I "supervised" (just watched) when a shooting buddy came over to swap out a .223 F/TR barrel. My skills and knowledge are at a bare minimum. He is a machinist but never did this exercise. Anyway, I DID install my Viper barrel vise perfectly. It was not going anywhere without taking my whole work bench with it. There was only one problem - the hole into which the barrel goes was facing a back wall of the bench, necessitating taking the barrel out for even the simplest things like getting out the go and no go gauges. No problem for my friend. He uninstalled the vise, asked me for some c-clamps, attached the vise onto a B&D work bench thing, tightened the clamps and the vise was pointed the right way and just pushed the gauges into the receiver from the muzzle end. I still would have been adjusting stuff this morning without his expertise and common sense.
We did launch the 1/8" detent ball five times and found it four times. Foresight made me get three spares in an actual hardware store the day before. I absolutely refuse to fine grind by hand my dog's poop to find those which became airborn.
good thing you had the Workmate. While the use of an action wrench would have eliminated that problem, you must take the scope off to use one. Of course that would necessitate re-zeroing. Did you get to shoot it last weekend? How far from zero? I'm asking because I think I may try the barrel vise route. Any problem with the freebore and 80g bullets?
Shot for the cleaning routine.
Scope was taken off anyway and then remounted.
Very happy with the Shilen so far.
When scope remounted, I was about 6" high and two 1/8" clicks off center at 50 yards. BUT, was shooting 73's at 200 last time with the old barrel and now 80's at 50 last week.. No problem chambering.
I looked at the Viper, but opted for the Ken Farrell barrel vise as it's a little more robust and has half the nuts to tighten down/loosen.
"Life' is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." ~ John Wayne
“Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” —Mark Twain
I looked at a few.
After watching one You Tube video on the Savage swap wherein the guy had a humongous barrel vise and seeing what he was doing, I figured that as long as the vise was installed solidly and the main stress would be in loosening the existing nut, I opted for the Viper at the price being sold. I seriously doubt that I will be swapping out other than Savage barrels and that it would serve my purpose. It worked.
It will now be removed from my B&D workbench, packed away in its original packing box along with my bolts, washers and nuts for it awaiting its next appearance after shooting out the new barrel. Please note in Mr. Baker's picture, the correct orientation of the barrel vise on his bench.
I just look back to the first visit to a range to shoot my new Henry .22 with a box of Thunderbolts in my other hand and ruminate on how much simpler life was before I peeked down this whole rabbit hole and money pit that it is. I don't however regret that peek and dive down into smithing, hand loading and everything else relating to the obsession.
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