gew 98 Lead filled Brl

[Howard31]

Recently came in the possession of a nice Gew98 vet bring back The problem is the bore is filled lead. Anyboby had experience "Gettin the lead out" ? How much heat can it take without rendering the brl unsafe to shoot ?

 

[zxcvbob]

Literally filled? Or do you just mean badly leaded with no visible rifling?

 

[Maxem0815]

I had one of those plugged guns once; lead melts at a low temp most of the bbls will take heat to melt lead and a bit more if it is plugged with lead. But then you have to scrub the bore clear with something to get the rest of the lead out. Heat the barrel slowly to about 500 degrees F the lead should start to soften and possibly melt do not get the barrel above 800 degrees F it could warp.

 

[meatgrinder42]

You can just get it re barreled, then you don't have to worry about heat.

 

[Howard31]

gew 98

Yes, rebarrel is an option but it would go from an original gun to a restoration.

 

[James K]

I think I would first try to see if the barrel is really full of lead, and if it is lead and not steel weld. If it is lead, I would try to melt it out as described. If it is weld, it may be shallow and a counterbore could remove the weld, leaving a usable rifle. Each of those guns really has to be considered as its own case, since there is no uniformity.

Filling the barrel with lead or welding over the muzzle were common ways vets used to keep a souvenir yet render it harmless to their children or, in some cases, remove a registration requirement. (BATFE does not consider such deactivation as removing an NFA item from the NFA registration requirement.) I have seen a couple of guns in which the muzzle was welded shut but the chamber and the rest of the gun untouched, so if the gun were fired the barrel would have burst.

Jim