Epoxing or glueing scope bases?

[Max Shaffer]

I have this 1903A3 Springfield that the fellow that sporterized it about 1962, did not trust himself to heat the case harden and drill and tap the front reciever ring, so he made a front rest that he soft soldered to the barrel and front receiver ring, This come loose in the late 1960's, So I had him resolder it. Now it is off again and he is dead. This is still a 30-06. Would JB or some other epoxy hold this? This base has a offset where it comes to the different diameters of the barrel and receiver. I really expect the best thing would be to have someone drill and tap the front receiver ring for a regular base. But I would like some opinion of some of the gunsmiths that frequent here. It does have a short 3/32" pin into the barrell also. This rifle also has some sentimental value to me as the fellow who did this work was a very good friend also. Would this still need a pin point of case harden heated to allow drilling. Maybe a carbide bit would drill it. A well equiped smith should able to do this either way. Thanks for any advice or opinion. Max

 

[Mrgunslinger]

Jb wont hold it for long,unless you JB ad screwed it.
I always bed my bases with JB.
Best thing to do is have it retapped.

 

[therifler]

1903 a3

it is not a big deal to drill and tap 1903's . you annael onl the area you plan on drilling if it needs to be . often all you have to do is grind under the case hardening and you can drill and tap . weaver makes front and rear mounts for this model . www.therifler.com

 

[Butch Lambert]

As the rifler said, just get under the .010 case hardening. I drill mausers with a carbide drill and a regular good quality tap will work. I only do my own work and not for other people. Try jkob or gunmaker on this forum. They are both very good smiths and will turn it around in a quick manner.
If I do a Remington I use JB Weld to bed the bases and on customs use screws and hard solder. Check the photos on my post showing my blacksmith work and you will see screwed and soldered bases.
Butch

 

[jackie schmidt]

Drill

There is no need to heat it, for about $18 you can get the correct carbide drill and tap. Run the carbide drill about as fast as the mill will run.

Also, if you do it yourself, put the tap in the chuck after drilling, and start it that way. When tapping with a carbide tap, it is VERY important to get it dead straight. But then, that isimportant with any tapping operation. The single biggest cause of broken taps is a crooked tap.

But, as was said, once you get past that case hardenning, the action is really soft, so a regular tap might do just as well. But ifyou use a regular tap, be very carefull of that still existing case hardenning at the edge of the hole. It is enough to dull the edge of a high speed steel tap to where it could take too much torque to turn, risking a broken tap.

The old trick used to be to use nothing but carbon steel taps on old recievers such as these, so in case you broke one, you could heat it to anneal, and drill it out, (you can't "anneal" a high speed steel tap". I think Brownells still sells these.

Of course, the best thing to do is never break a tap off in something to begin with. But it does happen. At our shop, we have a company that will come out and use a little portable EDM to eat a tap out. Last year, one of my men was tapping four 1 1/2 inch 6 tpi holes in the coupling end of a large shaft. He accidentally drilled one of the holes too shallow, and the tap bottomed out, and snapped. Try getting that out with a hammer and chisel!!. The EDM took about 45 minutes. Cost $350, a bargain.......jackie