Best Method to repair small nick in barrel?

[Silvertp]

Ive had a rifle for many years that has a small nick about 1 inch behind the muzzle.  Im getting ready to refinish the metal parts with a ceramic coating process and am wondering how to fix the nick in the barrel.  Imagine one stroke with the edge of a file to get an idea on the size / depth.  I don't really want to turn the barrel down, are there any "fill-it-in" products that will allow the ceramic coating to adhere?  Im thinking something like bondo for repairing a car??

Proven suggestions would be most helpful and appreciated.

Silvertp

[DalesCarpentry]

Since it is only an inch from the muzzle. Have you considered shrotening it by an inch and having it recrowned?   Dale

[Phoneman]

go to an auto parts store and ask for liquid metal filler. It is sandable and paintable. takes about 1 minute to harden and sets up in about an hour. costs about 5 bucks.

[trotterlg]

You would probably do good with the JB weld epoxy if you emery up the nick first. I think I would fill it with soft solder, you will need to use an acid type flux and a large soldering copper or propane heated  copper soldering tool to get enough heat into the barrel to melt the solder at that point, but it should work fine, steel really desn't conduct heat near as fast as copper, so you can get a small area of steel hot fast before it all gets conducted away to the rest of the barrel. I soft soldered a front sight into a loose dove tail on a S&W the other day and it worked very well.   Larry 

[gunnut69]

Any filler products that are epoxy based would fail when the ceramic product is heat cured. The solder would be the best method. If the nick is a dent it may res[pond to being peened to force the metal back into place..

[Silvertp]

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.  Gunnut, you raise an interesting point about epoxy-based fillers failing.  If I read all the fine print and can find one of the fillers that is safe beyond the heat range for curing the ceramic do you think it would be safe for the repair?  I thought that products like JB Weld were used to make engine repairs so was surprised to hear that heat would cause failure.  That said, I probably wouldn't make / trust an engine repair on my vehicles with it....

Totterig, I take it soldering is an accepted method for repairing barrels.  If so it must be safe, but heating a portion of the barrel to the point of melting the solder concerns me a bit...this gun is a 1/2 MOA hunting rifle and I'd hate to somehow effect the barrel and accuracy.

Dale, at first thought I didn't believe shortening the barrel would be acceptable, then thought of a modification of your idea.  If I had an attachable muzzle brake added perhaps the threaded part of the barrel  could be extended back to the damaged part of the barrel, removing the nick but retaining the rifling for the original  barrel length.

[trotterlg]

Soft solder is acceptable, even Silver solder is acceptable and used often.  Soft solder needs to get to about 600-650 degrees F, silver needs to get just about dull red.  Larry

[DalesCarpentry]

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.  Gunnut, you raise an interesting point about epoxy-based fillers failing.  If I read all the fine print and can find one of the fillers that is safe beyond the heat range for curing the ceramic do you think it would be safe for the repair?  I thought that products like JB Weld were used to make engine repairs so was surprised to hear that heat would cause failure.  That said, I probably wouldn't make / trust an engine repair on my vehicles with it....

Totterig, I take it soldering is an accepted method for repairing barrels.  If so it must be safe, but heating a portion of the barrel to the point of melting the solder concerns me a bit...this gun is a 1/2 MOA hunting rifle and I'd hate to somehow effect the barrel and accuracy.

Dale, at first thought I didn't believe shortening the barrel would be acceptable, then thought of a modification of your idea.  If I had an attachable muzzle brake added perhaps the threaded part of the barrel  could be extended back to the damaged part of the barrel, removing the nick but retaining the rifling for the original  barrel length.

I think you have a good idea of putting a brake on it and let the threads cover the bad part. Dale