Originally Posted By: PERLY88
One other question for Dewey regarding the '21 forend lug joint failure.

In your opinion, is the main cause of this failure due to people putting the barrels back on the gun without having the hammers cocked?
Any comment appreciated.


There are multiple causes of failure in a non-fusion type joint. Some of them are as follows:

- Poor fit of the parts to be soldered, in a non-fusion joint the strength of the assembly will be at its maximum with a gap of about .001-.004". As the gap between the parts grows beyond that, the strength of the joint will drop off sharply. At some point the strength of the joint will be no more than the strength of the solder (or braze) material itself.
This is NOT the problem with the Model 21. All of them that I've ever relaid had very well-fitted forend lugs.

- Poor "wetting" of the area to be joined, any surface contamination will prevent the wetting and thus, the bonding, of the contaminated area. This is why an acid-based flux is used for the tinning stage. All traces of acid flux are washed away in a solution of baking soda and water before a coat of rosin-based flux is applied to all tinned surfaces. The ribs , lugs, etc. are then fixtured together and the rosin facilitates the joining of all of the tinned areas with no danger of corrosion.

- Improper solder or braze selection for the particular application. (see below)

- Degradation of the solder, THIS is where I believe (I must STRESS that this merely a theory of mine, I do not present this as fact) the Model 21's problem lies. All of the 21s that I've ever relaid exhibited solder joints that were grainy, crumbly whitish powder. This is exactly similar to the way really old pure lead bullets look. The solder that is used in the assembly of doubles is generally much heavier in tin content than lead. I suspect that Winchester used a solder that was just the opposite. Whether this was a mistake or it was done purposely as a part of an effort to apply the absolute minimum amount of heat to the barrels during manufacture, I can not say.

Many 21s have beavertails (as do many other guns) and the inertia of the beavertail, combined with the fact that the shooter generally actually holds a forend of this type, conspire to greatly stress the forend lug joint.

A 21's forend will always be easier to install when the gun is cocked but doing it without the locks being cocked should not place any undue stress on a PROPERLY soldered forend lug.