Brazing on a Remington Model 11 - Still good to use?

[Yy958]

Good evening, I am a novice gun owner that just joined The High Road after having lurked around for a little while, there is a lot of good advice on here but I never had a gun-related issue until today. I purchased a Remington Model 11 at a pawnshop this afternoon, I have wanted one for a while and decided to grab this one since I wouldn't feel bad shooting it (it has a lot of patina on it, not rusty or anything, and has pretty scratched up wood, certainly shooter grade). I just took it apart this evening and I noticed that the ring on the underside of the barrel is brazed onto the barrel, it feels sturdy but is not what was advertised. There are also some weird marks next to the barrel's serial stamp, and I'm unsure of their origin.

As it turns out, the pawn shop's website says it has a same-day return policy, and I made the dumb mistake of taking the gun apart an hour after they closed. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if anyone there has a soul, but in the case that I am stuck with this gun, could it still be structurally sound? Does this look like a competent gunsmith did this brazing? If it fails, would the failure be potentially catastrophic? Thank you for your time, and thank you to this community for having at least one good discussion on just about every firearms topic that I have ever Googled.

 

[Josh1992]

I also have a model 11. I have fell in love with it. Yah I would take it to a gunsmith to make sure that it is safe. I would be pissed if this would of happened to me. Definitely contact the pawn store. I would think they could do something for you. Good luck!

 

[Project355]

Yes, as the lockup is at the bolt, but... watch that spot regularly. Worst case, another barrel, not cheap, but not the worst of the worst

 

[Yy958]

I also have a model 11. I have fell in love with it. Yah I would take it to a gunsmith to make sure that it is safe. I would be pissed if this would of happened to me. Definitely contact the pawn store. I would think they could do something for you. Good luck!

Yes, as the lockup is at the bolt, but... watch that spot regularly. Worst case, another barrel, not cheap, but not the worst of the worst

Thank you both for the advice, I talked to someone at the pawn shop and they said to call again tomorrow when the manager is in to see if there's anything that can be done, but the official policy is no returns of any kind on firearms. I'm going to look into getting a new barrel but until then I will have it looked at then will take it out to the range. I asked for a shooter, hopefully what I have still constitutes one. It's probably been through the ringer with a few owners and needs someone to treat it nicely. Thanks again guys

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

Just saw your pics, whoever brazed it was a mud dauber, when something has been properly brazed you should see a bronze colored seam between the two parts without all that excessive material piled on. That particular braze may only be holding on the surface with no penetration between the parts. Proceed with caution or maybe get someone to take a closer look at it, I believe those parts were possibly silver soldered from the factory, anyone else weigh in on it if you know for sure.

 

[jmorris]

I would have silver soldered or TIG welded the joint. Doesn’t look very promising but might be all it takes to hold, would have liked to see some signs of flow towards the rear...

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

My point exactly.

 

[Sovblocgunfan]

That connection should be silver soldered.

silver soldering is still done today, so I would expect an actual smith can do this work.

 

[WestKentucky]

I have seen worse repairs hold, but I have also seen prettier repairs fail. It should be a fairly simple job of cleaning that mess off and doing it right. Shouldn’t be too terrible of a charge to do it either. The key thing for that spot is alignment and position. If it locks up properly I would be very tempted to try to finish the repair as opposed to starting over. It would never be as good as a proper repair done all at once, but cutting the ring and reinstalling it will risk alignment issues when the gun goes back together.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

It doesn't take much heat to flow that properly and doesn't look like he even got so far as that.

Makes me think of the old *farm-repairs* with too little heat/time/prep and coat hangers.

I miss those old coat hangers.

I wouldn't worry beyond it looking like your shotgun has a disease.

Todd.

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

You could clamp it and reapply heat from the opposite side of that wad of brass and try to draw it through the way it should have been done to begin with.

 

[Yy958]

Sorry for the delay, the final update from the pawn shop is an offer to buy it back for half of what I paid for it (I paid 400 bucks ). That's not going to happen, so I'm going to have a friend of mine who is a welder look over this thread and the barrel to give me some advice, while I look for a replacement barrel to use until I take this to a gunsmith or have him work on it. It's a matching barrel, so I'm fine with retiring it and dropping another 150 or so on this 400 dollar lesson that I've learned. Thank you all so much for your time, if you have any other advice I'd love to hear it, and if you hear that someone is selling a Model 11 barrel in 12 gauge let me know!

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Sorry for the delay, the final update from the pawn shop is an offer to buy it back for half of what I paid for it (I paid 400 bucks ). That's not going to happen, so I'm going to have a friend of mine who is a welder look over this thread and the barrel to give me some advice, while I look for a replacement barrel to use until I take this to a gunsmith or have him work on it. It's a matching barrel, so I'm fine with retiring it and dropping another 150 or so on this 400 dollar lesson that I've learned. Thank you all so much for your time, if you have any other advice I'd love to hear it, and if you hear that someone is selling a Model 11 barrel in 12 gauge let me know!

Good luck with that plan. I like it a lot better than them getting to re-sell the gun again. Who knows how many times they've already gotten away with that.

I'm betting this will all be fine and the Model 11 is a damn fun gun to shoot... and, to look at.

One of my favorites is an old Navy aerial trainer. I use the Navy barrel for clay and then dress her down to a Remington riot barrel at home. Where she enjoys pride-of-place on a rack in my office.

Todd.

 

[Sovblocgunfan]

Word of advice, a savage 720 barrel will work with your gun. Be sure it has the ejector attached.

 

[vintovka]

Seen that kind of repair quite a few times before. Unfortunately warping can occur. Long out of production good replacement barrels can hard to find.