Barrel Vise Recommendations

[wind gypsy]

I had that one or one like it, but the bushings were straight. It’s a good one.

You really need the contoured bushing for Tikka factory. Do you know if he can make contoured ones?

he charges $5 more for tapered bushings, not sure if you'd need radiused vs tapered?

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[Lawnboi]

Been happy with my sac bravo, but I’m not breaking tikka barrels off all the time either.

 

[NSI]

The SAC alpha hinged vise is without peer in its class. They will send you a lite tikka-specific bushing. Combined with a PRP wrench this is the answer for frequent barrel removals.

-J

 

[Kurts86]

Having used the wheeler engineering vise and having broken a Viper top plate you are working on borrowed time until you have a custom bushing barrel vise. If you do get a viper at least get the python variant or the sporter top plate.

 

[wyosam]

I use the brownell’s vice. I’ve had no issue with factory tikka barrels or anything else I’ve clamped in it.


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[solarshooter]

I've done 4 factory Tikkas with my Viper. My recipe is:

• Clean and dry, no tape/sugar/etc between the vice and the barrel
• Tighten the #^&$ out of the top clamp piece incrementally, drawing it down uniformly on the shank and tapered section of the barrel. Bias towards getting a tight fit nearest the action thread. I grease the threads on the vice studs to help me get more preload.
• Heat the &%*@ out of the action with a torch, focusing on the tenon thread area. I'm talking a minute or more with a propane torch. Remove heat and install the external action wrench pointing up at 12 oclock.
• Use a metal sledge to hammer the action wrench loose. The sharp impacts and shock help to break the threads loose. I also sometimes have a partner tap around the threads on the action with a metal hammer for the same reason to shock the threads loose. It's important for the vise to be securely bolted to a STIFF bench for these shocks to be effective.

Last 2 I've done come off on the first try following these steps. First 1 took an hour of trying different things until I got to this procedure. All I can say is go tighter, use more heat, and hit harder, and the barrel will come off. I think risk of damage with this procedure is still quite low. And I have not marred a barrel yet either (all stainless however).

 

[Castle Rock]

Mount your vise vertically on the front face of the bench, it is so much better to use that way.

 

[TxLite]

It sounds like viper will replace my top plate under warranty. But I still am undecided between the SAC bravo and the viper hd (Python or whatever it is).

I spoke with SAC today and the bravo sounds like exactly what I want from a quality standpoint, but man the price is hard to swallow over a $50 viper hd top plate.

The hd is supposed to be 1/8” thicker than the standard so less likely to bend, and is also narrower for use with carbon barrels.

 

[Lawnboi]

Struggle with the viper till Black Friday. Then buy the sac, they always have a decent sale…

 

[Carl Ross]

I was taking a factory Tikka barrel off a few weeks ago, in a hurry at the end of a long day. Wasn’t sufficiently focused and ended up TIGHTENING it by ~ 10 degrees before I realized I was being a dumbass (I had witness marks to confirm). Went much easier turning it the right direction. Was using a Ross Vise on both the barrel and action, my own design, wish I still had a stash to offer for sale but I haven’t had any made for a few years.

 

[Nine Banger]

I'm going to fix this but we have an SAC barrel vise coming.

As @hereinaz has said the Viper vise isn't a good choice for Tikkas.

This one has removed 7 factory tikka barrels and 1 howa and put 10 or so back on.

I had spinning for the first time on an install yesterday.

Installing is usually a low abuse situation but the last factory barrel we did must have galled the threads or I did it getting the install yesterday to stop spinning.

 

[Wrench]

Get some soft lead flashing and use it instead of bushings. It will squish out after it makes a perfect 100% contact bushing. When you are done, save it.....fold it in half and use it again. I have been using the same lead for 20 years.

 

[Nine Banger]

Dropping this in here.

This is what you need to keep a Viper on the road for tikka factory barrels.

 

[satchamo]

Viper is ok if you’re willing to cut it in half per @hereinaz suggestion. Otherwise I’d spring for a sac style that puts all the clamping into the chamber area of the barrel.

 

[43.6N]

I use a viper and also struggled to get a good enough grip on a tikka barrel.

I ended up just shimming the barrel taper with 4 popsicle sticks. They deform enough when the vice is cranked down to basically form a collet.

Since using them, I’m 4/4 barrel changes on both t3 and newer t3x actions.

 

[TxLite]

I ended up buying a SAC Bravo. Haven’t had a chance to use it yet though. Seems well built