gunsmith about 15-16 years ago. He had two of them in .30-06 and .270. He told me both had bent barrels and he had bought them cheap for the actions and stocks. I bought one and had it rebarreled to .257 Roberts.

I've seen a misaligned barrel/action - had major issues with scope mounting (ran out of adjustment on the scope).

I have seen chambers that were off center.

This one is also a rugger hawk eye

Don't let critters know they are no longer protected when they stand behind trees. Bullets fired from the matrix hunting rifle inevitably find the vitals.

Here's the offending Ruger .223 in person. Look about halfway down the barrel. Funny thing is it actually shot decent groups except they were about 14" high with the scope elevation adjustment bottomed out.



Another view. Look out toward the muzzle and compare the line of the barrel on the right side with the line on the left.

Only works with berger bullets though

I nearly had a bent barrel when I hooked my barrel on a gate post while driving the ATV through. It bowed back against the holders and flung the rifle about 10 yards out in front of me. I just knew the barrel had to be bent. To test it I shot a doe in the head at 150 yards. All is well that ends well.

Holy moly.

Dang!

That would almost be worth keeping as a conversation piece.

It's going back, I presume.

That picture was taken two years ago. It was part of a run of maybe 16 or 17 LH stainless .223 Hawkeyes they did and from reports here and on Accurate Reloading I seem to recall that four of them had bent barrels. Could have been more but that's all I heard of.

Ruger replaced the barrel for free, of course, including shipping back to them. It's not the most accurate rifle I own but manages to put four shots in the .8's or .9's pretty consistently - without having to max out the elevation adjustment.

I have seen plenty of bent barrels, the most recent was a 300SAUM Seven. It shot poorly and is now getting a 7SAUM taleoff barrel.

Far more important than what the outside says the bore is more important. Some are bent and concentric, but some are straight with crooked bores while others are bent externally and fairly straight internally...

Some I have seen shoot pretty well despite the bend.

I've seen one on a Colt ar15; light barreled 16" carbine. It was brand new and bent to the left like the above Ruger.

BP

I've never seen one come from the factory with a barrel that was obviously bent looking when you looked down it like the photos show. I've seen plenty that were bent by the owner. Accidents do happen. It is usually fairly easy to correct when an aftermarket problem. I'd send back a new rifle with that problem.
The tricky ones are bent looking on the inside and straight looking on the outside. I never wanted a rifle barrel that had more metal on one side than it did on the other and just usually replaced the barrel on those.

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, dickweed.

Yes, I had a bent barrel on my stainless Model 77 Hawkeye. Ruger replaced my barrel and next-day'd it back to me in exactly one month, door-to-door. I never shot the bent barrel, but the current rifle has been pretty damned accurate and I've managed to use it to put the smack down on a fair number of feral hogs over the past two years.



You may now return to your regularly scheduled circle jerk, Kenny.

I've seen badly bent barrels from Ruger, Savage and Marlin several times. Also aftermarket Wilson barrels that looked like strung longbows. Interestingly, many of those bent barrels were exceptionally accurate.

A lot of barrels are bent to make them straight.

My old ruger 77 22 was bad enough to barly be able to get enough scope adjustment... I straightened it using a lathe and dial indicater. Much better now.
Always shot really good tho.

Many years ago I worked a short stint at Lithgow Small Arms Factory. We had machines for assessing barrels for straightness, and straightening them where necessary. They weren't a new thing then, either.

IMHO there really should be no excuse for putting out bent barrels.

Hey! I saw a movie about that. It was kewl.

Just an update. LGS replaced the barrelled action with another they had in stock. They gave the purchaser that option or they would have sent it back to Ruger for him. They reiterated that Ruger had excellent customer service. The barrel in question sprayed bullets all over the place.

My brother had a shotgun with a bent barrel but that was after his wife ran over it with the family Buick.