Remove 721 Remington sight ramp

FWAddit

A propane torch would not remove the soldered-on sight ramp from a 721 Remington.

With an "Ask the Experts" search I turned up this advice concerning a Winchester ramp:

http://forums.GunBroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=139838&SearchTerms=silver+solder:

I believe that you will find that Your Sight is 'Tinned' and Not Silver Soldered....and can be easlily removed with a Hand held Propane Torch....You never want to use an Oxy/Acetelene Rig on a Gun Barrel.......

Captain Kirk, Tech Staff

Thus my results suggest the 721 is not tinned. I thought about using a gasoline-fueled blowtorch, but that may be as damaging to the barrel as oxy/acetelene.

So how can I get the thing off without warping or otherwise damaging the barrel. I am not concerned about the finish.

rufe-snow

Very,very carefully. Using a abrasive wheel on a dremel. Cut off as much of the sight as you safely can. Without touching the barrel. Use files to get as much as the remainder off, as you can. Finish up with strips of emery cloth, in a shoe shining fashion. This is with the barrel clamped between wooden blocks in a vise.

charliemeyer007

Sometimes you need to have a propane torch on each side, have a big brass flat strap or a lead hammer to swat it with when the ramp is hot. Try and heat the ramp, the flat farthest from the barrel can get red before you play the flame down to the thinner taper towards the receiver.

It could have been silver soldered at some point.

Anti corrosion grease in the bore would be a good idea.

47studebaker

why not just replace the barrel ? I saved a 722 257 barrel for 20 years and just swapped it to replace a 300 Sav. 722.

babun

IIRC, that base is silver soldered on. You will need at least
1100 degrees of heat to get it off. Careful with that much heat.
Let the barrel slowly heat it self up towards the rear, don't "spot"
heat only on the ramp.
"find that Your Sight is 'Tinned'" ----"tinning" is way of soldering two things together, not type of solder. It involves first coating both pieces with the solder, {lead, lead/tin alloy, silver, ect, ect}
then holding both together and re-applying heat to fuse the 2.
You will need a torch that puts out high heat, no plain propane torch will do it. A good hi-perf one might.

Mobuck

A 721 barrel in good condition is worth far more than a "take off" 700 barrel-possibly more than the smithy charges to swap them.

Cheechako

Can we assume that you've removed the sight blade to make sure there is not a screw under it?

FWAddit

quote:Originally posted by Cheechako
Can we assume that you've removed the sight blade to make sure there is not a screw under it?


Yep, I thought removing the ramp would be a simple task with a screwdriver.

By the way, the reason I want to remove the ramp is, the barrel needs to be cut back by an inch or so and recrowned. The gun (a recent gun show acquisition) produces 5" groups at 100 yards, with some bullets keyholing slightly. The crown looks sharp and even, but in the last half inch of the bore, the copper wash left by bullets is all deposited on two lands; none shows on the other four. This pattern suggests a kink at the muzzle. Could that have been caused by overheating or uneven heating in installing (or reinstalling) the ramp?

I'm leaning toward rufe-snow's suggestion of grinding the thing off. If I shorten the barrel first, there will be less grinding to do.

rufe-snow

quote:Originally posted by FWAddit
quote:Originally posted by Cheechako
Can we assume that you've removed the sight blade to make sure there is not a screw under it?


Yep, I thought removing the ramp would be a simple task with a screwdriver.

By the way, the reason I want to remove the ramp is, the barrel needs to be cut back by an inch or so and recrowned. The gun (a recent gun show acquisition) produces 5" groups at 100 yards, with some bullets keyholing slightly. The crown looks sharp and even, but in the last half inch of the bore, the copper wash left by bullets is all deposited on two lands; none shows on the other four. This pattern suggests a kink at the muzzle. Could that have been caused by overheating or uneven heating in installing (or reinstalling) the ramp?

I'm leaning toward rufe-snow's suggestion of grinding the thing off. If I shorten the barrel first, there will be less grinding to do.



You might consider counterboring, to remove the rifling at the muzzle. As long as you do it by hand with a piloted reamer. Using good quality cutting fluid. Not a problem.

This was commonly done to the East Block, Mosin Nagants. That were over cleaned with steel cleaning rods, from the muzzle.