How to fix a bent barrel extension?

[Olle]

Originally Posted by postino

Just out of curiosity, where do you intend to apply pressure on the rail to bend it???

BTW, is there an amusing story behind how this rail got bent???

(Mine got bent when I removed the barrel without proper tools)...

My approach would be to lay it with the left side down on a fixture (for example, a heavy aluminum block) and clamp the barrel, the chamber and the left rail securely. This would leave the right rail unsupported. Then I would insert a machinist's jack between the rails and push, while reading with a dial indicator at the end of the rail. I can make a spacer block (using another Luger to get the correct dimension) to get a fairly accurate base reading for the indicator, then I'd push beyond that a bit.

After doing this in increments a few times, I should get a pretty good idea of the springback. After the final push, it should spring back to the base reading. I'm sure there will be some fine tuning after that, but this should get it back within reasonable tolerances. Well, that's what I had envisioned anyway.

It was bent when I got it so I really don't know what happened to it, but it takes a lot of force to get a breech block in between the rails so somebody must have squeezed it pretty darn good. There are some bad diagonal gouges on the rails, almost like the extension has "derailed" at some point, and I'm sure that this has something to do with it. I might even take it to a machine shop to have it crack tested before I go any further, I definitely don't want it to break.