Guys, I'd like some advise from those who may have experienced this before.

I recently "rescued" a much abused Parker Hale from a local pawn shop with the intent to restore, reblue and restock.

My question regards the iron sights. I currently plan to remove them, then epoxy the screws back into the holes and file flush hoping they will practically disappear after bluing.

I'm not sure about this and if the advise here indicates, I can purchase the shorter filler screws and locktight them into the holes.

I would like as clean barrel as possible. Your advise is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

You will still be able to detect where the screw holes are because of the thread angle. Why not use the holes to attach a classy set of sights as part of the restoration?

My solution to the same situation was to use longer screws, file them as close to the contour as I could, then cut the blade slots, then used the lightweight locktight. It was more pain than it was worth so if I was doing it again I'd just screw in some of the ready-mades from Brownells.

depending on how badly you want them hidden you can install screws and tig them shut and file off flush to the base metal and then reblue.

This is a hi cost option as I'm a poor welder and have to have others do the welding for me.

Take a soft screw. Cut it off just proud to the barrel and then tap the screw down like you would a rivet this will better fill the screw hole then file and sand to match the contour.

Epoxy would not hold up to blueing unless you are talking cold blueing.

Expoxy in hot bluing will last about as long as a fart in a typhoon.

What Ramrod said.

Thanks guys,

Malm, you've got a good point and I considered that for a while. Its a .30-06 and will be scoped, I think clean barrel lines would look better in that case.

I think I may try Ramrod's idea, I didn't think of peening the screw to fill the hole better.

I'll be giving her a rust blue so wasn't as concerned about the epoxy. Should have clarified that in the original post.

Dan

Danm
If you go the route that Ramrod suggested before you put in the screw chamfer the hole just slightly with a center drill so you have a round hole on top then when you brad the screw in it will fill the hole and won't show the line where the thread started.
I have restored a number of guns using this method and if you are careful and take your time the hole will fill in nicely.

quote:

chamfer the hole

Had a senior moment and couldn't come up with the word "chamfer".
I've thread my own rod. You can also take the temper out of screws as well.

chamfer: bevel the edge of the hole slightly before you beat the screw into submission.

And if you decide to go the epoxy route, remember to dye it. The metal underneath won't rust and will leave a bright ring.

Personally, I hate epoxy for metal applications. Even if you rust blue, you will be subjecting th ebarrel to several sessions of boiling water. This does not jive well with a lot of epoxies availible to "do-it-yourself" gunsmithing. And besides, you don't need it anyway.

While the long screw plan will work, I have found that often the screw will still stand out after the blue job. You can take a nail or piece of 70S2 welding rod and thread it to fit the hoels. Turn them in as tightly as possible. Cut off proud of the barrel. Peen them over. File to barrel contour.

You will still be able to see them if you look closely, but the ones I have done this way were harder to see than the long screws. ALl screws will be harder steel than the barrel, so they are going to blue differently. But with rust bluing different metal compositions are not as critical as with hot bluing. WIth either the screw or threaded rod/nail, you don't need any epoxy. I actaully think the epoxy would make it less likely to have a seamless and invisible job. After the peening and filing, the plugs are not going anywhere and the epoxy is not helping anyway.

Good luck! Wich ever method you choose here, I am sure it will look fine and you will be happy with the end result.

quote:

vapodog: tig them shut and file off flush to the base metal and then reblue

Best solution IMO.