Gunsmithing Surgeon action wrench for Remington 700?

[Wannashootit]

I need to purchase an action wrench to install a new Remage barrel on my son's 700. In addition to the "traditional" wrench, Brownells has one by Surgeon that inserts into the lug recesses.
Is this type preferred to reduce the risk of twisting the action?

 

[Petey]

Are you looking to remove the factory R700 barrel with it? I use the Surgeon wrench for switching between barrels and find that it works great, but I'm not sure that I'd use it for removing a factory barrel that is likely torqued way over the 100 ft-lb max rating.

 

[Wannashootit]

Yes- to be used first to remove the factory barrel.

Too much torque to be placed solely on the lug recesses?

 

[Deadshot2]

Yes- to be used first to remove the factory barrel.

Too much torque to be placed solely on the lug recesses?

For the first time removal of a factory barrel you might be better off going to a gunsmith that has an action vise and barrel wrench. A vise that clamps around the action right over the threads. No chance of twisting either lugs or bolt-ways.

From there the Surgeon wrench is superior as it puts all the torque where it's needed, close to the threads.

 

[LRI]

I have burned up 4 Surgeon wrenches. They bend/snap over time. Now bear in mind that this is probably the single most used hand tool in the shop. If your tearing down 10 barreled actions a year it's one thing. It'll probably last you a long time. If you do 25+ a week its quite another. I don't have divine intervention to know whats coming in my door ahead of time. Some of this stuff can be quite stubborn and nasty to get apart.

SO, what to do?

First I made a wrench that captivates the outside of the reciever. I then tig welded it to a take off barrel so that I'd have some leverage.

Next, took a couple old bolts and made tools from them. I bought some 1/2 drive socket extensions off the MATCO truck and welded them to the bolt body.

The combination of these two tools used together has given me the best solution for tearing down the hard headed ones. I've not ruined a single receiver this way and the tools have lasted now over a year.

Just know this: An action wrench is a simple tool. It's not rocket science. With that said it's important to have a REALLY good one because one goof and you potentially ruin things that can cost a whole lot of money and time to replace.

Use that as your guiding light when selecting a tool.

 

[Wannashootit]

No plans to do this more than once, currently. I'm sure there will be barrel change-outs in the future and another build or two, but I don't see it being used more than a handful of times.
Certainly not anything remotely close to commercial shop use.

I like the Brownells wrench because it has the lug recess, unlike the Wheeler. It's a VTR barrel, so I'll just make some wood blocks for the vise to fit it. At least that sucker won't "spin" out in the barrel vise.

 

[ugsly]

I use the surgeon to torq new barrels on or do swaps. I use a brownells to take factory remington barrels off. You can get a lug alignment tool to use with the surgeon wrench.

Kc