Tools

A Clothespin to the Rescue. Again

Some time way back I had my Browning shotgun leaning against the bench and much to my dismay it fell over, whacking into a stool in the way down and inducing a pretty severe bend one section of the gallery(?) running o top of the barrel (I am not 100% sure of this part’s name, I am not really a shotgun guy).  The gauge of the metal that was bent is about 1.8″ x 1/4″ and the section about 3″ long.  Although the shotgun still worked fine it looked pretty sketch with this damage.  At the time I tried to un-bend the damage with opposing carpenter’s shims but the metal was too strong to budge.

Recently I tried a different tactic, instead using a half of a hardwood clothespin for the tapered wedge to drive between the barrel and the bent element and it worked like a charm.  I first laid a piece of felt against the barrel to keep from scratching it, and gently drove in the tapered clothespin.  It actually took some fairly robust whacks but eventually the gallery went back into place just fine with almost no noticeable permanent damage.  If you look closely there is still a tiny bit of distortion but it does not shout at you from across the room like before.

Just another day at the barn.  You can’t get much more low-tech than this.