Has anyone broken a barrel nut wrench

[bajabill]

I have a nut I am having trouble breaking loose and the teeth on my midway wrench are really showing wear. I fear it may break before the nut comes off. Already it does not fit the grooves in the nut as well as it did originally.

[GUNFANATIC]

I use the same wrench, and have for a long time. Never had one break. I use an action wrench, barrel in a Wheeler barrel vise (just to hold it steady), and rap the crap outa the nut wrench with a hammer.

[Blue Avenger]

what are you using for a hammer? 3#dead blow is recommended.

[GUNFANATIC]

I use a regular old claw hammer. Takes me longer to tape up the action and clamp on an action wrench than it does to loosen the nut. Never broke anything.

[Con]

Haven't broken one and yesterday I had my first nut that refused to budge. The barrel with nut attached turned before the nut itself did. ;D The threads of this 'virgin' rifle were absolutely filthy ... even got some metal filings out from the threads. Soaked the barrel/nut in some diesel for 24 hours and it reluctantly came off. Normally, I'll have some kind of penetrating oil soaking for a good week on a new Savage and never had one refuse to come loose. The one yesterday I was in a rush and only managed an overnight session for the penetrating oil to do its thing.
Cheers...
Con

[bajabill]

Daaa--aaamm, that one was tough. I think running hot water over it loosened it up, but it still took about 20 whacks with the sledge hammer, or more. Had to reset my wood blocks and chalk them up about 3 or 4 more times. Then, finally, as I was about to call it a day and get some oil to work on it, it gave it up, but was still tight backing the nut off and there was a lot of brown crud in the threads and between the reciever and recoil lug.

The wrench really looks like it was put thru the wringer, a lot of the teeth are offset or dented. This was the 3rd factory barrel I took off, and by far the most difficult. Just after I told someone all they need is an oak block and then they come off easily.

[Con]

Mine also had brown/black crud ... looked like grease that had congealed into a solid. There was also what appeared to be some very light corrosion taking place between the nut and barrel threads. With everything now cleaned up ... my nut screws onto the barrel with absolute ease.
Cheers...
Con

[Blue Avenger]

bluing salts

[Slowpoke Slim]

My guess is that you are losing too much of the shock energy from the hammer blow through the wooden blocks. If you switched to an action wrench, there will be no place else for that energy to go but into the barrel nut. I use a soft faced dead blow hammer on my barrel nut wrench, and the MOST I've ever had to hit one was twice. And that was a blued action also. I would also assume that what you're seeing is bluing salts that have worked there way up the threads and "set".

[pdog06]

If you use an action wrench you should never have to get the hammer out of the tool box. Plus you dont risk warping the action.

Glad to see you got it off though without damaging anything.

[MARK25-06]

my barrel nut is tightened up against the action, not the barrel. so if you hold the action, you can get the nut off almost with the palm of your hand. no barrel vise needed as it is not a remington. MARK25-06

[bajabill]

Just took off another factory barrel and this one broke loose before the hammer even touched it, just a little weight on the breaker bar and it moved. At first I thought the gun slipped in the vise. This was a new gun and there was still oil in the threads.

[Eric in NC]

my barrel nut is tightened up against the action, not the barrel. so if you hold the action, you can get the nut off almost with the palm of your hand. no barrel vise needed as it is not a remington. MARK25-06

Huh?

[jinx-)]

do you call them broken





yeah an the jaw from my bench vise ;D

[ellobo]

That jaw from your vice looks like a bad iron casting. When a casting cools off unevenely usualy the carbon in the iron segregates to the side. When you view the two pcs one side will be black and the other side white. Is that the case with your part ? Yrs ago my fathers Redding reloading press bail snapped one side and had that condition. Redding agreed it was a chilled casting and replaced it.

El Lobo

[jinx-)]

I had this last year in July when I tried to remove barrel from my old 111, it took like 4 days to get that nut loose http://savageshooters.com/SavageForu...c,43288.0.html ... I think problem with vise jaw casting has to do with to much graphite, I threw it away I think, since I have no use for it...

[Bad Water Bill]

Now if you had one of FRED's jim dandy wrenches you would not have a problem. :)

[jinx-)]

well it was good learning experience, barrel nut wrench alone sometimes is not suited to do this job right, because you need action wrench to assist in breaking that nut loose ;D

[broncbob]

Have you tried to heat the nut with a plumbing torch? The localized heat will expand the nut faster than the surrounding metal and help break the crud bond.

[Don - LongRangeSupply]

Haven't broken or worn out a Savage barrel nut wrench yet. I use TWO at a time though which might be why they are still in such good shape after changing THOUSANDS of barrels (got the cheapo ones from Midway) but my AR-15 barrel nut wrench is toast.

The C shaped piece that fits in the gas tube grooves has opened up from tightening barrel nuts. They way it is designed, it wants to open up rather than close tighter as you tighten the nut. The part that fits into the barrel nut should be on the other side of the opening for tightening nuts. (If it was the opposite from what it is now, it would tend to open up when removing barrel nuts)

Also, it is piece of crap tool, made from a very poor quality casting that is most likely low quality steel that was not properly hardened to boot. I wish I could remember where I bought it. I would send it back for a refund, but alas, there are no markings on it.