Fixing a bent tang

Sam Harrison

New member
I'm in the last stages of repairing my old family Arisaka and have encountered one final hurdle to overcome...

The lower tang is slightly bent. Only slightly, and only at the tip. The front part attaches just fine and is flat. I believe I can obtain a new trigger guard and the accompanying assembly, but I'd rather have as much of the rifle original as possible. This seems like something that can be fixed.

1. Is there any way to easily bend the metal back into place? I'm afraid of damaging or breaking it, so this isn't something I'm excited about. The part was originally bent many years ago by forcibly smacking the rifle off the corner of a house, so I know it's definitely very strong. This and the stock are the only parts that were damaged.

2. Another thing: it seems to screw in okay if I attach the front part (the area around the trigger guard/magazine well) first. I can then press the bent part down and screw it into place as normal, it doesn't require a ridiculous amount of force to press down. Does this seem like an acceptable solution?


Attached are a couple photos so you can see exactly what the problem is. It only sticks up about 1/2" or so, but is extremely irritating.
 

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Your two alternatives are heating or bending. Heating will ruin the finish, so for that 1/2" I'd just tighten the screw down.
 
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