Can you mig weld on a steel scope base?

[Markus]

Can you do this. Or probably more importantly is it safe? This was mentioned in another post and I had never heard of this being done. Would the heat weaken he area to much? I am not a great welder or a gun smith but I have done a little welding and I use a great welder for my business. I remember talk of silver soldeing and the need for a heat sink and thought all of that sounded like more trouble than it was worth but the possibility of mig welding an Encore base and throwing on a cheap red dot on a pardner sounds good.

[VarmintController]

yes a a steel base can be welded on, now i say take it to a shop, or someone who really knows what they are doing, i can weld, but would not even think of trying to weld a scope base on.  but simple put yes it can be done.

[ihuntbucks]

NO mig,I have fab/weld for 22 yrs.On scope you should use tig process only w/ red tungston only,helium or pure argon shield only.Make sure whomever does it make sure they know how to weld w/tig.    Rick

[thecowboyace]

Why the need for welding?

[Markus]

I have no real need to weld on a scope base. I just saw it mentioned in another post and wondered if it was a safe and doable.

[LoudBoomBoom]

Yes and Yes...

I had a shop do it for me.
First I built a piece to be welded to the top of the chamber, getting the inside radius right. I drilled and ran a #1 tap at the right places (to match the scope base)
Next I had the shop weld it right. Then ran a bottom tap to clean and finish the threads.
Ground and polished the weld to blend it in, mounted the scope base, and took the whole thing to my 'smith to have it 'black phosphated.
Finally, remounted the base with 'red' loctite, mounted the scope, bore-sighted it, and fine sighted at the local range.
Did this quite a while ago to two NEF's and they have been happily shooting full power loads since without the mounts giving any grief.

By the way, I prefer to not weld the base directly, but to a middle piece threaded to receive it, because it is more conveniently removed, or upgraded.

bye

[Smokin Joe]

Just don't expect it to be straight and true when you're finished.

[usherj]

A gunsmith installed a cantilever mount on my brother's slug gun (Win 1300) using this method. Don't know if it was MIG or TIG, but it was done with four corner welds only and the gunsmith said it would be far stronger than silver soldering. Not pretty but still rock solid. Would definetly suggest that it be done by a gunsmith with an alignment jig so it is, yes, straight and test fired. Good luck.

[gimphunter]

Here are some pics of the mount I had custom-machined and silver-soldered on my 12 ga choke tube barrel.

[usherj]

Looks great, nice and low!!

[Busta]

Very nice, gh!

Looks like a solid setup for gobblers and deer. It would be nice if we could get that type of a setup from the factory on at least one 12 ga barrel with choke tubes. Who made the original mount? Looks like one that was made for an Encore.

[gimphunter]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I've been quite pleased with it, myself, even though it cost $160 total, including a reblue job, which was a good bit higher than my gunsmith's original estimate. (That does not include the barrel and red dot sight.) My gunsmith had the mount custom-machined by his CNC guy. I don't know if he started out with steel bar stock or a piece of steel Weaver stock, but it's worked great so far. The barrel shot about a foot left and a foot low when I patterned it. Now it's a 50-yard turkey killer with #6 Hevi Shot and a Briley Hevi-Shot choke tube.

I bet you could have NEF install some of their sights from the Tracker II or Huntsman barrels, if you sweet-talked them. I know they'll install adjustable sights on some barrels that don't have them as standard equipment. You could probably also use an Encore mount, with maybe a little fitting. I just wanted something a little different, and ended up paying quite a bit for it.

[myarmor]

So to go with Markus original question, would the TC Encore base work? Is it the same diameter as to fit over the raised chamber area?
Is it steel?
I believe the NEF bases are aluminum and even tried to JB weld on a barrel once....didn't work. But what the hey, I had to give it a try


-Aaron