Hi, Last weekend I picked up a neat Stevens 0441/2 "English model" in .22LR (complete with English proof marks) that had been relined at some point. The .22 liner is very badly pitted & worn and looks like it has been soft soldered in. What's the best way to remove the old liner so that I can replace it with a new one. How difficult would it be to reheat the barrel until the solder melts? Should the liner then "slide" out with a little bit of friendly persuasion!! Apart from the bore the rifle is in VG condition and is just begging to be returned to the range. Thanks 
Spud

I'm curious, what's the down-side of heating it up in the oven to ~300-400F and trying to slide it out? I'm not trying to disagree, I'm just curious, I personally would ttry to heat it first.
TIA, Joe

Quote:


I'll add to the quoted comments with my own experience.

1. It's to hard to get a uniformn heat through out the length of the barrel to get the solder to melt without  destroying the finish and even perhaps the barrel.


2.   The bore of the old liner will make a good pilot hole for drilling a hole for the new liner. If the old liner is larger than than the new liner you won't have to  make a sleeve to fit over the new liner . The old liner might be smaller OD than the new liner and drilling would have to done anyway.   


Exact same thing Voyageur said except numbered differently. 

I forget one other thing that's important. I almost always end up burning myself.

I can see why you suggested drilling, and I gotta admit that I've drilled out the very few liners that I've replaced, simply because I already have the tooling for my regular reline jobs and so it was easier. Might not be so easy, though, for a fellow who doesn't do this sort of thing regularly.

My own inability to maintain a uniform soldering heat over a wide area (with a torch) is the reason that I suggested putting it in the oven until it was hot enough. You can't get much more uniform than that.

Regarding any change in the finish, it seems to me that that would depend upon the exact composition of the solder and thus its melting point. Anything up to about 400F shouldn't cause any big change, at least I wouldn't think so.

But like Lacey J (Dalton) said in her old country tune, "I been wrong before".

BTW you'll find that if the old liner is not much larger than the drill, the remainder of the liner will sometimes grow in length during the drilling and stick out of the end of the barrel. The first time it happened to me I was rather surprised, to say the least, but I figured maybe it would shrink back when it cooled down. Nope. No problem though, just install the new liner and cut 'em both off afterwards.
Good luck, Joe

It really should all come down to what the diameter of the original liner is, versus what the new liner's diameter is.  If they are the same, no problem, either method.  If the new liner is smaller than the existing one, I would strongly suggest drilling the liner and using epoxy to fit the new one.  If you are using a Redman liner, remember that the ring end is the breech end, and don't cut off the muzzle section until after the chamber and extractor cuts are made!

David
Montezuma, IA