1950's Rem 870 Wingmaster ADL bent barrel

[winknplink]

I recently acquired this shotgun after the passing of my father. As the title indicates, it is marked with the datecode that appears to be "ADL" (with the "L" upside-down) and "Full" choke. 28" barrel. Slightly pitted and light rust and the edges are shiny. Stock is in more than adequate condition given it's age. This was my father's gun, but it was the gun I was taught to shoot and hunt with and I have used this gun my whole life. My point being, I'd really like to keep this thing in as-is condition as much as possible, but still be able to enjoy owning it.

The problem I have is that the barrel is bent. I don't know how or when it happened, exactly, but it is. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it is bent to the left just a few inches past the magazine tube. If you shoulder the weapon and look down the barrel, you can see the narrow band of reflected light on top of the barrel do a little shimmy right in that spot.

What are my options? Is this salvageable? And if it is fixable, would it then need to be reblued? Or should I just stick it in the safe as it is and have it just to have it? I've considered putting a new barrel on it, but that opens a whole new can of problems to solve. I almost think that if I did put a new barrel on it, I'd want to (if not have to) completely restore it, wood and all.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Ouch- that hurts.

'My' gunsmith while I was growing up was Ralph Walker of Selma, AL. He had a machine for bending shotgun barrels that he had made out of an old hand-screw driven rivet press, I think it was used in re-lining brake shoes originally. He used it to straighten out bent barrels, or tweak the POI of a gun that was shooting a little low. He used a pair of parallel lines scribed on the shop wall, looking at them through the bore and giving the barrels a little 'pinch' on the machine, then checking the lines again. It was more art than science, because a barrel would spring back a bit and it always seemed to be an exasperating process to get it where it was wanted.

I hope you can find someone who's as good as Mr. Walker was who can help you with that barrel. If you can't, I'd leave the original barrel as is. If you want to shoot the gun, replacement 870 barrels aren't that hard to find.

lpl

 

[Tim the student]

I don't know answers to any of your questions, but I can tell you that I have a very, very similar shotgun, and was kind of looking for a new barrel for mine, and saw some on gunbroker and I think a couple on ebay. They all had a wide range of prices though, from about $55-200. I wish you the best of luck, and really hope that you can continue to enjoy that fine shotgun.

 

[Spirit 1]

Mighty nice old gun chock full of fine memories!

I had a very badly bent driveshaft on my truck. Took it into a driveshaft shop one day just to ask about getting a new shaft made. The owner, Gene, said he'd fix mine if I'd go out & pull it. Okay...

So he chucked it up in the lathe centers and put a dial caliper on to indicate it out. Turned it round & round and figured out what directions it was bent. in 5' it was off at least 3/8"-1/2", probably much more.

He lit his torch and said, "Now, watch that gauge on the dial indicator..." and he heated a spot about the size of a dime [remember, he's a pro]. Dial moved a bit, then he removed the heat and the dial spun furiously. He did this about 4-5 times total in 2 places and the shaft was perfectly straight!!!

Your barrel is bent twice, so it would need to be heated/cooled in 2 places, then probably a third place after those are straightened. You heat the outside of the bend, so as it cools the metal shrinks it straight. You may want to heat slightly behind bends on stock side, slightly in front on muzzle side, leaving 'center' of bent section as is.

 

[Spirit 1]

By the way, an old friend, sadly now departed, was given his father's deer rifle, a 30/40 Krag. He got it because his dad backed over it with the pickup and bent the barrel! Steve religiously cleaned, oiled and polished that cherished possession regardless of the badly skewed barrel. What's more, he got his deer every year and was a crack shot with it after hours upon hours of practice, compensating for the bent barrel! Downright amazing if you saw the obviously crooked barrel.

 

[Virginian]

Ralph Walker was a Prince among men. Ran up a goodly phone bill talking to him more than once. I don't know if you will find many gunsmiths with the ability or desire to fix your barrel, I think I might be tempted to set that one aside and get another one to shoot with. I most assuredly would not try to straighten it with a torch. I have used a torch on motorcycle handlebars, and lots of piping where there was not an exact fit for a commercial fitting, and lots of other stuff, but none of those is a gun barrel.

 

[tkopp]

So, buying a box of slugs and shooting until they come out straight is a bad idea?

 

[jmr40]

Looks like ADT to me. Or possibly a 7. That is the date of Manufacture code. The A indicates March, the D indicates 1957 according to www.remingtonsociety.coms website. The T or whatever it is for something else.

 

[Dave McCracken]

First thing, pattern it and see if it's shooting off. It may not be so bad.

The TB I had shot low and left. A smith bent it to shoot 60/40 after looking at my pattern sheets.. Not many who can do that, though. And sometimes a barrel rebends with a few thousand shots.

I agree that conservation is the best approach. A new barrel, with this one kept for display purposes may be the best solution.

Do shoot it, I'm sure your Dad would want that..

 

[ArmedBear]

A no-rib Wingmaster barrel should be available for pretty cheap. They used to be on eBay before eBay got scared of bad publicity from some school shooter who was reported inaccurately in the MSM to have "bought a lot of his weapons on eBay." Or you could stick any barrel on it; AFAIK all 12 Gauge Wingmaster barrels will fit, from oldest to newest.

If you want to use it this season, that's what I'd recommend. You don't have to restore it for the new barrel to work. Then you can send the barrel off to whatever smith can fix it, if you don't have one in your area, and it won't matter when it comes back. Top shotgun 'smiths tend to be a tad on the busy side.

That said, I'll bet that gun would be pretty nice if it was restored. It doesn't have real collector value as it is, but if you had it restored, it wouldn't rust further and it could be used for another few generations.

 

[Spirit 1]

"I most assuredly would not try to straighten it with a torch. I have used a torch on motorcycle handlebars, and lots of piping where there was not an exact fit for a commercial fitting, and lots of other stuff, but none of those is a gun barrel."

I've done a lot of that sort of stuff too, and with handlebars, heating & then forcing into another bend configuration. Doing that you will usually have the tubing get weird, turning ovoid instead of perfectly round or other collapse problems. On other metal projects I might heat and pound, heat and apply pressure, or heat and force in a mandrel or something to create a new shape or re-size.

Just for further description: what I am talking about in previous post isn't like that. The process described uses no pressure, no bending, no forcing and won't drastically change the round shape of the barrel. One uses a very small torch tip, like a Victor 0, or a Purox 3, heating only a tiny spot.

On my 3 1/2" diameter driveshaft dime-sized areas were heated near cherry red. On a roughly 1" shotgun barrel a smaller area would be heated & cooled.

If I was going to do it I'd sure experiment on a piece of steel tubing first just to get familiar with the process. And yes, taking it to a pro gunsmith certainly might be preferred, especially on a gun with great sentimental or other value.