Run With The Fox,
Go to my article on rebuilding a Meffert drilling in the special issue of Der Waffenschmied about drillings. The photos will show how "sleeving" the barrels is done. The process doesn't depend on the strength of old (maybe welded)barrel steel. With regard to the receiver, in the period this drilling was made, they were typically case hardened, rather than through hardened. Bushing the firing pins, should "square" that problem away. With regard to the possible welding on the inside of the locks, they are not under significant stress anyway, and in reactivating them the main consideration is to save the engraving (they may not have been welded anyway). If all else fails, someone that can make a new barrel set for a new drilling, can certainly make a whole new barrel set for an old drilling. There are people in this world that take it as a challenge if you tell them they can't do something. Some of those people are machinists/gunsmiths. I am neither, yet have successfully repaired a 22-250 chamber that had a hole drilled into it, and removed many "plugs" from "Dewatted" Springfield barrels( ones that didn't have a hole burned into them). None of us that haven't examined the drilling, and don't know the equipment or capability of any particular gunsmith, can say whether he can or can't restore it. There are many things that are impractical but possible. Then it comes down to what is desired.
Mike
