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Gunsmithing Soft jaws for vice just as good as barrel vice?

I kinda tried it before and the soft rubber just doesn’t grab the barrel enough when you try and torque the action on. It works great for holding, but not torquing.
 
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What they said. I tried to use vice jaws/wood blocks pulling Savage barrels. No luck. I ended up taking two pieces of plate. Drilled holes in each end. All thread rod and drilled oak blocks. Home made clamps to hold in the vice. Still had to use rosin for extra grip on a couple.
 
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Thanks guys for the feedback, barrel vice it is

Cockroaches will be using this one once they take over the planet.

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I've done two barrels with funky home made barrel vises. One I used wooden blocks bored out match the barrel, rosin for traction, and a beefy bench vise. It worked, but a proper barrel vise is so much better. Used a comercial action wrench to spin it off.
The other I used some sort of clamp which looked like an overgrown lathe feed dog but with a bolt on V-block instead of the usual set screw. Lined the two halves of the V-block with lead sheeting, put the receiver (flat bottom-Mauser) in a vice with lead and a V-block and used a pipe wrench on the feed dog thing. Worked, but definitely would not recommend it.
 
that LRI model looks amazing...love the case hardening

i recently purchased a 21st century barrel vise from Bruno Shooting Supply. They're currently out of stock but you might check them out...it was $47 before shipping. Shipping was very reasonable and promptly sent priority mail.

i think it's a pretty good deal for a hobbyist like myself
 
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I’ve had good luck removing barrels with wood blocks made from oak. If you’re using a block from a normal 2x4 that’s going to break under pressure but I can put everything I have on my oak blocks and they have held up in my vice....dedicated barrel vice is likely easier but I’m cheap!
 
The problem with a vice is they don't clamp hard enough. The coarse threads on the screw can't apply anywhere near the clamping force that a couple fine threaded bolts can apply.
 
The bravo vice is on sale at short action.
 
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Picked this one up 20 or so yrs ago during my FAL days ($75?) not realizing how useful it would be down the road for other stuff. Made from 2" bar stock, base is 10" long, and it takes Brownells standard size bushings. Speaking of Brownells, there's one of their bbl vises on ebay now for $100 - not as heavy duty as this one but looks better than most. There are also some <$100 vises made from bar stock on ebay that look stout but who knows.

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The bravo vice is on sale at short action.
Just ordered this for myself.
In the past I’ve used two blocks of Japanese hickory in my bench vice, without any sort of profiling in them, but that’s 10km away at my office. I want to be able to do the same from home.
I’ve got an ARC Nucleus and a couple of PVA prefits.
 
Just ordered this for myself.
In the past I’ve used two blocks of Japanese hickory in my bench vice, without any sort of profiling in them, but that’s 10km away at my office. I want to be able to do the same from home.
I’ve got an ARC Nucleus and a couple of PVA prefits.
The action wrench’s are on sale too. You can buy just the head if you wanted and put it on your own 3/8 extension or use theirs it is nice but something you can always buy later