Gunsmithing barrel vise and action wrench question

[O_W]

I tried searching and didn't come up with much.

I am looking to buy a barrel vise and action wrench to change out a couple barrels on my surgeon 591 actions. I will not use this much but want a system at the house to do it.

What vise recommendations do you guys have?

Is surgeon the only action wrench to get?

 

[warbonnet]

Check Brownells.

 

[O_W]

yeah they have like 5 different ones from 59$-249$ just want actual user recco

 

[LRI]

I've destroyed just about every action wrench out there.

If your working only with new stuff and your the one putting it on/off then the Surgeon wrench is a nice piece. -till you get an action it won't fit into.

After banging head against hard object I gave up and made my own. Keep in mind that it's not that were hard on stuff. It's the cycles. It's the single most used hand tool in the shop as a barrel can easily go on/off 3x to 4x times before we do a final assy. Multiply this times the number of barreled actions we do in a month and it's in the 10's of thousands of cycles per year.

I took a brand new PTG bolt body and bought a 1/2 drive socket extension off the Matco truck. Chopped off the square end to get rid of the ball detent, then turned/threaded it to fit up the backside of the bolt. Cross drilled a blind hole, Rosette welded the hole, and have not looked back.

It's worked for just about everything.

On factory barrels like M700's that behave very stubbornly, we use two wrenches. One that captivates the outside and the tool I just mentioned. Coming from two points of contact makes for a trouble free break of the joint without destroying anything. Kalli does all of the tear downs on M700's and most other actions. Tikka's and Sako's are the exception. We have a rather extreme solution for these little bastages.

This should get a laugh and a few raised eyebrows but I swear its the shit!

Forget the action wrench. Grab a spare machinist vice! I shit you not. Lay some card stock in the jaws and stick em with a dab of grease. Put the whole damn vice around the action- latching onto the flats on the sides. Snug it up, get a 1/2 drive breaker bar and a 3/4 socket or something else to use as a lever. Just progressively increase the pressure and it'll submit every time. -Just make sure you use hard steel jaws. Soft jaws no ju ju.

-no damage to action, no bulging veins in the forehead, no uncomfortable phone calls to customers...

Hope this helps.

C.

 

[MikeeBooshay]

The Surgeon wrench should work fine for you. Most of the stuff I ever broke, I was pushing the tool beyond where it was supposed to go.

I don't fight sticky R700 factory barrels anymore. If they don't come loose right away, straight to the lathe, cut a relief groove just in front of the recoil lug, EZ. Takes less time than wresting with it, breaking a wrench that takes time to replace.

Due to my recent BR addiction however, I have accumulated a decent collection of action wrenches. BAT, Farley, Surgeon ( 2 different -one for the XL action). I do find myself reaching for the Surgeon rather than the Davidson more often though, for the 700's.

Post edit - re-read your OP, taking off original Surgeon barrels, should be a piece of cake. A little copper-kote or nickel-ez anti-seize on reassembly, will help a lot if you are running multiple barrels on and off.

 

[CCA70]

This is the set-up I use. I have the Brownells barrel vise (very solid) and use the PTG Rem. 700 action wrench which engages the full bolt race way supporting the entire action (should work on 700 clones as well). I also have the Brownells action wrench for 700's which clamps over the action and recoil lug for those stubborn actions. Have had no problems so far.

 

[O_W]

Thanks for the info guys.

Chad, Your system seems awesome but most likely WAY over engineered for the 1-3x a year I might actually use it. Most of the time i just send them to you anyways....

 

[idahoorion]

O W,

there is a guy over at accurateshooter that sells a very nice rear entry wrench and barrel vise. he has surgeon stuff. Paul is his name. go to reloading equipment and do a barrel vise search.

Idahoorion

 

[Mike from Texas]

Tag for future reference.

 

[Mouse]

Tag for future reference.

Ditto...

 

[Aeon1]

pbike257 on accurateshooter.
New for 2014... For Sale: new Barrel Vises and Action Wrenches... by Pbike257

 

[O_W]

Awesome thanks for the link


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[LRI]

Were actually talking with our Matco Rep to see what it would take to have a forged action wrench made. A single piece unit hammer forged the way a socket/extension is made. Think of the life cycles on a 1/2" drive impact socket used in a tire shop.

Millions and they last for decades. We'll see... Could be pretty cool.

C.

 

[O_W]

any updates on your wrench Chad?