Barrel Vise bushing help

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d4dave1

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So I purchased a barrel vice, bushings, action wrench etc some time ago to learn about swapping barrels on Savage rifles. Completely new challenge for me so LOTS of learning.
I have 3 bushings made out of plastic but even the smallest one is a loose fit on the barrel of a Stevens 200 in .243 Win (same as Savage 110 is my understanding). I thought perhaps a couple of wraps of masking tape to protect the barrel and to perhaps take up some of the space. It seems to work but when I run the barrel vise down it bottoms out (the two vise halves come together) before the bushing has contacted the barrel firmly enough to hold. It is close, but no cigar...the barrel slips in the vise. Heavier tape wraps did the expected....

So I am thinking I need to build/buy another bushing one size smaller. I am not a machinist and have no lathe but I have a TON of woodworking tools and some basic farm shop tools. i.e. drill press It crossed my mind to try making a bushing set from oak but not sure if it would hold up? I could dig around and find some plastic pipe and try and drill it out to fit as well.

Any suggestions?
 
This is a barrel vise that I made years ago, and have used a lot.
The bars are 1 1/2" square steel bar stock, the clamping bolts are 7/8". The bushings are 1 1/2" diameter machined aluminum, split. I have several sets of bushings, made as I needed them.
I keep powdered rosin handy in a salt shaker for easy application. Some folks use icing sugar.
I would suggest machined metal bushings, rather than plastic.

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Throw the barrel vise in the garbage and use a proper action wrench...its a stupid way to loosen a barrel nut as you have to overcome the induced drag from the tension of the nut locked to the barrel and the action...you don't see any mechanics trying to loosen a locked bolt with a nut combo by wrenching on the bolt instead of first loosening the lock nut...you can do it buts its like dumb! :)
 
That old adage about "sleep on it" appears to have worked. Well, that and some of the advice here....lol. I very slightly modified the bushings and then 2 wraps of masking tape on the barrel to protect it, added a tiny amount of icing sugar cause I didn't have any rosin, then I used a few pieces of emery cloth that comes in a one inch roll, a single layer between the bushings and the vise and the same between the bushing and the barrel, inverted to protect the barrel. A tiny amount of icing sugar on the smooth side of the emery cloth. Worked like a charm. Thanks everyone for your help.

I have re-installed the new barrel but have run into another small (?) problem. Barrel indexing. It seems no matter what I do when I run the "Go" and "No Go" gauges properly the stamped info that is supposed to be on the side/top of the barrel - Caliber and manufacturer etc - ends up on the bottom so will be buried under the stock.

The old barrel was a Stevens 200 and the new (used) barrel is a Savage if that makes any difference?

Any solutions to this problem?

My smart *** wife walked by me while I was studying the problem and said "Just write the info on the side of the barrel with a felt pen honey" and then walked quickly away. :dancingbanana:

All I could do was :mad::bangHead: She is a cabinet maker so I WILL get revenge!
 
that is normal, no two chambers are cut the same, and no 2 savage bolt heads are exactly the same, so to properly headspace any barrel will usually result in the writing to be in a weird spot in relation to the action, if your good on the gauges your good to go
 
yodave said:
that is normal, no two chambers are cut the same, and no 2 savage bolt heads are exactly the same, so to properly headspace any barrel will usually result in the writing to be in a weird spot in relation to the action, if your good on the gauges your good to go
Click to expand...

Thanks yodave, appreciate the info. This is going to cause me a brain itch and a face twitch for years. :sok2
 
This isn't at all unusual when replacing an original barrel with a take off barrel.

Yodave is telling it like it is.

I have swapped out barrels on Remington and Winchester actions and they don't index properly for iron sights or the logo on the barrel. Unless you're going to be anal about this or are trying to sell the rifle, it isn't an issue IMHO as long as the head space is within spec.

If you intend to use iron sights, then you will have to do some machining or have it done and clean up the chamber accordingly.

Here is something I've seen done quite often on Marlins and Savages whose barrels have been swapped out and their owners want to retain the iron sights. They screw in the barrel as close to the proper head space as they can, usually only a few thousandths of an inch over max, and shoot it as is. It's not going to blow up on you. Accuracy likely won't be effected either.

If you reload, make sure that cases fired in that rifle are relegated to that rifle, then neck resize only. The fired brass will be custom formed for your particular rifle's chamber. It's not a dangerous condition.

Many milsurp K98s that were converted from 8x57 to 7.62x63 (30-06) and 7,62x51 (308Win) suffer from over max head space conditions. They were set up with field gauges with a little more tolerance than their commercial variants purposely. Same goes for many Lee Enfields. IMHO most of the chambers in those rifles, especially rushed wartime condition builds have excessively generous chamber dimensions. They aren't dangerous or their intended ammunition.

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Success has been declared!

The new(used) barrel is a fluted slick barrel off of a Savage model 10 so is a heavier profile. I will either have to do a fair amount of channel work in the existing fore stock to make it fit or choose another stock. I have purchased M96 Mauser stocks from Boyd's before and they worked out fine. Not sure how I would spec out a heavier barrel for a Savage 110 though? Or would I purchase a Savage 10 stock to fit?

Thoughts?
 
what is your action? model 10 is a short action, model 110 is a long action

you may have to order a 110 long action stock with standard barrel channel and be prepared to open it up to accept the heavier barrel you've installed
 
yodave said:
what is your action? model 10 is a short action, model 110 is a long action

you may have to order a 110 long action stock with standard barrel channel and be prepared to open it up to accept the heavier barrel you've installed
Click to expand...

I have the original 110 stock that held the .243 Win sporter barrel. I was originally considering opening up this stock to accept the fluted barrel. But I thought perhaps if someone else had gone down this path before they might be able to offer some advice. Good point about the model 10 being a short action....that would not accept my 110 action.
Looks like I will be doing some woodworking.
 
I had the same problem (barrel indexing) that left the calibre stamp on the bottom of the barrel on a Tikka I had re-barreled from 308 to 243. Murphy's Law dictates it'll happen 99 times out of 100.
 
So I went ahead and broke out the tools and made a new channel in the existing stock. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I used one of my wife's drum sander tools...about a 6 inch cylinder wrapped with sandpaper that luckily had the perfect diameter. Rigged up a mandrel for it then chucked into my 1/2 inch Dewalt drill. Worked like a damn and made short work of the job. A few small touch ups with hand sanding and applied some oil to the fresh wood because the rest of the stock has an oil finish. Looks pretty good to me, now for bases, scope, ammo, and decent weather then I will make it go Bang!

Onward and Upward...next project. Same thing except a Stevens 200 in .243 Win going to re-barrel to 07-08.
Thanks everyone for the tips and advice. Kind of a poor cell phone pic but you get the idea anyways.
Dave
 

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