16" to 14.5 " ? barrel

[Hop]

I tried to finish my barrel this weekend. Clocking the Battlecomp, pretty easy. Drilling a pin hole in the barrel (no too deep), pretty easy. Making a steel pin out of the end of a drill bit, pretty easy. Slightly tapered on both ends, slightly countersunk into the pin hole.

The hard part... silver soldering. And I'm an expert solderer too. I tried a small butane torch. This tourch has good heat. It got hot enough to melt the solder but it wouldn't wick down the hole even with flux. I thought maybe it needed more heat. I switched up to an Oxy/Mapp torch. Plenty of heat with this torch but I still couldn't get the silver solder to wick down around the pin. I give up. I'm just going to Tig it.

I had hoped to shoot it this weekend but nope.

 

[Hop]

So, right idea, wrong method. Silver solder paste is what other people use. It's available from Brownells but a little expensive (~$46 for a small can). Since the comp I have was pre-drilled it was meant to have a blind pin then a tack weld on top.