Barrel horizontal alignment

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Colt Commander

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A question please.
A revolver barrel that is known to be horizontally out of alignment
Left to right.
It can not be sent in to to factory for work.
Can the barrel, with the proper tooling used be pushed slightly in the direction to align it properly.
 
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Although that may work, I'm not a fan of bashing on guns. I would rethread the frame to be straight. Then the back face of the barrel against the frame would line it up. Correcting the problem makes more sense to me than working around it.
 
Thanks for the replies.
I thought I have read about tapping the barrel.
I was wondering about something like a jig made up like a sight pusher.
To gently nudge the barrel as frame is locked in the proper
Vise set up.
I did not know the frame could be redrilled.
Would this require a custom barrel be fitted?
 
Phone or email Frank Glenn. He is a top tier gunsmith in Arizona and a very down to earth person.
Grok his name to find contact info
 
Something caused the barrel to go out of alignment. BUT!, beating on the barrel or frame is not going to correct it....perhaps the gun was involved in a fire or maybe the barrel is a replacement and it was cross threaded...easy fix would be the barrel became bent...worse case the frame was sprung. have to find out whats bent first....
 
Sometimes the frame is not loaded into the fixture correctly, or has a chip in there, or something else that makes the frame slightly off when it is drilled and tapped. When a barrel is screwed on, it can only follow the threaded hole that is there, and will be misaligned to the frame. This is not readily noticeable unless you are looking for that specific thing, so some of these get shipped out of the factory.

The frame could be set up in a milling machine and the threads recut to be straight in line with the frame. This would make the threads slightly loose, but serviceable. A factory barrel could be used in this case.

An alternative would be to recut the threads to a larger size, making the threaded hole perfect, but larger diameter. This would then require a custom barrel with a matching larger thread. If a custom barrel with a tighter twist rate was desired anyway for better accuracy with light target loads, that would be a feasible solution.
 
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Thanks all. A little background.
I bought my first M29 in 1980 in Fayetteville N.C.
By the end of the first 50 rounds the cylinder was spinning.
Got rid of it.

1990 I purchased a 4” 629.
First cylinder at 15 yards shooting left 1 foot.
Sent it back to S&W. They said they adjusted it.
Shot 8 in. To the left.
Traded it for a RugerRedhawk 5.5” in 44mag.
It shot 2” groups at 15 yards with 320 grain hard cast
At 1200 fos.

2001 Bought another 629 4”.
It shot 6” to the left and 4” low.
Immediately traded it for a RugerBlackhawk dual
cylinder in 45 Colt/45 ACP.
45 Colt it shoots 340 grain hard cast at 1100fps into
2” at 15 yards.

Picked up a 45 Colt mountain gun at an estate sale.
Very good price.
It turned out the barrel and cylinder were way oversized.
Best group with select hand loads and oversized cast bullets was 6-8” at 15 yards.
Shooting to the left 6”

Mind you all these pistols were being shot in a shooting vice from a bench.
Not by hand.

I decided one last time to try to make a 629.

I purchased a new 4” barrel and cylinder.
The smith installed it.
It shoots 8” to the left and 4” low.
Smith actually put on another barrel, a duplicate he had from
a custom competition pistol he was fitting a custom barrel too.
It shot 6” to the left and 2” low.
He and another Smith looked into it and stated that the frame hole and threading were cut out of center.

I just ordered a Ruger RedHawk 5050 4.2” barrel in .45 Colt.

I’m giving this 4” 625/629 one last chance by purchasing an 8” barrel with proper clamp tools to change it and will one way or another make it right.
 
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There was a technique used by the S&W factory to fix revolver windage.

The gun was laid on the bench with the muzzle resting on a Babbitt bar.
Another Babbitt bar was used to strike the barrel.
This shifted the barrel in the frame to get it to target.

This was much more on the order of tapping the barrel NOT hammering on it.

I never heard of them doing this to correct elevation, and I never heard of another maker using this technique.

This is an "At your own risk" thing.
I'd talk to Frank Glenn before I did anything.
 
I’m very happy to hear that Sir.
At least it sounds like it may be possible to adjust.
Thank you
 
How straight is the frame and or threads,
How I check alignment of frame and also cylinder lock up timing. Brass piece threads into frame. With a longer spud with a point it should run in and touch center of fitting pin bushing

I find interesting that all those guns shot left.
 
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