Cerrosafe nightmare!

[MarkL]

I've made many cerrosafe chamber casts of pistol barrels and single-shot rifle barrels, but I screwed up on a my first bolt-action. I basically overflowed the chamber and got c-safe in the receiver. It was coming out of the gas vent hole and the action screw hole. It was stuck and had to be melted out.

After much thought, I decided to use a heat gun, which is an electric thing that looks and works like a hair dryer but gets much hotter. I found one on sale at Harbor Freight Tools for $10. I stripped the gun down as far as I could and sprayed WD-40 all over the receiver so the c-safe wouldn't stick anywhere and proceeded to melt it out. This worked pretty well. I'm confident I didn't overheat the steel, and I would recommend this procedure to anyone else in the same predicament.

Unfortunately, there was still some c-safe stuck to the chamber wall. I could force an empty case into the chamber (trying to break the stuff free), but it came out dented. I decided the thing to do was to make another chamber cast (the right way, which is another story), hoping it would take the residual c-safe out with it when I popped it out.

That helped a lot, but I can still see some c-safe when I look in the chamber with a flashlight. It appears to be right at the end of the neck. It must be a very small amount because...

1) A fired case chambers easily
2) A loaded round chambers easily
3) The chamber cast I made shows no evidence of foriegn material there.

I think the gun is safe to fire at this point (may try some reduced loads), but I am still looking for ideas to get that last bit of residue out. I tried cleaning with Wipe-Out and Montana Extreme with no apparent effect.

So, does anybody have any suggestions? Maybe there's some chemical that will dissolve a small amount of Cerrosafe and not hurt my gun?

Cerrosafe is an alloy of bismuth, lead, cadmium and, I think, indium? Real healthy, I'm sure.

The gun is a stainless steel Tikka T3 in .308.

[hnter]

Try blue ointment. Ya get it at your pharmicists. When you ask for it try and see the look on the pharmicists face. Blue ointment contains mercury and forms an amalgum with lead and should facilitate the Cerosafes removal.

Blue ointment is also for killing body critters.

hnter

PS: Mercury is known to cause insanity. use caution handling the ointment and amalgum. Wear rubber gloves and use baggys for the waste. Keep it safe.

[Cal Sibley]

I love it! One evening, years ago, I met a young lady and spent the night with her. Shortly afterwards I developed a violent itch that damn near drove me up a wall. I rushed to a pharmacist, and he gave me something called Cuprex. The British army uses it to disinfect clothing before going overseas. Naturally if a little is good then a lot must be great, right? Good Lord I just about burned my gonads off. You've never seen a person jump in a very hot tub so rapidly. I was in tears. It cured the problem but damn near made a gelding of me. It sounds like what you're referring to. Yes, it definitely should do the job, and then some. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[hnter]

CAL !!!!!
You rascle you !!!!

The more I read stuff by you, the more I like ya !!!! You sound like a Yank hiding up in cold country.
.GREAT REPLY
hnter
PS: If ya ever get to Wyoming or even close (Denver-Rapid City-ect) I'd love to meet ya !!!!!

[earschplitinloudenboomer]

MarkL;

...lots of competant 'smiths in your area...a light hand with a finishing reamer should do the trick. (Can be turned by hand without removing barrel)

[MarkL]

It turns out the gun may be subject to a recall, which would solve my problem perfectly! Anyway, I'm not expending any more money or effort on this until I find out if it's recalled or not. I'm hoping it is.

[Terry Blauwkamp]

Since you have no barrel obstruction, what if you just shoot it?