doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How do barrels get dents?

I've never dented a barrel, and can't imagine how something as hard as a shotgun barrel would get a dent. How does this happen?

Dropping them on a hard object such as a metal frame or closing in a car door or tail gate are just two examples. Guns with thin barrel walls and older guns with soft metals dent more easily. Many people measure barrel wall thickness now.

Dents are like "handling marks" in wood: the result of mishandling. Takes a bit more mishandling, however, to dent a barrel. With a really fast swing, I suppose it's possible to dent very thin barrels by whacking them into a tree, as a grouse or woodcock hunter might. But most of the time, it probably takes an encounter with something even harder. Dropping the gun on a rock might well do it.

I've seen more than one gun with a barrel dent that looked like someone stabbed it with a pencil. Finally occurred to me that these dents result from stray shots on a dove shoot. Unfortunately, not a rare accident around here...Geo

I've never dented a barrel (knock on wood) that I recall, but I've taken out what seems like hundreds of dents, including a couple that a dealer put in a gun between the time I paid for it and when I picked it up.

My guess is that people turn quickly and bang the barrel into anything with a sharp corner, as this seems to be what I've taken out most. Other types of dents I've seen were from standing them on the butt on the ground and falling over off the side of a car/truck onto rocks/pavement. Those types of dents usually have a sharp point from a rock at the bottom of the dent, that won't come out without filing down.

A couple years back I hunting pheasants in a cattail slough with my son. This slough was loaded with stones and rocks.
I assumed the landowner used this untillable ground to dump all the stones he'd collected from the adjacent farmland.
With the cattails, it was almost impossible to see rocks underfoot. My son fell twice in that field.
The second time the top barrel of his Win. 101 found a rock--it wasn't pretty but made for a teachable moment.
Fortunately for us, that slough was also loaded with pheasants and the barrel has long since been repaired.

As a pheasant hunter, getting in and out of vehicles can pose a risk if one is careless.
Duck hunting poses a whole different set of opportunities for dents.
IMO, hunting grouse and woodcock in the forest is the least threatening.
Trees aren't hard enough for my workhorse guns and there aren't rocks in the country I hunt in.
-jim

Yeah, my philosophy is: throw one of your body parts under your gun when you fall. The bleeding will stop eventually, and the skin will heal itself. Not true of gun damage.

Hunting in Pennsylvania, climbing a steep hill, lost my footing and the barrels slammed on a pointed rock. Not much damage but a small dent to my (long ago sold like a big dumb a$$) 12 gauge LC Smith. It can happen.

(Haven't dented one since then however, but wouldn't you know one of my all time favorite shotguns.)

I hunt fairly harsh terrain, the country practically dents my gun just thinking about it.



When I fall here, I end up with plenty of scratches, but the gun does too. I take low-end Spanish doubles into this country, because there is a certain attrition rate to the guns used. Most chukar hunters I know take a tumble now and then. The wear on a gun is predictable when falling while clamboring around on giant rocks. But man is it fun.

I've never dented a barrel either and rap on wood again. I have removed dents for other people though. I've never done damascus and with my layman's knowledge I would be hesitant doing damascus for someone else. The last dent I repaired was a magazine tube for a Winchester Model 12. Since I'm a machinist, I machined several incremental, polished slugs which I greased and tapped down the tube with a wood dowel and gently peening with a soft hammer. Choked barrels are not fun to fix for me. A lot of time spent on the lathe making these many slugs.