ok heres my story. had a virgin trunion and new us made barrel. started the press and the barrel got stuck, and looked like it was starting to bend a bit. i pressed it back out and filed the barrel and trunion down a bit and started over. much easier this time, but at the 3/4 of the way mark again the barrel stopped. so i dumbly pushed my luck and i saw the barrel bend a bit. so i pushed the barrel out again and yes its bent a bit. soooo what would you do? just scrap it and get another barrel? and file down the trunion a bit more for next time?  i have done this 20 times but never with a NEW us made barrel, always used the originals basically. are they always that damn tight?  thanks for any help-

Take the barrel to a machine shop and they can straighten it on a lathe. Never remove material from the trunnion!!! Always remove from the barrel. About a thou and a half (.0015) interference is ideal.

i dont think theres a machine shop that would be near here, is there any gunsmith i could sent it to? you think any machine shop could handle it? i guess also price is another thing to be considered.

Typically if you apply enough force where you can visibly see the barrel bending bad things happen.  Those bad things being accuracy problems and key holing.

A gunsmith or machinist might be able to straighten it out, but you wouldnt really know until everything was fully assembled and you fired it.


If it were me, and I have been down this road at build parties, its cheaper and less hassle to buy a new barrel.

On a lathe with a dial indicator, it's easy to see how straight it is.

If your gunsmith has a lathe, he can do it too.

You could try ADCO, email them and see.

The barrel is FUBAR  

Start over and learn from it.

yeah im leaning towards that, it was a 70 dollar barrel. found a gunsmith that will try to straighten it for 50 bucks, plus say another 10 for shipping, i might as well at this point take it to the scrap yard and get 5 bucks for it

You straighten bent barrels with a press.







Turning stock off the outside diameter of a barrel isn't going to correct a bend.  While you may make the OD straight, the part that matters is still crooked.

Anyone see the TV show "GI Factory" a few years ago where they toured the M16A2 assembly line at FN South Carolina.

I'll give you $20 for your junk barrel.