When is a dent a problem to take out?
 

How bad is too bad? Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here it tis. Fluid Steel gun. Dent is 12" from the breech and shows up on the inside of the bore.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL141.../411462378.jpg

If it's that close to the breech and it's visible on the inside, I'd consider having it removed Tom. Just my opinion. If it was 12" from the muzzle I would'nt be as concerned.

I'll have it removed for sure. I just want to make sure that in most folks mind a dent like this can be easily taken out.

It can be removed by any of the better smiths out there. Kirk Merrington and Dewey Vicknair come to mind but I'm sure others could do it properly. I've had both do it for me and you can't tell it was ever there.

Jon Hosford can do it easily with his patented dent removing tools. He did a set of 20 ga. Damascus barrels for me at the Southern in 2014.

Thanks Dean,

I sat next to him at the NE SXS and watched him take several dents out of folks doubles in a matter of minutes. I guess since there's no crease it should be pretty easy to fix.

I have one of his tools and they work pretty good,but it dose require a little skill to do a good job of it.

Considering the modest charge a true professional will make to remove this type of dent, it makes little sense to consider any other course of action.

Unless, of course, you expect to be denting a lot of gun barrels...

I had Larry DelGrego (Lawrence) take a similar dent out of my 20 gauge GHE while he talked a mile a minute. He used the original Parker Bros. "Slugs". Push one that would barely go into the dent and tap a number of times with a little hammer around the dent on the outside of the barrel. Then repeat with a slug a couple of thousands larger. Kept repeating till the dent was gone. He did this job after completely stripping and cleaning the gun and replacing the little ejector springs. Never stopped talking and only charged me $60 for the total job. Of course, this was 10 or 12 years ago. Needless to say, I was a happy camper.

I use the Hosford rig, and have taken worse out than that, when carefully done with the tool you won't even know it was dented.