p-man
Gold $$ Contributor
From one of my previous posts:
"Had a 'donor' unfired 700 ADL barreled action that I had been sitting on and when I decided to put its intended project on hold, I though that I would shoot it a little - the barrel looked fairly decent with the borescope and I didn't have a stock 30-06 to shoot. So I started by removing the plug screws and then attempted to mount the scope base - I had difficulty getting the forward base screw in the front receiver ring to engage all the way. I removed the base and inspected the hole - it actually was puckered a little, had a little ridge or lip on the left side of the hole - from what I could see down in the hole, it looked like it was not drilled completely as I could not see the barrel threads at the bottom - and the floor of the hole seemed rough like it had epoxy or something in the bottom. Well isn't that curious? Was this some sort of compound that Remington used in barreling back then that must of 'squeezed' up into the hole and cured rock hard? I tried digging it out and the stuff was very hard and sounded like metal on metal when the pick hit it. Hmm, now I really was curious so out to the barrel vise and action wrench I go - the barrel was tough but I managed to get it off - I cleaned the receiver rings as well as I could and and noticed that the hole HAD been drilled all the way through receiver rings - but that crap was there so I cleaned inside the rings and the base of the hole with a wire "toothbrush" and the glob fell out - it was a piece of friggin' weld!!!!! Some A-hole up there had butchered the screw hold and filled it with weld and redrilled it . . . short . . . and obviously it was after the barrel was on because there was traces of weld on the barrel threads - and when he re-tapped it he didn't go but just a few threads . . . just enough for the plug screw to fit. Further, after the weld fell out the result was the bottom of the hole looked like an oval - there is a little remaining sliver of weld that looks like a crescent and it is so thin that there is a gap between it and the wall of the original hole and it's so short that only one or two threads remain.
Now I guess my only recourse is re-drill and retap with 8-40's - to say I am pissed is an understatement. If someone had used this with only iron sights I guess no one would ever know."
NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY:
Subsequently I epoxied a 6-48 screw in with JB Weld Steel-Reinforced Epoxy, cured for several weeks, filed flush and then re-drilled . . . this quickly went down-hill and became one of those aw sh_t moments as the original remaining 'plug' material fell out leaving the screw body with a big gap in the epoxy
So I cleaned everything out revealing the actual original front screw hole - sadly it is so off-center that drilling out to an 8-40 will not correct the issue - so what are my options?
I would prefer to have the front hole plug-welded and then I could re-drill and tap with 6-48 . . . however, that poses several new questions: I assume that would affect the original heat treat - if so, could I have the receiver re-heat treated? Should I re-drill and tap before or after the new heat treat? Any other recommended options?
"Had a 'donor' unfired 700 ADL barreled action that I had been sitting on and when I decided to put its intended project on hold, I though that I would shoot it a little - the barrel looked fairly decent with the borescope and I didn't have a stock 30-06 to shoot. So I started by removing the plug screws and then attempted to mount the scope base - I had difficulty getting the forward base screw in the front receiver ring to engage all the way. I removed the base and inspected the hole - it actually was puckered a little, had a little ridge or lip on the left side of the hole - from what I could see down in the hole, it looked like it was not drilled completely as I could not see the barrel threads at the bottom - and the floor of the hole seemed rough like it had epoxy or something in the bottom. Well isn't that curious? Was this some sort of compound that Remington used in barreling back then that must of 'squeezed' up into the hole and cured rock hard? I tried digging it out and the stuff was very hard and sounded like metal on metal when the pick hit it. Hmm, now I really was curious so out to the barrel vise and action wrench I go - the barrel was tough but I managed to get it off - I cleaned the receiver rings as well as I could and and noticed that the hole HAD been drilled all the way through receiver rings - but that crap was there so I cleaned inside the rings and the base of the hole with a wire "toothbrush" and the glob fell out - it was a piece of friggin' weld!!!!! Some A-hole up there had butchered the screw hold and filled it with weld and redrilled it . . . short . . . and obviously it was after the barrel was on because there was traces of weld on the barrel threads - and when he re-tapped it he didn't go but just a few threads . . . just enough for the plug screw to fit. Further, after the weld fell out the result was the bottom of the hole looked like an oval - there is a little remaining sliver of weld that looks like a crescent and it is so thin that there is a gap between it and the wall of the original hole and it's so short that only one or two threads remain.
Now I guess my only recourse is re-drill and retap with 8-40's - to say I am pissed is an understatement. If someone had used this with only iron sights I guess no one would ever know."
NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY:
Subsequently I epoxied a 6-48 screw in with JB Weld Steel-Reinforced Epoxy, cured for several weeks, filed flush and then re-drilled . . . this quickly went down-hill and became one of those aw sh_t moments as the original remaining 'plug' material fell out leaving the screw body with a big gap in the epoxy
So I cleaned everything out revealing the actual original front screw hole - sadly it is so off-center that drilling out to an 8-40 will not correct the issue - so what are my options?
I would prefer to have the front hole plug-welded and then I could re-drill and tap with 6-48 . . . however, that poses several new questions: I assume that would affect the original heat treat - if so, could I have the receiver re-heat treated? Should I re-drill and tap before or after the new heat treat? Any other recommended options?
