Fortunately, there is a solution that solves this problem. In the past, rifles like these were equipped with a barrel band to attach the swivel to. This band was far enough forward and away from the stock so that your hand would not contact it in recoil. There are two ways to get a barrel band retrofitted on your big bore rifle. One is to go to a gunsmith and have him fit and silver-solder a barrel band to your stock. The other is to improvise and do it yourself!

Purchasing a barrel band is as simple as measuring the diameter of your barrel and ordering a band from one of the gun part suppliers. Order a band that will stop just short of the location you wish to install it on. As can be seen in the photo at the right the band comes in unfinished, carbon steel ready to be installed and finished. The interesting part of this project is how to attach the band without having the tools to silver solder it on. Fortunately, many specialized epoxy adhesives have hit the market in recent years. One such epoxy is the Loctite E-120HP shown at the right. This epoxy was originally designed to hold together the nose cones of ballistic missiles. It is known as a toughened epoxy and resists cracking and vibrations. Knowing of the properties of this material, it seemed like the perfect solution to the problem of attaching the band. We decided to give it a try on our just refinished (see the article on do-it-yourself refinishing) CZ 550 in .458 Lott.

The first step in installing the band is determining how to get it past the front sight of your rifle. As can be seen from the picture, there is no way the band will clear the front sight. Therefore the front sight needs to be removed. Referring to the instruction manual that came with the CZ-550 and the parts diagram made it easy to figure out how to remove it. Once removed we could start the installation

When your barrel band arrives you will notice that the hole bored through it is of constant diameter. If you examine your rifle, however, you'll notice the barrel tapers. So the first thing that needs to be done is to taper the band. We started a rough taper with a Dremel tool and a grinding stone. Once we had a rough shape of a taper, we wrapped 200 grit wet and dry sandpaper around the barrel. Working the barrel band against the sandpaper, which had taken on the taper of the barrel, eventually gave us a perfect metal to metal fit for the band. Once we had the fit we needed, we proceeded to finish the band with the same Moly-Teflon coating we used on the rifle. When spraying on the coating, we covered the inside of the band with masking tape to prevent paint from going there. Having a clean surface there is critical to proper adhesion of the epoxy.

Once finished, we placed the band in place and marked the location on the barrel. Removing the band, we carefully sanded the barrel to the raw metal where the band would adhere to the barrel. We final finished both the barrel and the inside of the band with 40 grit sand paper to make a rough surface, thereby increasing the surface area for the epoxy to adhere to. Unlike typical home epoxy adhesives, this specialized epoxy does not mix in a 1:1 ratio. Fortunately the tube it comes in is capable of metering the right percentage of epoxy and hardener. We recommend buying the applicator tool when you get the epoxy. It makes measurement and mixing simple and accurate. The epoxy has a 2 hour hardening time and will reach it's maximum strength if hardened under higher than room temperature. However, exceeding the maximum hardening temperature will weaken the epoxy. Therefore, cure temperature is somewhat important. In order to keep track of the temperature, we slid an electronic kitchen thermometer down the barrel and placed the tip of the sensor where the barrel band was to be placed. This allowed us to measure barrel temperature, real time. The ideal cure temperature is 150 degrees Fahrenheit. We set up a jig on the kitchen stove to place the band area of the barrel on the heat exhaust of the oven. Turning the oven on resulted in a steady stream of hot air. By adjusting the distance from the heat source and the temperature of the oven, we were able to get a consistent temperature between 145 and 150 degrees. The parts were allowed to cure at this temperature for 6 hours.

Carefully mixing the epoxy to avoid air bubbles being trapped in the epoxy, we thoroughly mixed the resin. We had some 91% alcohol handy to be able to clean up any epoxy that ended up where it wasn't supposed to. We also used the alcohol to make sure there was no oil or grease on the barrel and barrel band prior to epoxying it in place. After cleaning the parts, we made sure they were completely dry by heating them slightly with a small butane torch. Placing a thin coat of epoxy on the barrel, we brought the ring down and twisted it several times to insure a good distribution of the epoxy. Then we placed the band in it's proper orientation. Taking a metal tube that had an inside diameter slightly larger than the widest part of the barrel, before the band, we placed the tube over the band and tapped it several times with a mallet to set the band in place.

After cleaning up some epoxy that had seeped out of the joint with the alcohol and making sure it was in the proper orientation, we put the band and rifle on our heat source to allow curing of the epoxy.

After 6 hours, we put the rifle away for a couple of days to allow for a maximum cure of the resin. We then removed the original swivel stud from the stock and filled the hole with some epoxy filler.

We then fitted our favorite sling and took the rifle out to the range several times. Carrying the rifle on the sling as much as possible and shooting over 200 rounds - injury free - of .458 Lott over several outings, the barrel band was rock solid. Given that the epoxy being used was designed to take the heat and stress of a moving missile, we have complete confidence that this barrel band is going to stay in place as long or longer than one that was conventionally silver soldered in place.

Original stud
 

Barrel band in the white
 

CZ-500 Front Sight

Tapering the barrel band
 

Aerospace epoxy