Barrel Nut Wrench

[larr]

which barrel nut wrench is better, wheeler or the SSS one? also how are the boltheads from SSS? i have a target action that's looking for a 220 swift or 6BR barrel and i need to get a bolthead that will fit them calibers.

[pdog06]

The SSS wrench is better, hands down. Supposed to be a much harder metal than the Wheelers. Northlander also sells a McCree wrench that is supposed to be pretty good, but i've never used one.

The boltheads from SSS are Savage factory boltheads, just like you would buy from Midway.

FYI, If your target action has a left ejection port, remember you will need a LH bolthead. Fred or Lisa will know what you need though if you call them.

[LG]

I got a Wheeler nut wrench is it in fact pretty soft metal. I do not recommend it.

[Uncle Jack]

Me too!

uj

[larr]

The boltheads from SSS are Savage factory boltheads, just like you would buy from Midway.

i just got off the phone with Lisa and she said that Fred trues up the bolt head before he ships them out. she also got me the right bolthead for my action which is left ejection one. i also ordered there barrel nut wrench too. both should ship out by the end of the week. now i will have to find a barrel, i might try northland shooters supply i see that they have some barrels ready to ship. ;D

[dcloco]

Believe Jim at Northlander Shooters Supply sells the McRee Precision barrel nut wrenches.

[axaviere]

i like the 1/2" drive socket in the wheeler, that allows a torque wrench or just a breaker bar for leverage. still havent decided if i will be gutsy and do my own barrel swap or puss out and pay.

[Solothurn]

I got a McRee. It looks good and works great.

[LG]

i like the 1/2" drive socket in the wheeler, that allows a torque wrench or just a breaker bar for leverage. still havent decided if i will be gutsy and do my own barrel swap or puss out and pay.


I tried the breaker bar thing the first time I tried to remove a factory barrel with the wheeler wrench. Didn't work. The wheeler wrench is just too soft for that. The 1/2" drive hole got all deformed and now it doesn't even resemble a square anymore. And the barrel nut didn't move. Probably a breaker bar would work with a stronger wrench, but with the wheeler you're better off hitting it with a mallet or hammer. The way I do it is I wrap the wrench with some rags or newspaper, whatever I have at hand at the time, and then whack it with a rubber mallet. I wrap the wrench to protect the mallet as the wrnech is pretty thin and probably would cut the mallet.

On a separate note, there's no reason to be reluctant. Swapping barrels is not difficult. It's actually pretty simple. You just need to be aware that some factory barrel nuts might require a little incentive (aka hammer whack) to come loose. And you need to understand headspacing, and double check to make sure headspacing is being set correctly on installation of the new barrel. That's basically all there is to it.

[docsleepy]

Guys, I think this is getting overwrought.

My barrel nut wrench, if I'm not mistaken, is the "inferior" Wheeler, with the 2 half-inch drive cutouts. I'm a complete newbie at changing barrels and I did TWO Savage barrels last weekend, first time in my life. Not a problem.

Action wrench on the action, tight, but not crushing.
Trusty model airplane heat gun on the barrel nut for about 5 minutes until it was GOOD AND HOT.
Lay the action on the carpet, long rod from action wrench on carpet.
Fiddle with barrel nut wrench until it sits just off the carpet, about 30 degrees above the long rod from the action wrench (acute angle).
Push hard, no effect. Tap moderately with heavy hammer and it started to move. Within moments, freed up well.

Much easier than I expected.
If I could do it over, I would be a little more careful with the threads of the action-to-stock threaded hole. I'm not sure I like the bolt that came with the action wrench and I had some that fit better that I could have used.

I installed a new 6PPC barrel and moved the varmint barrel over to the 2nd savage action that previously had a very thin barrel. The biggest problem I had was getting the headspacing JUST where I wanted it. I'm new to 6PPC and the 220 russian cases didn't fit as easily as I thought they would and that took some question/answer time on a benchrest forum to get sorted out.

The difference in angle degrees of the barrel screwing in that admits the "go" gage and the "nogo" gage is probably only 20 degrees -- about 3/8 of an inch linearly by markings I made on the barrel. I tightened the barrel nut with a MODEST light rap or two of the steel hammer on the aforementioned "inferior" barrel nut wrench and found that the headspacing sometimes tightened up, when I thought it was going to loosen....anyway, it took some TRIAL AND ERROR a couple times until I got it just right, so the new 6PPC was correct and admitting the 220 russian shells, and the "new" varmint rifle was properly admitting handloaded ammo made for it when that same barrel was on the OTHER rifle.

Took both rifles to the range and fired very carefully (glove, stand back, goggles.....my fingers are important to me!) and both did well. Now in barrel break in and fireforming on the new 6PPC.

Don't sweat it. The hardest thing was I had just about completelly forgotten the ins and outs of disassemblying the bolt, which I had to do to change out the bolt head for the new PPC bolt head. Once my faculties returned, that was easy also. Photos on another blog helped enormously the first time.

Getting the barrels OFF was a 10 minute affair each (not counting getting the scope off etc). Getting the headspacing right for familiar 223 took maybe 30 minutes; much longer to figure out the completely unfamiliar 220 russian.

[docsleepy]

I now understand WHY the benchrest crowd prefers lathe-adjusted barrels without a barrel nut. If you were going to change barrels willy nilly, that would be way easier. wrench one off, torque replacement on, no measurement, hardly any precision work at all (all done when the barrels were headspaced to THAT one action.

But for me, a small time guy who will probably go a year or more before ever re-changing a barrel, and doesn't want to pay $$$ and wait WEEKS to have a gun worked on somewhere-else-expert-shop,,,,,,the Savage barrel nut is a wonderful invention that allows me to move a handme down barrel off one rifle onto another as I upgrade barrels to custom match barrels.

Differnt strokes for different folks!