Stevens receivers are malleable iron.  Malleable is also called "nodular" iron, because a large portion of the carbon that was in the original casting is sequestered in nodules that don't play any role in the crystal structure of the metal. Hence the metal behaves like a mild steel.  Fusion welding releases this carbon, and the melt zone transforms to a very high carbon steel, hard and brittle.

I've read of a guy who claims he can anneal this away, but I'm skeptical.   

I also have one that needs repair, and if I ever get the round tuit it will be fixtured up and brazed.  The right kinds of braze alloy are as strong or stronger than the parent metal will be.  Keep the join line thin and it will hardly show at all.  You won't be able to color-case the brazed assembly, though.

TIG welding will leave it as hard as glass. Tried to anneal and not much luck. A torch and bailing wire might be the best option.

I would do as Phil suggested. Braze it and live with the joint line.

My Gramps had perfected the joining of crap metal like aluminum and pot metal way back when everyone said it couldn't be done. He was a wizard with a torch, but even he paled at the thought of welding iron, cast or malleable, and went straight to brazing.

I fixed my Model 45 that had a broken upper tang successfully. It was broken at the front, tang sight screw hole. 

Before I retired as a machinist, I worked at a place that also did welding and talk to one of the welders about fixing it. He suggested high nickle rod so, I made a jig, with a v notch to hole the tang inline with the frame for welding.

It turned out well and is probably stronger than the rest of the frame but, the weld area, would most likely show up if CCH, though I think it would survive the hardening process.

I wasn't there when he welded it so, I don't know if he preheated and post heated it but, I know the weld area has to be peened after welding. A good welding shop could do it successfully. 

That said, there is a way to do it and make it the same as the basic parent metal. They repair cast iron cylinder heads this way.

Heat it to it's critical temp (red hot) and while heated, you weld it with a oyx/acet torch, with cast iron rod and slow cool (anneal). 

The problem is that not many shops know this process.

Many years ago, met a gentleman, Mike Mc Killip, who did high tech welding for Ames research center on the old Moffat Field naval air base at the south end of San Fransisco Bay near Alviso. For enjoyment he built special clutches for Harley Davidson drag racers. I honestly believe he could weld anything. I had him weld up umpteen pits on a cast Ballard frame for a friend, and after surface grinding and filing they were undetectable. He also welded some steel plate to a cast k&E adjustable stand so that I could use it as a base for an old CH champion loading press. they have  held up, and still are after some 50 plus years of hard use. I actually had him do two of them. Unfortunately Mike was killed in a shop accident some years later. There may be some truth to the old saying, "only the good die young". I am sure there must be more like Mike out there somewhere?

bobw wrote on Mar 26^th, 2024 at 6:58pm:

Bob, this one would be the haystack gun, not the river rifle. I don't have a story for this one but it had something like that happen to it. 

I'm going to work through this one pretty quickly,  it displaces a #4 project I had planned. It's so clean and works so well I hate to pass it up

Double dittos on Peter Nagel. He has welded several Ballards over the years for me, always an excellent job.