Two of my M-305,s needed a barrel index job done on them and I didnt want to wait until I saw Hungry again this summer so ....
I made a tracing of Hungrys famous welfare barrel vice and took alot of pics of it over the years.
After a few pm,s to Hungry for technical advice , physical reassurance and emotional support I went out to the shed out back and fired up the ol Varnamo milling machine .
Due to the barrel having a different profile on the bottom the barrel vice has to be shaped correctly on the bottom half.
Here the angle is being cut into the bottom block at 45 degrees and the gap measures 1.1 inches wide
You can see the bottom half of the barrel vice is cut out more to fit the barrel correctly
Here is the barrel vice in position and you can see how the top block grabs the barrel and prevents the barrel from turning while in the vice..
When I went to use the vice for the first time I couldnt get it to tighten up enough onto the barrel ??????? Well having both blocks threaded is not the way to go ...lol .
After thinking about it abit I took my big ass bubba round file to the threads in the top block and removed all the threads. I was a little hesitant to go at it with the file after all the high tech machinerey made it but that fixed it and the indexing job was pretty anticlimactic actually .
The only issue was not being able to use straight edges for the job as both of these rifles have threaded muzzles so there isnt a flat edge to use like the original style flashiders have .
I just went with the gas system being inline as best as I could get it.
Once again I am very very thankfull that I hooked up with Hungry a few years back as his help is invaluable ......Thanks again Buddy !!
And special thanks to my newest cadpat friends S and M who did the milling for me .
I made a tracing of Hungrys famous welfare barrel vice and took alot of pics of it over the years.
After a few pm,s to Hungry for technical advice , physical reassurance and emotional support I went out to the shed out back and fired up the ol Varnamo milling machine .
Due to the barrel having a different profile on the bottom the barrel vice has to be shaped correctly on the bottom half.
Here the angle is being cut into the bottom block at 45 degrees and the gap measures 1.1 inches wide
You can see the bottom half of the barrel vice is cut out more to fit the barrel correctly
Here is the barrel vice in position and you can see how the top block grabs the barrel and prevents the barrel from turning while in the vice..
When I went to use the vice for the first time I couldnt get it to tighten up enough onto the barrel ??????? Well having both blocks threaded is not the way to go ...lol .
After thinking about it abit I took my big ass bubba round file to the threads in the top block and removed all the threads. I was a little hesitant to go at it with the file after all the high tech machinerey made it but that fixed it and the indexing job was pretty anticlimactic actually .
The only issue was not being able to use straight edges for the job as both of these rifles have threaded muzzles so there isnt a flat edge to use like the original style flashiders have .
I just went with the gas system being inline as best as I could get it.
Once again I am very very thankfull that I hooked up with Hungry a few years back as his help is invaluable ......Thanks again Buddy !!
And special thanks to my newest cadpat friends S and M who did the milling for me .
Last edited:
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