doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Removing a plain barrel sight base

Sorry for the off topic post, but I know that someone here can help.

I am setting up an 870 (28 gauge) for my daughter until she is big enough for a double gun. I have a youth stock installed which will still need shortened a bit, and now I am working on the barrel. I bought a plain barrel to bring the weight down a little, and I intend to shorten it to 22" or so.

I would like to remove the front sight base and bead to reinstall on the shortened barrel. How is it likely fastened, and how can I remove and reinstall it?

Thanks,
CHAZ

How about a picture of the intended user, my gun/game bearer Sabrina.

Hoof,
I think it would be soldered(maybe silver solder)or epoxied on.The stem of the bead is not likely to go into the barrel, but it might.Remove the bead and heat will loosen the base.Reinstall the base with similar material.Good on you for teaching your daughter.I'm sure you will have her use hearing protection even though it wasn't shown in the photo.
Mike

Eyes and ears whenever shooting for sure! She was just holding my gun during downtime in the picture.

I will pull the bead, and heat it up to see if it pops off.

CHAZ

Those short bases for the front site beads on Remington plain bbls are silver (hard) soldered on,,at least the ones I've taken off.
Plenty of heat needed to remove them.

I always put them back on a shortened bbl w/ soft solder. A sweat soft solder job done right does the trick and if you're careful you don't spoil the blue on the cut down tube.

If you are cutting back to something like 22" from a 30 or 28",,you may be able to elliminate the base all together as the bbl diameter is a little larger back there. That gains you some of the heigth.
A larger diameter bead could make up a difference. The latter could be of help to a younger shooter too.
I know we're not supposed to look at the front bead and all that, but,,,,

Just my .02

Wow, plenty of heat for sure!
I have the base off and the locating hole redrilled farther down the barrel. I have never soldered anything other than plumbing and electrical, perhaps it is time to learn?
I checked to see if I could get away without the base, but the barrel is only 25" to start, and appears to have no taper at all in those few inches.

CHAZ

Hoof,
A trick I use when soldering bases is to wire them in place with soft iron wire ( I use "tie wire" from hardware store),steel wire may have enough carbon to burn apart.Also, I find it easier to use "paste solder"(solder particles mixed with flux)and add wire solder if necessary.
Mike

Hoof, if the barrels only 25" already why don't you just leave it. After all you're only talking about 3".

I am trying to shave as much weight as I can and with a 11" LOP even a 25" barrel is nose heavy. I also like nothing tighter than cylinder bore to start the kids. I have a vent rib mod and full barrel in the case already, so I figured I would butcher the plain barrel.

The gun was 5# 14oz when I weighed it this morning before removing another 3/4" of stock and bobbing the barrel 4". I am hoping for around 5 1/2 lbs. Enough weight to be manageable to shoot and swing.

CHAZ

Take the base you have and make sure it fits the bbl surface exactly.

Clamp the base into position so it is square and in position right where you want it,,do this right on the nice blued surface.

Now with a very sharp and thin point scribe, very carefully scribe a neat line in the bbl surface right around the base into the bbl blue.
Also mark a tiny dot or dash mark on the ft or rear face of the base so you'll know which end faces front (or back) when it comes to soldering time.

Unclamp the base. Clean the bottom surface of the base clean and tin it with soft solder. Just a thin coating of clean solder. The easiest I've found to do small parts is a common electric soldering gun. But a torch will do also. Just don't over heat and burn the flux. If you do, you'll have to clean up the surface and re-tin again.
(if the base is crusty from unsoldering it from the bbl to begin with and it probably is,,clean the entire thing up now with a file while it's off the bbl. Either rust blue the part before installation or be satisfied with a cold blue job afterwards.)

On the bbl,,very carefully scrape the bluing off the surface inside the scribe lines you made that define the site base.
Stay within the lines, you're trying to preserve the original bbl blue.

Lightly flux the tinned area of the site base and re-clamp onto the bbl in the exact location and direction (remember that dot or dash line you made).
Before you put the heat to it, take a common pencil and scribble all over the bbl and the site base with it. That'll leave a coating of graphite on the surface. The graphite coating wwon't allow any excess solder that happens to roll out of the joint to stick to the bbl or site base. Plus it'll keep any of the melting flux that runs out from discoloring the bluing.

Now heat the bbl from below w/a propane flame, slowly bring the temp up. Don't overheat nor put the flame directly on the solder joint.
You should be able to see the solder flow. It probably won't need any extra if the fit of the two surfaces is tight,,solder isn't a good filler mat'l anyway.
If you feel the need to add a touch,,have the solder wire ready with the end of it flattened out already with a hammer so it's paper thin. Just touch that thin tip of the wire to the joint and it'll flow a bit right into the joint. Excess will flow right back out. The graphite will protect the blue and fresh steel surfaces from solder clinging to them.
A touch of extra clamp pressure when the solder is still molten is a good idea,,but don't over do it. There should be precious little room to clamp the parts further together. Plus there is always the chance of moving the base off it's mark when adjusting the clamp.

Let it cool on it's own,,no speed cooling with wet cloths ect.
Clean up the area with soap and water afterwards.