I was shooting a few clay with my Remington 1894 this weekend and after about 35 shots of so, my gun would not open. eventually i did get it to open only to see that my barrel lug had slid back about 1/8 inch or so. of course the gun is way off face now, about 1/8 inch.
i am waiting for a few smiths to call me back with quotes, but wanted to see if anyone here has had this repaired before and what it cost them.

also, after a little research i read about the low temp silver solder being used for this so that the solder on the rib and barrel is not compromised. any thoughts on this?

not sure of how difficult a repair this is, but i am trying to find the oldest, codgeriest smith around hoping that they may have done similar repairs in the past.

Hi,. I'm not am expert but I'm pretty sure that silver solder would still require enough heat to compromise the lead solder on ribs etc. If the barrels are wired tight and heatsinks were used I'm sure that a gunsmith with knowledge and experience would be able to repair the gun.
It's just a thought about the temperatures involved , I'm sure someone in the know will read your post and be able to give you more help.

Shouldn't the lumps have been brazed in place? If the lumps were originally brazed, fairly certain the ribs, lump, and forend hangar will have to be stripped and relaid. Don't think you can braze something in place and not jack up the solder holding everything else together. Sounds like an expensive job.

Contact Brad Bachelder, a master gunmaker in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He's done a lot of work for me and my friends and always does top notch work. And he stands behind it. He can answer all your questions and do any repairs necessary. No phone calls on Monday - tell him Paul sent you. 1-616-459-3636.

Sounds like what we in the UK refer to as a rebraze lump. Not a simple job I'm afraid . The barrels need to be taken completely apart ,all the old brass/silver solder cleaned off ,rebrazed the ribs relayed and blacked . That's the simple part . Bear in mind the original the barrels would have been brazed together then machined ready for jointing the barrel into the action body . When re brazing no matter how careful you are there is no guarantee that every thing will go back together precisely so that the barrel may not fit the action as it did before . It is down to the skill of whom ever does the re jointing to get it as close as possible . Over all and speaking from the experience of having done a fair few of these it is not a job to be taken on by some one who has had no previous experience and I will only take such a job on, on the understanding the the out come may not be perfect . You do not have proof to contend with but even so if the barrels are not in reasonable condition I would consider the gun to be beyond reasonable repair .

That's gonna require someone pretty clever to re-establish the proper relationship of the underlug to the breachface of the barrels. That seems to me to be the difficult task. Figure that out, and the issue of the ribs is easy.

The entire barrel assembly needs to be fixtured or wired together during the process, IMO.

If silver brazing was used, refinishing will be required.

Just a thought, but Dewey Vicknair www.VicknairRestorations.com had posted some pics about how he built a fixture for holding barrels and ribs together during rib soldering. His fixture might work for this task. You might give him a try.

I love that barrel jig/holder. Fantastic.

The bbl lug itself (lumps) is loose,,,the top rib extension,,or the forend lug on the bbls?

Big difference in repair technique & the bill.

Keith Kearcher will do that very reasonably.

And with luck, it may even hold up!

Looks a complicated way of doing a simple job to me , but each to their own .

thank you for the input everyone, i was hoping it was something i could get done for a few hundred dollars or less.

as far as getting the gun back on face, there are 3 small divots or holes on either side of the lump (lug) where you can see a bronze colored solder that was used. The holes are centered on the seam between the lug and the flats, so aligning them "should" just constitute getting the holes lined up. Right now half of the circles are about 3/32 further back than the rest of the hole.
did that make sense?

so is the consensus that the lug is brazed and the ribs soldered, therefore trying to re-braze would weaken or completely destroy te rib soldering, even with a heat sink, or filling the barrels with water, ect.?

if this thing turns out to be more than $300, there may be a Remington 1894 C grade project gun for about $500 for sale soon.....

We are talking red heat . You need to get the whole thing to tempreture so a heat sink would be countre productive ,plus the fact you can not get it apart without the ribs coming off .To do the job proporly there is only one way and that will be quite expensive .

When you consider that soft solder melts at about 360F and the silver braze is probably 800-1000F higher melting temp, and the fact that the little stub rib between the underlug (lump) and the forend lug is soft soldered, you can see the rib needs to be removed.

What's this gun worth if not for this problem? Weigh that against the cost to fix and make your choice.

Check with Keith Kearcher.He has a web site. Bobby

well, given the fact that the stock has had a crack repaired, english straight, the head has a pin in it, period repair with engraved heads, there is a small ring in the right barrel, and the forearm, with ejectors, numbers don't match the rest of the gun.....i am assuming that once the smith looks at it i may be in the market for a new gun.

even though it is a C grade gun, and other than the above faults, in relatively nice shape, if the barrel lug wasn't messed up, i probably couldn't get more than $700 for it.

my problem is i LOVE Remington guns, and would want to find another in either C grade or higher, with straight grip and Ordnance barrels, those seem to be tough to find for less than 2K.

if Keith Kearcher responds to my email, according to the pricing on his website having both ribs and the lug re-attached may only cost around $300.00, but then i may have to re-blue as well...

i can deal with $300 to get her shooting again, but much more than that, i have a hell of a parts gun to sell.

new idea,

if the solder broke, i am wondering if i could just tap the lump from the breech end with a brass hammer to get it lined back up and on face, then, take it to someone who does laser welding and have them tack it back on. from what i know about laser welding (very little) it is relatively low heat. Is this a crazy idea?

we are talking about the flats and the lug here, i assume this is pretty thick material.

What goes around... I am pretty sure I took a look at this gun about 15 years ago. A long time anyway. The lump was loose, and had been. Someone tried to fix it by drilling shallow (I think) holes along the lump junction on the barrel flats, and looked like they had inserted some pins in the holes. Which of course did not hold. As I remember, I gave the owner an estimate to take it all apart, re braze the lumps, re solder, etc. And he of course declined the cost. I often wondered what happened to the gun after I returned it to the owner.

It goes without saying that the attempted repair with the pins, etc was not what should have been done, but I am sure someone wanted a cheap job. I think the only proper course is to have the entire barrel set taken a part, cleaned, re brazed, soldered, etc. But the cost for all of this is not going to be low, and probably more than the gun is worth, or would be worth. But I would not do any welding on the barrels/lump joint, as this would prevent any further proper repair. If the barrels are bulged, I would forget any repair and relegate it to parts. Sad ending to an otherwise fine shotgun.

Its possible the previous owner may have contacted you. I purchased it about 2 years ago at an auction. Im a big fan of doing things right if possible.
Hoping i can fix it still, once it is all back together i can hunt it a few times a year, then maybe just hang it on the wall.

I will second the Laser welding, might be your answer. If not it shouldn't wreck anything.

If you love it then fix it. What’s it going to cost you to buy another Remington that may or may not be in as good of condition as your FIXED Remington.

Laser welding it is no panacea here. Welding it cold with laser will result in either a very hard heat affected zone or even cracks. Laser welds above melting temps of the metal. It just keeps the extraneous heat to a minimum. But you have problems welding cold steel. You'll need to come back and normalize a large weld. Just fix it the way it was made.

Chuck i believe you are right about fixing it the way it was made.
get it all put back together, and then i can try to rust blue it my self.
the search continues for a relatively affordable option. I have reached out to the smiths recommended in this thread, hopefully they will have good news.

What is the possiblity of finding another set of barrels and having them fitted to this C grade action?

i would assume that fitting a new set of barrels would entail some of the same things i need done to make these barrels work again.
They were all hand fit, not sure how much variance from gun to gun was common.

Gunter has fixed 2 or 3 guns of my guns that had the loop come loose. Not a big deal. Turnbull also fixed a friends Smith. I suggest a direct conversation with some good gunsmiths.

Walter,
can you PM me contact information for Gunter so i can check with him?