I've got a nice Mauser that has a worn spot on the outer edge of the muzzle. Not too deep but deep enough to notice. If it won't affect the bore dimensions I'd like to have some weld added to bring it level with the rest of the barrel. If this is done in spots with cooling in between welds, and an aluminum heat sink inserted in the bore, do you think I'd be ok?

It’s not a good idea to weld on a barrel, but it is possible if you can find a good laser welder who knows what he’s doing in regards to gun work.

NAH Don't do that!

Just dress the muzzle down
until it's cleared off.
You'll never know it was
once it's finished.

George

I've used a carriage bolt, the round headed bolt, chucked into a power drill with fine grade polishing compound and ground out the dent.

From your description of location, you could cut and recrown the muzzle and not lose anything..or convert it to a carbine..

Ray this is an original M1929-34 Columbian Mauser short rifle by Steyr-Solothurn. It is in original 7x57 caliber. They are quite scarce. Shortening is not an option. The gun looks like it was carried muzzle down on the floorboard of a vehicle for a long period. It wore off a spot about 1/32 in deep on the outer edge of the muzzle. No crown damage. Just looks like crap.

Just recrown it then.

That's the ONLY way to haul a rifle in
a vehicle! Muzzle down, or in a case.

At 15 I was in the middle of a '50 Ford p/up.
Asshole on the right had his '06 muzzle up
between us when it went off. Both our face's
had powder burns. Damned lucky it missed.
My ears have been ringing since and more than
half the hearing is gone. I'm 77 now. Mighty
long time to live with that noise.

One hell of a price to pay for some asshole's stupidity!
You won't ride with me with a gun muzzle up.
IF so, one of us won't go.

George

fill the bore where you are welding with blok-heat use a very small diameter filler rod -low heat and make a few passes you'll have to dress it down but it is possible

"No welding on barrel(or action)" is prety sound adice. Reaslistically, doin so near the muzzle is not to be feared if done with plebty of heat paste in the bore. I'd pre heat the metal and get in and out with a tig....of course, do not quench.

Metal expands when heated and contracts when cooled. If you melt new metal onto old metal, the new will shrink between solidifying and room temp. Between ~800-900 F and room temp this shrinkage puts stress into the whole area This is why weldments warp. Sometimes the warpage is too small to notice, but it is there. Yes, it can be minimized by preheating the base metal.

I wouldn't want to do anything to make the last part of the barrel to touch the bullet any less round than it already is. Welding the end of the muzzle is unlikely to be good for accuracy.

If appearance is more important than accuracy, I might be tempted to add filler metal in small amounts and peen between welds.

Thanks for all of the replies. I think I will live with it. When prepping the barrel for bluing I will blend the worn edges to make it less noticeable. Our welder at the shop has a TIG, but risking warping the muzzle doesn't seem worth it.

Bob

Another fix would be to turn it down and fit a sleeve.

If you are going to blue it anyway, what is the problem with re-crowning it? The collector value is lost

Add a barrel band sight or, if you want to fix the dent, turn the barrel down to a point behind the dent; then make a sleeve to bring the turned portion up over barrel diameter. Now, turn and polish to match. This repair should be totally invisible if done right. The sleeve can be made size on size, and secured with hi-temp loc-tite.
An alternative is to thread the barrel for the sleeve and loc-tite in place. Again, the result should be totally invisible. Regards, Bill

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
Just recrown it then.

That's the ONLY way to haul a rifle in
a vehicle! Muzzle down, or in a case.

At 15 I was in the middle of a '50 Ford p/up.
Asshole on the right had his '06 muzzle up
between us when it went off. Both our face's
had powder burns. Damned lucky it missed.
My ears have been ringing since and more than
half the hearing is gone. I'm 77 now. Mighty
long time to live with that noise.

One hell of a price to pay for some asshole's stupidity!
You won't ride with me with a gun muzzle up.
IF so, one of us won't go.

George

"...or in a case"

That case won't help unless it's unloaded.

I have a rule that anyone who rides with me must SHOW ME their firearm is unloaded and the action is open and then it can go up or down (down if they care nothing about accuracy.

Your car, your rules.
My car, my rules.

We can agree that the guy was an asshole for having it loaded since it sounds like you won't tolerate that either. I know I won't.

That didn't help the OP but I agree with others, If you're bluing it, re-crown it.

Zeke