First Barrel swap..success

Did my first barrel swap last night and I wanted to throw out a big thanks to the folks on the forum for making it smooth and easy.

Swapped the factory barrel on a 16 LWH for a 22" #4 sporter contour from ragged hole barrels. After much deliberation, I went with a Viper barrel vise and NSS barrel nut wrench. Used a pipe wrench to remove the smooth factory nut and the only thing goofy was as I've seen a few times posted here before was blasting media underneath the barrel nut. It wasn't on the barrel threads from the nut to the chamber just under the nut but it made it a pain to get all the way off.

Headspaced with a PTG go gauge and used scotch tape on the back for the no go. Had to open up the barrel channel at bit the last couple inches of the fore end and she's looking good.

Assuming it doesn't come apart when I fire it for the first time I see more swaps and builds in my future.

Thanks again for all the sage advice!


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Congratulations. Other than being one of those Barrel vice types you done good !

At leas you got the NSS wrench. :p

When I started looking at the system it was, can this really go that well? Yep

I get to do all sorts of brain twist stuff at work, wanted something that was interesting but not a pain.

Savages met all that and then some.

He got the best barrel vise on the market, AFAIK. The uncoated Viper grabs like nothing else I've seen. He can use it on his factory Rem/Win takeoffs when he gets to that.

See there, swapping barrels is as easy as falling off a log but nowhere nearly as painful!:p

Bill

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Originally Posted by jim_k

He got the best barrel vise on the market, AFAIK. The uncoated Viper grabs like nothing else I've seen. He can use it on his factory Rem/Win takeoffs when he gets to that.

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I got the coated and wrapped the barrel with a spent toilet paper roll like he recommended. I tightened the nuts down but didn't jump up and down on them and it never hinted at slipping.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BillPa

See there, swapping barrels is as easy as falling off a log but nowhere nearly as painful!:p

Bill

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The hardest part was trimming the damn tape on the back of the go guage.

I used the tape the first time, but being anal retentive I like to check both no go and go several times and working around the tape was a pain. I finally bought a no go as well.

Yeah, the guy told me the coated one would work fine, too. I believe it. I just had it up to my gill-slits with vices that wouldn't hold, so I got the uncoated.