HW55M

[CORider]

I recently purchased a HW55M made in the early 1970s.  The gun groups beautifully, but 3 inches low and left at 10 yards even after shimming the scope.  Looking closely, the barrel appears slightly bent. 
The seller is generously offering to take the gun back, but I'm already attached to it and would rather make the gun work if possible. 
Is the gun cooked, or can it be redeemed (at a rational cost vs its worth)?
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

[LAalex]

Just bend it back.  Not as crazy as it sounds.  You can use the search function here on the GTA to find much advice about barrel bending.  I will put a link here for an item that Bob posted showing his droop tool.
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/library/Charlies%20Barrel%20Tool.pdf

Scotty

[Sandspike]

Aiggun barrel steel is rather soft so bending it back is easily doable. I did it to an airgun a couple years ago and it still shoots great. Your eyeball is a good measure of straightness but also roll it on a glass table to see where the bend is located. And if straightening the barrel is not successful....you can always replace a barrel.
This thread may give you some hope for a successful repair http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?topic=76775.0
Good luck with it and let us know.
Sandspike

[Calmark]

It sounds like doing a little bit of barrel bending will cure your issue.  Follow the guides and you should be fine. They bend barrels at the factory to straighten them as it is before inserting them into the barrel block anyway.  These rifles are no longer made, so finding a replacement barrel would be difficult to do.  It will take some courage to do, but I'm sure you can get that HW55 back to good health. 

[scrane]

I believe the HW55m was designed for use with diopter sights so your problem with a scope might not indicate a bent barrel. If you can verify that the barrel IS bent then bending the barrel may be in order. If the barrel is not bent I would leave the barrel alone and concentrate on the scope/ mount.

[garczar6]

Might be bent but unlikely. Gun is made for open sights. If truly bent call Steve at Pomona. He cuts and recrowns HW barrels and could give good info. on straightening.

[MDriskill]

I agree with the two posts just above.  Before bending anything I'd at least check the gun out with match sights, to help isolate whether the issue is truly with the rifle, or with the scope and mount.

Many older HW's will have the barrel pointing slightly off-center, almost always to the right.  This is common even on the HW 55 which was their top-of-the-line model for decades.  Not an issue for irons but can be pretty weird with a scope.  I have no idea if this was done on purpose, and if so what the reason might have been.  Maybe an effort to pre-correct for years of heavy-handed cocking by a right-hander?   

Many older HW barrel-cockers will also have a pretty fair amount of barrel droop, though usually not too much on the HW 55 which used a very closely-fit leather breech seal.  So, you might look to see if the breech seal is original.  You can replace this with the usual HW plastic breech seal, but those have to be carefully fit by somebody that knows what they're doing.  I've seen a couple 55's with some problems caused by this.

[popedandy]

If you want to try a different approach before bending the barrel, you could pick up a set of the Sun Optics adjustable airgun scope mounts.  They adjust for both windage and elevation and the range of adjustment is pretty broad.  I think I got mine off of Amazon, although I've seen them on e-bay and at Optics Planet.