Factory Barrel Removal and Viper vice hack

Powdered rosin works wonders for grip. If using drywall paper dust the paper with the rosin. If metal to metal dust the vise or the barrel. An alternative but IMO not as good is powdered sugar.
 
I used to make my bushings for each barrel contour.....then Mel Doyle showed me his system. Mel used a 20 ton press with two lead plates. The plates just mushed around the barrel.

I took that and bought some lead flashing. I cut the flashing into strips to line the upper and lower jaws of my vice. I crank it down and it just bites. When the bushings get out of shape....fold it in half and reef it down.
 
Ps, I have a wrap wrench that I drilled to install the front action screw like a shear pin. I have never seen it not work. I use an internal 80% of the time. A surgeon style lets you hit it with a hammer.....but I try to avoid that much torque on the rails.
 
tried leather on this last barrel and it did not work as well as drywall paper. Also had to upgrade to grade 8 washers because the ones that came with the vise deformed and almost couldn’t get them off the bolts.
 
A couple years ago I had a days longs fight with a Tikka from the mid 2000's. I eventually had to make a relief cut on that one to get the barrel off.

I recently had 2 more I wanted to put different barrels on so I made myself a serious action wrench anticipating a similar experience as the first one. On the first action/barrel it came loose on the 2nd smack with a deadblow, The second action/barrel broke loose on the first smack.

I mounted my barrel vise horizontal so I could put some weight on the action wrench and take up any slack before smacking it with a deadblow - I think this made a huge difference. I used a brown paper bag in the barrel vise.
 

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I'm not going to read 3 pages, but one thing to consider doing is when you're pulling or installing a new barrel, sprinkle a little bit of saw dust on the bottom vice contact point and little on the top vice contact point. It will improve friction/holding power because the dust will compress and increase the footprint of the points of contact
 
Isopropyl alcohol will help in cleaning up any residue.
I've been spraying all my stuff on the vise bench with parts cleaner, easy peasy.

The paper really gets mashed down in the barrel engravings.
 
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