Lefever 20 DS barrels, 28" which I was looking for as a project or shooter as is but not as this one is. 13 dents in left barrels, two on right side. But worst of all, two bulged areas where something "raised" the metal. Trashed beyond any repair short of sleeving and how cost effective is that on a DS? Better yet the seller still wants 800 for the gun as is. To me this is like a used car dealer wanting to sell a car after a demolition derby and expecting to get full price for a mint gun.

I can deal with a few dents but this set of barrels have just been too abused to trust no matter how easy the dent are to raise and bulged areas always are suspect to my fingers. No way to treat a set of barrels.

JUNK. Looks like track marks from a bulldozer. Did it get run over?

Reminds me of an Alex Henry I once bought from a dealer online. I inquired how the bores were and was told they were like a mirror. When it arrived each barrel had over a dozen dents. Neat old gun too but it went back needless to say.

Wonder what he tried to kill with the barrels? Bobby

It is a miracle that it didn't blow up on the moron that did this

bbman3, it looks like a counter top, door or window sill. From his level of determination I say he got the job done. I do not know what is sadder to me abuse the gun has suffered or the fact that the seller thinks these minor dents, to say nothing of the two bulged areas, does not reduce his gun's value drastically. You got a receiver and for end looking for a set of good barrels. One of many thousands. To me it is a 200 dollar gun at best not 800.

Looks to me like someone didn't realize that he had brought a gun to a sword fight

I had a worse example than that successfully repaired. However, it was a graded Parker with two sets of barrels, bought very cheap.

Dents I can fix it is the bulges that scare me the most. I know others will say a dent and a bulge are the same thing in different directions but bulges bother me more. I need all my fingers and just do not see the need to shoot suspect scrap barrels. There are 200+ million guns in the US so I will just shoot ones without bulged barrels until the supply runs low.

Minor bulges are not a problem, depending on where they are. The same person who repaired a gun "worse than yours" also fixed a bulge for me. It was in a non pressure area and he did an invisible repair to a great gun.

The problem with bulges is that it requires much peening to bring the metal back into place. This peening is more than likely to pop the rib solder joints loose. I have sworn off trying to repair ring bulges because of this. However, a minor bulge, as mentioned by Bill, I might try again. In the case of a ring bulge you cannot get the part of the bulge that is under the ribs anyway, without removing the ribs and relaying them. Now, you're really getting into an expensive repair. Better be some valuable barrels.

SRH

plus, according to old ed, the bulge will soon return when the gun is fired a few times, as the metal has been make weak by "working it".

A damaged 20-gauge DS-Grade Lefever is a good platform for liberal application of dollars --







Now a 28-gauge.

I had a CE-Grade Ansley H. Fox with a ring bulge in the left barrel, probably from a stuck wad, about 18-inches from the breech. Shot a lot of Southern California Doves with that gun in the 1970s, and that bulge never changed from Bill English's pounding it down. Eventually sold the gun to the Hartmann Brothers.

A small bulge in a low pressure area won't return under normal use. You just need to find a gunsmith that will address the situation. My situation was a DH grade Parker with two sets of Titanic barrels, one with vent rib, one 32", both severely dented . For a $400 purchase price, I figured I had a good project. I was right.

I've never seen a bulge return. Not to say it can't happen, but if anything the metal in that area has been work hardened, not made more soft. A ring bulge I would tend to agree cannot be removed completely without removing the ribs. However, to my mind the same holds true. It's been brought out to a level which requires even more pressure to take further. Take out what you can see, test your rib, and keep an eye on it for a little while to see if the ribs starts getting loose. While I have not done a ton of them, none got worse or came back. If the gun's not yours, warn the owner of the slight potential that there may be future issues, but I don't believe things are inherently more dangerous. If you repeat the cause of the first bulge, it will bulge again, but so will a new barrel.
JMO,
Jim
Oh, Jon, I would need to look more closely perhaps, but I think I could safely get that barrel back to normal. It would require a re-blue, but would look and work fine as far as I can tell from the pic. Price for the gun is WAY too high, I agree.