'Welded-on' scope bases safe?

[TheCoachZed]

Trade-Ex has a lot of M96 sporters with welded-on bases. Are these things safe, or potential deathtraps? I'm curious.

 

[b72471]

Welding on an action

First, I buy rifles from Tradex, and will likely buy one or two more. They have been great to deal with. I tend to shy away from actions that have been welded or ground. You have no idea who did the work, how hot they got the action when welding on it. I would buy something properly done with a D/T job.
Bill

 

[TheCoachZed]

'Swatithought. Too bad, cuz there's one on there that looks pretty boss.

 

[starpuss]

i do it all the time with old 303. tig weld them on , keep the action cool and it's fine

also on encore SS barrels i seen ppl that used SS base and tig weld them on.

 

[Ormachek]

i do it all the time with old 303. tig weld them on , keep the action cool and it's fine

also on encore SS barrels i seen ppl that used SS base and tig weld them on.

Absolutely it is fine, if it is done right. Only problem with the ones on trade-ex is you don't know if it was done right. Mauser actions are heat-treated to be very hard, put too much heat in and the heat treatment is gone, and the action is weakened.

 

[dan belisle]

The ones I've seen in the past were silver soldered on. Keeps the heat down and doesn't effect the hardening. - dan

 

[Baribal]

Same as Dan for me. I've seen some odd welded on bases too, though, but Trade Ex will tell you if it's the case.