heating barrel 1891 argentine

[bayonet]

recently got an all matching 1891 argentine with a sporterized stock the problem is there is something stuck in the barrel it almost seems to be a cleaning rod it is a very hard metal and I could not get it to budge. I have access to a large oven and was wondering what would be the highest temp I could heat the barrel to. maybe then I can knock the rod out.
Thanks
Carl

Information

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[browningautorifle]

If you can picture we fired machine guns until the barrel glowed red hot and you could see the bullets passing through. I've fired FNs until the oils sizzled out of the wood. Gun barrels get hot ane return to normal spec unless you do something like quench them. HOWEVER, the way the weapons techs get a stuck section of rod out is drive it out with a rod of bore diameter. The problem is you have no idea exactly what is in there on it.

[Chuckindenver]

try this.
if indeed its is a cleaning spud, likely its brass.
remove the rifle from the stock, and remove the bolt, find someone that has a large chest freezer or up right that the rifle will fit in.
put the rifle in over night, then try and drve the ubstruction out ..
cold before heat....the brass or alum, will skrink much more then the steel.
iv used this many times with brass cases stuck in chambers, and reloading dies.

[Patrick Chadwick]

...and, of course, the corollary of Chuck's valuable tip is that if you heat everything, the brass expands MORE than the steel, jamming it even tighter. So heating is the wrong way to go!

[bayonet]

well I know it isn't brass because a cobalt drill bit wouldnt touch it it is a very hard material. So I will try cold first then heat! Thanks for the input.

[Patrick Chadwick]

a cobalt drill bit wouldnt touch it

That sounds very hazardous for your barrel!

If you really want to drill into something that is stuck in the barrel - for instance, so that you can use an "easy-out" screw extractor on a long rod to pull out whatever it is - then you MUST use a sleeve over the drill so that it cannot touch the bore. One touch and the barrel will be FUBAR.

And think again about what Chuck wrote: get it all as cold as possible, and then use a brass rod to drive it out or, if you use a sleeved drill to drill through the plug, a screw/tap extractor on a long rod.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Another thought:

Apart from the throat, a barrel is basically parallel. I have heard of terrible jams using those undesirable objects known as bore snakes, and one could imagine that if a cleaning rod has snapped off, then the break in the rod will be crystalline and very, very hard on the surface. But it got in there - at least until it jammed. So if you want to get it out, you must not keep on pushing it in the same direction, as that makes the jam worse.

Get a bore light - or make one from a small LED on a length of fine twin cable - very simple. Then look down the bore from both ends. Find which looks like the broken end of the rod ot whatever it was.

And then use the cooling trick and drive it out from THE OTHER END so that you are (I hope!) releasing the jam, rather than tightening it.

Good luck!

[bayonet]

Well the neither the cooling or the heating trick worked.The item in the barrel is flush at the start of the barrell and is about 4 inches shy of coming out of the end of the barrel.I heated to 350 degrees no help. Tried freezing the night before no help. I have a buddy with a propane blacksmith forge gonna try that next weekend maybe I can get it hot enough. Thanks again for the input Patrick.
Carl

[Chuckindenver]

remember...
Mauser sight bases are hight temp soldered on...heat will make them slide right off, then you have a real mess.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Chuck has a very good point. It would be a good idea to make a witness mark on the barrel and the sight block before applying the torch, so that you can at least get the sight fairly well back in position again when you replace it!

We've got our fingers crossed for you