Tips to remove a really really tight 700 barrel

terry byler

New member
This is the tightest one i have very found,came off the texas coast,maybe a bit of salt water?i have a good external wrench that goes over the action,a long cheater pipe lots of resin and still can't move it.Split my blocks in the vise,would heat,not red hot help? Thanks for any suggestions,terry
 
Chuck it up in a lathe and make a parting cut just in front of the recoil lug. That will relieve the tight fit and allow you to remove the barrel. It will ruin the barrel, of course, but it can be set back and rechambered. Not the best, but useable.

As an alternate you can grind down the recoil lug to where it's just a tad larger than the barrel OD, chuck it up and make the parting cut on the lug. That will ruin the lug but they are easy to get a replacement.

Good Luck

ray
 
You can try some heat with a heat gun, some barrels have been found to have been installed with LocTite. Are you going to throw away the old barrel? If so, you can put it in a lathe and use a parting tool to cut the barrel about a .200" deep just in front of the receiver to relieve any pressure on the shoulder. Spray and soak with Kroil or PB Blaster, then it should turn off. I have had 1917 Enfield barrels that wouldnt budge with a wrench and a pipe vise, turn off by hand after a relieving cut.
 
Use steel bushings made to fit the barrel, in a solid steel vise made to fit the bushings, an internal wrench and support under the end of it, a 2 foot bar on the wrench and about 200 pounds bouncing on the end of it... BANG like a shotgun when it breaks loose.

Wood bushings are useless with tight barrels.

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If you have a helper handy, a nice tap on the recoil lug with a brass hammer while applying pressure to the wrench has worked for me.
 
Barrel is a throwaway,so will try the lathe,already tried to move the recoil lug with a hard blow and it didn't move.First one i couldn't move with the wood bushings,but don't mess with old military actions. thanks for the tips
 
I have a set-up like Dennis' that I made to remove the barrel from my Rem. 700 varmint. That barrel didn't want to budge.

I applied even heat to the front receiver ring (only enough heat to boil spit) and that was enough to loosen the thread locking compound. Crack!.......and off!

Good luck!
Jerry
 
I had one, 40X in 308 that would not budge inspite of my large brownells vise and a long cheater bar. Splitting the recoil
lug with a parting tool worked fine and the action came off by hand. Neither barrel or action was harmed and are still in use.
 
Don't use an internal wrench, it is possible to damage the locking lugs
 
The following ain't benchrest folks, but this is the way to deal with stubborn barrels. Made this setup back in 1970 when I worked with those nasty military Enfields. I do not use heat or undercuts. My heat treating buddy would land a fist in my face if he ever saw me put heat on a receiver.

Obtain a real barrel vise and never look back:

visebase.jpg


That is a ¾” drive ratchet with 30 inch handle. Never had a barrel slip, even those tight Enfields.

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Brass and aluminum bushings.


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Another view showing how it works.


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Close up of the brass bushing


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Action wrenches. I have several more for various actions.


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Remington wrench with a recess to index the lug. Holland’s lug, pinned to the action. The ¼” socket head bolt screws into the front receiver screw hole and indexes the action.


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T-Handle wrench for the switch barrel guns.
 
Don't use an internal wrench, it is possible to damage the locking lugs

If the wrench fits as the spade wrench pictured below does, you wont damage anything... I have removed hundreds with this...

wrench-0.jpg
 
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If you look at Woodhunter's pics, you see that his vise inserts all have a paper bushing for the barrel. Those work wonders for getting good grip on a barrel. If you have trouble with the barrel vise slipping, this is sometimes the answer. All my wrench inserts are made a few thousandths oversize so I can put a piece of card stock in there, both to protect the barrel but also to get better grip.
 
I use paper sheetrock tape between the bushings and barrel, it is just coarse enough to get a really good grip and a roll of it lasts practically forever.

drover
 
If you look at Woodhunter's pics, you see that his vise inserts all have a paper bushing for the barrel. Those work wonders for getting good grip on a barrel. If you have trouble with the barrel vise slipping, this is sometimes the answer. All my wrench inserts are made a few thousandths oversize so I can put a piece of card stock in there, both to protect the barrel but also to get better grip.

Once upon a time I got smart and used some high strength double sided tape between the bushing and the barrel.

Never did it again, had to dissolve the junk with MEK to get it off the barrel and bushings. Pressure really sets it up!

The cardboard in the bushings is manila file folder stock, works good, never had a barrel slip and a plus is bluing or bead blast finishes are not marred.

I also wrap the round receivers with the file folder cardboard.

Using the cardboard lets you use steel bushings without marring.

Some of the bushings are made from Nylon bushing stock, use them on the super shiny switch barrels that are not set up tight.

For mausers and enfield actions, I pad the receivers with copper strips to prevent marring by the action wrenches.

With some mausers you can crush the receiver ring a little with the action wrench and the bolt fit becomes tight. I prevent this by slipping a tight fitting arbor into the receiver prior to tightening the action wrench bolts.

Lube those threads prior to installing a new barrel, some fool 20 years from now may want to take the barel out of the receiver!
 
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Woodhunter,did you make the remington action wrench,that is really nice,i have a wheeler with the recess for the recoil lug,but can't find the 1/4 bolts strong enough,they keep shearing on really tight barrels as the lug recess has just enough side clearance to move a bit.I got the barrel off,had to make a new wood block,but came off pretty easy after i got everything tightened.You guys have some really nice set-ups,course you all are gunsmiths,i mostly take off these barrels for friends and shootin/hunting buddies.
 
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