Winchester weld repairs

[Don]

Can anybody recomend a gunsmith that can fill in the hole left where the tang saftey used to be on a high grade 1886 light rifle. The previous owner of this gun had the hammer and trigger replaced with parts for the older Browning 1886 and removed the tang safety, and then covered the hole with a tang sight.
Or does anybody know where I can get the parts to replace the tang safety and or a good smith who could do the work?

[Old Ironsights]

Welcome... Nice to have you around.

Now for the tongue lashing...

Why on earth would you want to replace them?

I specifically asked that my 1886 tang safety hole NOT be welded up when I had my foul winny rebounding guts replaced with proper Browning parts. Nothing wrong with covering it with a tang sight.

But if you want it done, I'm sure almost any competent smith could weld it up for you.

But for god's sake... don't put bad internals back in place of the good internals the previous owner swapped out.

Why undo what was done for good reason? THe Winchester Tang Safety/Rebounding hammer setup is a disaster. My NIB would light-strike/misfire 2-3 out of every box of factory ammo... and nearly as many out of my Fed Primered Handloads.

Trust me. You do NOT want to "replace" those Browning parts.

[Don]

I really don't want to return to the safety. I just looking for the right smith to weld up the hole and make it look right.

[Tycer]

One of our forum members fit a piece of bone with his initials in it. Looks great. I'd just keep the tang sight on it and leave it open. Mine is not D&Td for a tang sight, so I have a receiver sight. I used knead-type epoxy after waxing the hole and painted the epoxy blueblack.

Why DID you remove the tang sight?

[BenT]

I believe it was SteveB had the tang welded up . Hopefully someone will reply with the smith that did it. Good Luck !

[kimwcook]

I know Mike Hunter can weld it up, it's another thing if he will. Although he didn't disable the safety so he might do it. PM him and let us know.

[Mike Hunter]

I've done a few in the past, then I got concernned with liability issues... "disabling a factory safety".

Not nessisarily for the immediate customer, but down the road. Some Idiot decides instead of drilling holes in a piece of sheet metal with a drill, he pulls out his 45-70, and fires off a few rounds, bullet richchets off a rock and hits a mailman in the big toe.

idiot now claims that its not his fault.... the factory safety was removed........We all know the deal.

When I stopped doing it, there was a fledgling gunsmith that wanted to start doing it... Dan the Gun Man... I think was his screen name. I talked with him one time about how to do it.

Mike Hunter
Hunter Restorations
www.Hunterrestorations.com

[Old Ironsights]

Dan is the one doing my Gut Rehab... restoring my 1886 to its original specs with the original 1/2 cock safety.

http://danthegunman.com/

Yes, he will weld up the hole. No I didn't ask him to do it... and I'm keeping all of the lawyer parts so that "legally" there's no one to blame but me and I can return the gun to "factory" if I ever sell it.

[Hobie]

I've my doubts that properly done and refinished they offended party would ever know there was anything done. Perhaps I'm not sufficiently appreciative of the intelligence of most such people.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I would think that it would be a bit difficult to get the bluing to look exactly right on the area where the TIG filler is exposed. I suppose you could come close by selecting the right filler rod. Perhaps as long as it wasn't polished to a high luster it would be more difficult to tell.

[J Miller]

If you'd go to SteveB's blog ( http://reloadingandlevergunning.blogspot.com/ ) and click on Winchester/Miroku '86 Mods/Custom Work/Stock Refin... in the left hand column he's got some before and after pics of the 86 that was done for him.



Joe

[Andrew]

....area where the TIG filler is exposed.....

Is TIG the prefered method? I would have thought it would be considered too hot, but I have never welded a gun.

[Mike Hunter]

Unfortunately that sorry good for nothing gunsmith that did Steve's gun stopped doing the modifiaction.

It's just the world we live in today; I can just see myself in front of a lawyer, in some civil case, "so Mr. Hunter, did you or did you not modify the firearm so that the very important factory safety was permantly disabled?..yes or no??"

"There you have it ...this Gunsmith...with malicious intent, permantly disabled a factory safety feature, causing my client to shoot himself in the foot, as he leaped over that fence with a loaded gun and his finger on the trigger"

I'm reminded of a story a few years back,...bad guy steals a gun, then shoots another bad guy..family of dead bad guy sues S&W for making the gun... S&W settles out of court.



And yes the hole is TIG welded up, matching the bluing is easy.....if you know what you're doing.

Mike Hunter
Hunter Restorations

[Don]

Thanks everybody that responded. Since this a high grade , with the engraving and the little gold deer I really want to make it look nice. Looks like I am going to have to learn to like the tang sight for near future.
Thanks Mr. Hunter for calling me back yesterday.
Don

[Ysabel Kid]

One of our forum members fit a piece of bone with his initials in it. Looks great. I'd just keep the tang sight on it and leave it open. Mine is not D&Td for a tang sight, so I have a receiver sight. I used knead-type epoxy after waxing the hole and painted the epoxy blueblack.

Why DID you remove the tang sight?

I'm pretty sure Ji did this with one of his guns, adding the kanji characters for his name - and it looked magnificent!

Welcome aboard Don!

[kimwcook]

Ysabel kid, +1.

[KCSO]

I have filled a couple with coin silver and put in initials and they look great.