It's very humid down here and my custom stock swelled up a little bit. I hit the trigger guard with the heel of my hand to seat it into the stock. Shouldn't hurt anything as the Blackburn bottom metal is made from solid steel, right? Well the trigger guard broke away from the floor plate. I'm 66 years old and just had a heart stent put in. I'm in poor physical condition due to various ailments, arthritis, asthma, etc. I for sure didn't hit it very hard. I called Patrick at Swift Bullets (owner of Blackburn bottom metal currently) and he said it could be tig welded back together by a machine shop. He informed me that this unit had originally been made in two pieces out of hot rolled A36 steel. That was about 35 years ago.
There is nobody close to my home that I would trust to repair this. Does anybody know who I could contact about repairing this floorplate?

PM sent.

A36? That's the stuff used to make girders for bridges. Not supposed to be the best machining steel but it shouldn't have broken like that. Did it break at a weld?

Jerry Liles

Yup ! A36 , if you wack it should bend rather than break !

I would suspect very poor weld !

It did break at the weld, and the weld was not very thick, just a strip across the surface of the floorplate between the triggerguard and the floorplate.

Swampshooter I have no doubt there are some talented welders in the group. However I would call Steve Heilmann 530-272-8758 and have him put it back together. Over the years he has done quite a bit of welding for me on some awful delicate parts and has always come through. He has modified and welded Blackburn Units for decades.

Just my opinion

I'll drop my name in the hat here to if no one else takes care of you.
I can weld it up and make it look like one piece and never welded.

quote:

Originally posted by DArcy_Echols_Co:
I would call Steve Heilmann

+1

I know Steve is great, but so is Kcstott.

Thanks for the replies, I've sent it to Steve Heilman.