(from another thread)
I recently got a new action from Leonard Baity. (Don't read anything into this either way, Leonard and I go back to the beginnings of the Hawks Ridge 1,000 yard club.) The metal work for this 10.5 pound class rifle is done. I know that excessive torque putting on the barrel can cause distortion in the barrel. In the CF world, this begins to show up around 40-foot pounds. But any distortion is in the chamber, so going on up to 120 or so foot-pounds is usually considered OK (I typically use 100 ft/lbs).
Now I've seen it mentioned that with an RF barrel, the distortion would arise in the throat, or barrel, depending on the tenon/shoulder. I believe one well-known builder from Ohio has tossed out a figure of 12 to 14 foot pounds as a maximum. I don't believe that's enough even for RF, unless you're barrel blocking and the scope is mounted on the block.
So it occurred to me: How about using 15 foot pounds, but use loctite 243 on the threads? The fit of the barrel in the receiver is quite good; if you snap it down with your hand, you need a wrench to pull it. The thread fit is just loose enough not to gall. The shoulder is doing its work; the point of the loctite would simply be to keep it there.
Anybody tried this? Thoughts one way or the other?
* * *
Jeff, If you are using a barrel block, and the scope is mounted to the block, then cantilevered back over the action, one thing you can be sure of is that the scope and barrel are pointed in the same direction. The only issue then, on tightening the barrel, is to make sure it doesn't move "much," or esp. permanently.
If you're starting from scratch with a new design, the easiest way I can think of is to not use threads, just use loctite 603. Or, take a look at Vaughn's diagram on page 119 of Rifle Accuracy Facts. We could probably re-machine some of the heavier receivers like a 40-X for this kind of system. If you want a threaded system, this has to be the best way. If you want to try indexing the barrel, use a coned breech & no problems.
* * *
When you're dealing with pressures and forces as small as generated in the .22RF, all types of solutions seem available. I remember Karl Kenyon made a lever action .22 BR rifle, that by all accounts shot quite well. Why not? You can lock a lever action up closer to the bolt nose than many RF bolt actions. (Or not. Don't know how Karl's action was designed.) Depending on the design, a lever action or falling block can have reasonable camming power on seating the round, if not on extraction. And with the success of stocks like Shelly Davidson's tinker toy (CF) and Gene Beggs skeleton stock (CF and RF), old notions of stock stiffness are challenged.
Etc. Etc.
I recently got a new action from Leonard Baity. (Don't read anything into this either way, Leonard and I go back to the beginnings of the Hawks Ridge 1,000 yard club.) The metal work for this 10.5 pound class rifle is done. I know that excessive torque putting on the barrel can cause distortion in the barrel. In the CF world, this begins to show up around 40-foot pounds. But any distortion is in the chamber, so going on up to 120 or so foot-pounds is usually considered OK (I typically use 100 ft/lbs).
Now I've seen it mentioned that with an RF barrel, the distortion would arise in the throat, or barrel, depending on the tenon/shoulder. I believe one well-known builder from Ohio has tossed out a figure of 12 to 14 foot pounds as a maximum. I don't believe that's enough even for RF, unless you're barrel blocking and the scope is mounted on the block.
So it occurred to me: How about using 15 foot pounds, but use loctite 243 on the threads? The fit of the barrel in the receiver is quite good; if you snap it down with your hand, you need a wrench to pull it. The thread fit is just loose enough not to gall. The shoulder is doing its work; the point of the loctite would simply be to keep it there.
Anybody tried this? Thoughts one way or the other?
* * *
Jeff, If you are using a barrel block, and the scope is mounted to the block, then cantilevered back over the action, one thing you can be sure of is that the scope and barrel are pointed in the same direction. The only issue then, on tightening the barrel, is to make sure it doesn't move "much," or esp. permanently.
If you're starting from scratch with a new design, the easiest way I can think of is to not use threads, just use loctite 603. Or, take a look at Vaughn's diagram on page 119 of Rifle Accuracy Facts. We could probably re-machine some of the heavier receivers like a 40-X for this kind of system. If you want a threaded system, this has to be the best way. If you want to try indexing the barrel, use a coned breech & no problems.
* * *
When you're dealing with pressures and forces as small as generated in the .22RF, all types of solutions seem available. I remember Karl Kenyon made a lever action .22 BR rifle, that by all accounts shot quite well. Why not? You can lock a lever action up closer to the bolt nose than many RF bolt actions. (Or not. Don't know how Karl's action was designed.) Depending on the design, a lever action or falling block can have reasonable camming power on seating the round, if not on extraction. And with the success of stocks like Shelly Davidson's tinker toy (CF) and Gene Beggs skeleton stock (CF and RF), old notions of stock stiffness are challenged.
Etc. Etc.
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