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Hi guys. I'm looking for some advice. How tight do you torque the bolts on an action wrench? I've seen some guys online using like 4 foot cheater bars to tighted the bolts but I worry about distorting the receiver/barrel/chamber. Is this a legitimate concern?
Also, when I torque the barrel nut, the barrel tightens too which screws up my headspacing (I imagine this might mean the wrench is too loose but again I'm worried about overtightening). How do you all prevent this from happenening?
Distorting the action can and does happen, I would call Jim at Northland Shooter Supply to get an exact torque number. When I take off barrels with an Action wrench, I use Jim's btw, just simply snugged the screws down to what I think it pretty tight but not to tight and have never had a problem. I know that's vague and probably doesn't help..lol.but it is what I do. I believe the Savage recommended amount of torque at least for the Axis is 40ft/lbs.
Also, the last rifle I headspaced had the same problem when I tried to tighten the barrel nut. I just held the bolt handle/receiver tight in place and just had to take it real slow.
When you put the barrel nut back on forget the action wrench. Put the barrel in a barrel vice and tighten nut , barrel won't move.
The headspace will-can increase a bit when the slack is taken up in the threads. I just snug the nut a tad bit not enough I can tweak the action if it have to then finish tightening the nut to a grunt-grunt and a half. I have no clue how tight I make them. If I had to take a wild guess it might be 30-40 lbs. I don't know if its enough, I haven't had any come loose yet to find out.
This it how I tighten and remove them post factory installed barrels.
http://i34.tinypic.com/21omvia.jpg
A rear entry action and a modified open ended nut wrench. I'm too dang lazy to pull the scope and mounts. :p I do cheat on occasion and use a bench vise w/padded jaws but only as a third hand to hold the barrel.
To remove factory barrels I use a altogether different setup-tools.
Bill
What has worked for me is making sure I use the set screw in the action wrench (I also use Jim's from NSS) just threaded into the action to prevent slippage and then tighten the action wrench down with a slightly oversized box wrench... to prevent the barrel moving while tightening the nut I generally close the bolt on the headspace gauge and leave it in place once I have set the headspace... then torque down the nut. While I probably should use a barrel vice, I haven't. I've found that using the action wrench and slipping the handle down into a hold drilled into the top of my work bench (specifically drilled to hold the action wrench handle) I haven't had any movement/slippage problems.
Awesome! Thanks guys!
I give the wrench two whack with the rubber mallet. Not sure how much torque it is.