a guy should listen to his own advise..OT.

[Chuckindenver]

you guy all see the if it aint broke dont fix it line i use, so youll get a kick out of this.
i have in my collection a nice 1955 dated Colt Huntsman, really clean cept for the barrel, someone has cold blued it, just the freaking barrel,
so im bluing some small bits , and figure, hey! ill pull that barrel, and just blue the barrel, then my lil Colt will be cherry.
so i clamp it down in my soft jawed vise, and a badded wrench, how tight can a 22 barrel be right? and give it a turn, i think its comming loose, and SNAP!!!, the front sight hanges up on the softjaw, flys out into space..
i found some great new swear words..and didnt get the barrel out, didnt even move it.
so.
i clean it up, hunt down the front sight under my bench, and re attach it.
silver soldering is a lost art for sure..im rusty but got it done.
dressed up the bugger marks, and it now sits in my blue tank, up to the frame..shoulda just left the ol girl alone,,sheesh...
it wasnt broke, i didnt need to fix it...

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Jim Tarleton]

Welcome to the club. The two of us could probably break a battleship.

Jim

[mark1]

I know the feeling. I had a bad K98 barrel but the rear sight and base was in great shape. So I had another barrel in good shape but a messed up base. So how hard can it be to remove the base. A little heet to melt the solder and just tap it off. Not. Now I have 2 barrels with messed up rear sight bases.

[Chuckindenver]

i learned it takes more then a little heat to remove Mauser sight bases..
propane doenst get hot enough..gotta use a real torch, hard solder flows at 600 or so..like i said,, lol, silver soldering is a lost art..
after removing my pistol from my tank. looks like i lost my touch, front sight came right off.
ill have my buddy redo it, it has some soldering skills...better then me anyway.
ill give it one more try first..if yer gonns screw it up, you may as well screw it up good right?

[Emri]

Been there, done that!! I keep telling myself "don't mess with it", but end up going there anyway. Broke a really nice polished extractor in a NM 03 when I left the bolt in while unscrewing the barrel. You can leave the bolt in in a Remington, but NOT an 03!
Good luck with the Colt.

Emri

[John Rippert]

I definitely have enough projects on the list to keep me going for a while but I still manage to add to it with my own "oops" factor. Just what happens when you know enough about working on your own firearms to be dangerous.

[noslack 327]

I had a problem with a poor bbl, on my fathers colt woodsman, I bought a nos bbl from a collector in wa state, had it installed, great shooter now.