Interesting video, and he took no special care in welding.  From the standpoint of a collector, the bore is unaffected.  From the standpoint of accuracy, I have no doubt that there were large dimensional changes and stresses caused by that welding, that likely would affect the accuracy of the barrel.

He thinks he can simply look at a bore with his scope and tell if it's been affected by the welding? Sure not very accurate, but it would pass an inspection by a potential buyer.
There's no way that bore isn't affected by the welding.

I have a Borchardt military .45-70 barrel that somebody cut and/or filed a "relief ring" on just ahead of the threads so he could remove it easily.  Barrel interior isn't pristine, but certainly good enough to shoot.  I asked the guy at Restorative Welding if he could weld the ring up and dress it down, but he said he didn't want to do it as the ring was over the chamber and he was afraid he would compromise the barrel's strength where it was most needed.

Dovetails and holes down the barrel are (I guess) another deal, and apparently even a few small holes adjacent to the chamber aren't that critical, either.

The video guy mentions the repair probably didn't justify its cost vs a new barrel, so I guess there's that, too.  He doesn't say what caliber his barrel was; maybe a smaller caliber at normal blackpowder pressures would be less of a concern.

westerner wrote on Jul 20^th, 2026 at 12:09pm:


I get those hard spots quite often, especially with nickel steel barrels, the whole thing is hard.