Got a question for you gunsmiths. What is the best way to mount a recoil lug onto the barrel, silver soldering or welding? Does the heat of welding or silver soldering put any negavtive effects on the barrel? Any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Ming

Machined integral to the barrel. Ruling that out silver solder. Welding is a bad idea and should not be done ever! My prefered method is to cut a shallow dovetail in the barrel and silver solder the dovetailed recoil lug in place.

Todd E

Why welding is bad? Does it take the same amount of heat to do silver soldering as with welding? Thanks. Ming

Ming,

If brazing or welding is used then the Weatherby system is best because they put the lug on the barrel over the chamber. Althoug one does need to exercise some caution when bedding them otherwise getting the rifle apart will not be real easy if the barrel lug and action lug are out of line.

Winchester put theirs under the open sight and recently have them welded on. It is supposed to be induction welding and that according to them solves the stress problem.

After having owned a countless number of 375 M70s and 3 458s Model 70s with the silver soldered or brazed lug I can say it is not the wasy to go if the lug is down the middle of forend.

Actually 375s on Model 70s do not need the lug.

Mike

Thanks Mike and Todd for the info. I think that I would rather have a large barrel blank to machine an integral recoil lug instead. Cheers! Ming

Intregal lugs machined in are very costly indeed.. A dovetail and silver solder like 44-40 that melts at 400 degrees is what one normally uses to connect lugs, quarter ribs, barrel band swivels and sights...

If you use "silver solder" then it requires too much heat for a barrel. The silver content is your clue, keep it low...

High heat on a barrel will cause soft and hard spots and thats not good...

Barrel lugs are an interesting issue. I make mine by taper turning a barrel band about 1 inch long to exactly fit the barrel and then sectioning it into 2-4 pieces. To each tapered section I weld on an old remington barrel lug and then grind the whole thing down to the size I like and which fits the stock. I then drill and tap the barrel for a 4-40 screw and drill the band to match. I then tin both the band and the barrel with 44-40 solder and while applying just enough heat to melt the solder, I screw the band down tight. These lugs work extremely well and have survived 585 NYATI's and 500 A2's.
This may sound like alot of work, but if you have ever tried to machine an integral barrel band, there is absolutely no comparison.
Under no circumstances would I weld or braze a lug onto a barrel as the heat will cause hard and soft spots that will affect accuracy unless you are very very lucky.-Rob

Hey Rob,

You seem to know a lot about building rifles. Are you a pro gunsmith? If you do this profesionally, then I might have a project for you one of these days. Thanks guys. Cheers! Ming

Ming,

The other way to go about it which I had done when a 416 Wby was rebarreled to 338/378 is to have about 5/16" machined of each side of the action lug.

Then a plate is made up with a slot for the action recoil lug and the plate is epoxied into the forend.

The beauty of this sytem is that it makes rebedding easy and also allows for switch barrel.

Mike

Thanks Mike for the idea. Cheers! Ming