I would like to share with you my first ever restoration project and get your feedback in order to improve my approach as I have several antique auto 5s to restore. It is not perfect but we have to start somewhere. The original bluing of that example was in good condition therefore I decided not to touch it. However, one of the previous owner, instead of fixing the front trigger guard safety decided to altered it in order to accommodate a new cross bolt safety. As I want to keep the historic integrity as much as possible, I am going to fix the original front safety and fill the holes of the removed cross bolt safety. What would be the best way to do that repair? Here is the shotgun when I acquired it. The buttstock is original but was shortened to accommodate a Rubber recoil pad. The forearm is a post first war. The new stocks is made of European walnut. Notice the groove on the forearm. It doesn’t extend to the full length of the forearm. Due to the fragility of the forearm construction, it is very difficult to find these early model with an original forearm. The original buttplate was made of hard rubber. It is extremely rare to find a pre 1909 with such a buttplate. The 1909 I installed on this Browning has the exact same look but it is made of water buffalo horn. I reworked it and polished it. Following your experience, what will be the best way to fill these holes?
I don’t know what kind of equipment you have access to or if you have a good fabricator in your area but I would make a round plug that is about 1/8 to 3/16 to short and fill the difference on both sides with micro weld (that’s the tricky part. Finding a fab shop that micro welds). Done correctly you would never know the hole was there.
Jewelers do incredible micro welding. But I’m wondering if you couldn’t thread the hole, then use a soft steel bolt, fixed with Loctite and ground flush. This is definitely not my area of expertise, so take it with a grain of salt!
Yes I would go the steel plug and micro weld path. If the plug is chamfered both ends that will give a good weld preparation to fill for required penetration and will allow to blend and finish flush and neat. Restoration looks great. The forend looks and come up perfect.
I just applied 4 coats of that flooring oil. Suppose to be bulletproof. However, I doubt I will ever go hunting with that shotgun.
How about peening the steel plug that is exceeding slightly the guard and then filing it flush and polishing it?
New replacement forearms resemble the originals in that the finger groove doesn’t extend all the way forward. They are quite a bit chunkier, however.
Biz ultimately depends how fancy you want to be with it all. Your work is always first class so know you won't be happy if it doesn't look good Putting in a plug and peining would work too as an option. You have to be bit careful as the hole has already been weakened to a "C" in the inner guard section and getting heavy handed expanding the plug" swedging " it could crack it. Tapping and "stitching" a thread plug has same sort of risk with the tap pressure deforming and stretching the metal. If you find somebody that repairs or makes medical surgical equipment for hospitals they do lot of specialist fine micro welding all the time. Hope this is helpful
Biz, as Auzzie said it really depends on how transparent you want it to be. The easier fixes like threading and peening would all be very detectable. A good fabricator/micro welder would overfill the ends and then sand the weld back down flush with the guard. I know this way is not an easy fix because you need to find someone to do it. I'm sure you want to stay stock as possible but I would look for another trigger assembly. Good luck.
Thank you Auzzie. Your recommendations help. I didn’t think about the fragility of the altered trigger guard. Would TIG welding be to powerful and distort the guard? I am happy with the buttplate. However, ultimately, I would like to reproduce the first years hard rubber model with the hollow molded pattern on the back.
I actually have a few first years trigger guard but the pleasure is to restore the original part when possible. I may have to learn micro welding. I heard about PUK welding. Any of you know about that
Biz TIG will be a bit hot for what your trying to achieve there. Somebody really good and lot of experience will probably be able to control what's melting and what's not. Definitely not first up learner job there. The micro weld process is lot colder and you won't risk as much damage with pinholes or melting what you don't want too. This technology is brilliant and have seen used in right hands to great effect on Superposed locking bolts and barrel lugs.
Biz, Done right you will get a first class result that can be filed, scraped and papered to fix up beautifully. You will even be able to touch up rust blue match it with that recipe I gave you or re do whole thing. Tell me you done anything more on that FN semi auto version of Model 8 Remington yet?
I get it, but it might be easier to modify than starting from scratch. Provided you plan to make another one.
Concerning the FN Browning 1900, I am not sure what I show you the last time. If I repeat myself, forgive me, I promise it will happen again and more often. I reworked the markings as it was a bit to fuzzy and I reproduce the stocks. Now I have to learn and practice rust bluing and checkering.
Rudolph, I am planning to make several of them. If I start from an existing forearm, it is very difficult to match a buttstock with the same wood grain and color. For me it is simpler to make the forearm and the buttstock from the same piece of wood.
