My rebarrelling experience

I recently decided to rebarrel my model 12 FV in .243, after reading a bunch I decided to try it myself even though I am the worst mechanical person you will ever meet. I ordered a Lothar Walther 28", 8 twist, vermint contour barrel, a Savage barrel nut wrench, and a new barrel nut just in case. It's a very simple job that even those of us mechanically inept can do with minimal risk to the gun.

I am a pretty serious woodworker so I decided to build my own barrel vise, I have a pic somewhere if anyone needs to see it. It's very basic, I took a scrap piece of 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 oak and cut it into two lengths about 6" long each. I then cut v-shapes out in the center of each just large enough for the barrel to fit in. I mounted this into two holes on my workbench that were previously drilled for my carving jig and mounted it with a pair of 1/2 grade 8 bolts and nuts. You really need to put some grunt into tightening the bolts.

As has been discussed by others, my gun was obviously barrelled at the factory the day the gorilla was working, pulling on the wrench even with a 18" long pipe extension didn't work. But like majic, when I applied a little 4 pound hammer gently a couple of times, it loosened right up. And by gently imagine trying to drive a 6 inch spike all the way through a 2x4 with one blow.

With the nut loosened one turn I was able to pretty simply unscrew the action. I used carb cleaner to clean out all the old antisieze and applied a little new, reinstalled the wrench, barrel nut and recoil lug and screwed the action back on.

I had also purchased from Midway a .243 go gauge, I screwed the action in until I felt it bump, removed the gauge and applied a small piece of tape to the back and tried again. This locked the action so it wouldn't close so I am good to go. Tightened down the barrel nut, although not as tight as factory, reinstalled in the stock and I'll go give it a try on Saturday.

I did it in about an hour, but only because I checked everything 3-4 times before I committed, I would guess I could do it again in 15 minutes or so now.

I would love to see a pic of your homemade vice

Here you go, simple as can be.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...barrelvise.jpg

Thanks, the vise is the only thing I was concerned about for doing a barrel swap

In reading your first post it sounds like you tested your head space before you tightenen up your barrel nut. If that is the case you need to revisit that very important step in the operation after you have tightened up everything. When you tighten up the barrel nut this will pull the barrel forward, creating your headspacing. That is when you use the Go-Gage with the single thickness of Scotch Tape (trimmed to avoid overhang).

Jim Briggs
NSS

That's what I did Jim, I guess I just didn't write it well.