Benjamin 317 questions

[Spotshooter]

My Uncle gave me a 317 that I know very little about.

  The front site seems to have been repaired - so

Question 1 - is the barrel normally soldered on these ?
There is a sight that the barrel passes through, my guess is it came loose and someone either epoxy’d it or built up solder around it to stabolize it.

Question 2 - are they all brass ?   I can only see some signs of brass, there are more areas with bluing / black finish, but not a heck of a lot.

Question 3 - Restoration - I’m actually a gun smith so I can do some fabrication & fixing piece parts, is it better to leave the finish or fix it?
  the bolt needs some attention so I may polish it.

the gun actually builds pressure and fires, after a couple of pumps it’s really hard to pump so I’m guessing it’s in good shape.

Thoughts & Advice ?

[eeler1]

lucky nephew!  Those are cool old rifles.

1 yes barrel is soldered to the tube, front site soldered to barrel and tube.
2 tube and barrel are brass or some alloy, some parts are brass, others steel.  Magnet will show which.
3 matching the original finish is kinda like chasing the white whale.  Some people use a modern finish like duracoat, and while not original, it looks pretty good.

It should build compression and not be too hard to pump for the first few pumps.  Try cocking and shooting a few times without pumping, see if any air comes out.  You may be retaining air between shots.  If not, you are indeed a lucky nephew.

[Spotshooter]

I could Cerakote it,

   But it would be nice to have it close to original.

I’ll check the air retention you mentioned.