I'm Paul_T as well over at Snipers in the threads posted above.
Was going to buy direct from IBI but wound up ordering through Jerry @ Mystic as he has always given me great service (and he's an hour and a half drive from me).
Removed and installed the barrel myself. Factory removal for me was not as difficult as some people have had.
Stoeger Canada checked with Tikka for me and they said they set the barrels into the receiver with an epoxy (adhesive beading compound was the wording they used), then tighten the 3 grub screws.
Heat is your friend (according to Ryan at IBI) although in my case I didn't have to heat anything up or beat the barrel out. Grub screws were tight, but popped loose when I applied some torque.
For install I originally headspaced with instructions from Ryan at IBI using a round that I would be shooting (he commented that some are re-headspacing their rifles whenever they change ammo manufacturer/type).
Initial headspace was just on the excessive side and I was getting misfires.
Borrowed a Go-NoGo-Field set from my LGS (awesome of him to let me borrow tools...) and reset with 0.043 Go snug. NoGo would not close and Field of course was no way in the world going to close.
The Eley EPS chamber is tight..... the barrel is accurate. Have tried SK Std+ to 100 yards and bought a couple of bricks of Lapua Centre-X that I will be using (testing in spring).
Can you do the removal and install yourself?
Yes, but if you are not comfortable possibly breaking bits or having to heat up your barrel/receiver and then headspacing the barrel correctly then I would suggest a gunsmith.
Excessive headspace can lead to (at minimum) misfires or (worse) case separation.
As far as shimming goes, Kisssofdeath at Snipers used shim stock around the IBI barrel as there may be a bit of play in the barrel/receiver area due to manufacturing differences in the receiver.
I also had some play but decided to try it without shims first.
As you see up to 100 yds at least I see no reason to shim the barrel. Once I take it out further with even better ammo if I see that the groups are not what they should be I will consider it. Not a big deal, I have loads of different thickness shim stock in my garage.
