New Barrel Arrived!

[shcal]

My new Pac-Nor barrel arrived last night for my gun project. Its a SS-SM 8 twist, three groove, 28" 6mm BR with no turn neck and .085 freebore, reamer by PTG. The barrel is a 1.055" straight for use on a Savage action using the barrel nut. I will be switching out out my 22-250 AI barrel from my Savage short action. The parent gun already has a Stockade long range benchrest stock.

I have new Lapua brass, 87gr V-max's, new Forster FL dies. I will be sending the FL dies to Forster today for honing to .266 & .267 for neck sizing.

I have never changed out a barrel before so any advice would be of great help. I have the barrel nut wrench from SSS and a barrel vice. Should I use anti-seize on the barrel threads with the barrel nut? How tight should the nut be adjusted? I have a Go & No-Go gauge form PTG for setting the case head and chamber to length against the bolt face, any pointers on how best to do this?

Again, since I have never done this before any and all advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance, shcal.

 

[vmthtr]

I have changed a bunch of barrels on my 2 Savages. Very simple to do. Pull from stock, put the wrench on the nut, put the barrel in the vice, I C clamp the vice to my shooting table. Get the wrench in the spot you want it and give it a whack with a soft face hammer. This will shock the nut and break it loose. Remove the barrel vice and wrench. Unscrew the barrel from the action. I would recommend adding a SSS recoil lug at this point. Start the barrel, lug and nut. When the barrel gets close, index the lug in the cut in the action, open the bolt and put in the headspace "go" gauge. Put the barrel in the vice with the wrench installed, close the bolt and screw the action down until snug on the gauge. Tighten the nut, don't try to get 500 foot pounds, but more than just tight. I would guess mine are at about 60.This will give you about .0005" of headspace when the nut takes the slack out of the barrel threads. You are now good to go. If you want, try the "no go" gauge, but I never use them. Good luck and I hope this is clear enough.

Mike

 

[shcal]

Vmthtr, thanks for the clear and simple advice. Quick question though, do you place any kind of anti-seize fluid on the barrel threads or the barrel nut? BTW, I forgot to mention that I already have a SSS recoil lug, so I should be good to go.
Thanks again, shcal.

 

[gdragon34]

It really is as easy as Vmthtr says it is as long as you can get the damn nut to loosen in the first place. I ended up buying an action wrench too.

I use a small amount of anti-seize although I don't believe it's absolutely necessary. I do it just for the peace of mind.

 

[shcal]

gdragon34 - Thanks for the input. I don't have an action wrench so I'll be relying on the barrel nut wrench and a little help form a dead-blow hammer. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[vmthtr]

Forgeto to add that I use a small amount of antiseize on the barrel threads. I would hate to gall anything in there.

Mike

 

[vmthtr]

Forgot, for the first few times I changed barrels I used a 1 and 1/4 box wrench and 4 peices of 3/16 welding rod to fit into nut grooves. Works same as the SSS nut wrench, but is harder to keep track of the rod peices.

Mike

 

[shcal]

vmthtr - thanks for the info on the anti-seize. Your make-shift barrel nut wrench sounds painful, but inventive, guess it worked OK for you while it had to.
shcal

 

[4Mesh]

I have never changed out a barrel before so any advice would be of great help. I have the barrel nut wrench from SSS and a barrel vice. Should I use anti-seize on the barrel threads with the barrel nut? How tight should the nut be adjusted? I have a Go & No-Go gauge form PTG for setting the case head and chamber to length against the bolt face, any pointers on how best to do this?

Again, since I have never done this before any and all advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance, shcal.

I won't speak for the torque you should use cause there's other people here with experience on the Savage Barrel nuts. I'm gonna reccomend one of 2 things tho.
You say you want info on the anti-seize compound. There's only really 2 options in my mind. Dow Corning makes a compound that's a Moly/Graphite based that I like very much. The only other alternative I use is Brownells Assembly Paste. Treat it like Toxic waste tho. If you get .00000001 grams under your fingernails, it'll hurt for a month. With both of these you will need a very very small amount spread around by turning the barrel in and out several times to get it spread out.

Good luck.

 

[4Mesh]

Dow's is P37 Anti-Seize Paste, fwiw

Brownells is like $20+ per ounce.

 

[Richard Jones]

Fred Moreo at SSS told me once that you don't need the anti-seize, as I asked him the very same question............

Rich

 

[shcal]

I mounted the barrel onto the action over the weekend, snugged it against the go guage then tightened up the barrel nut. Seemed like a pretty easy operation. Dabbed a little anti-seize grease on the barrel threads. I have the Stockade long range stock, however the barrel channel was too narrow at the fore stock so I had to open it up a little bit. Sanded a larger barrel channel with 60 grit sand paper wrapped around a 1-1/8" wooden dowel as a guide. came out slick. I painted sanding sealer,for surf boards) on the newly sanded foam, and seal it. then painted the sanding sealer. Followed by mounting the barrel/action in the stock.

Question: the latest PS has an article on the Savage action stating that it is a good action but lacks the proper rigidity of a true bench rest action. This is probably correct given the amount of metal removed for the loading port. this action was originally an internal magazine feed but was converted to single shot. I have a Ken Farrel one piece scope rail that not only serves as the mounting rail for the scope rings but, according to the PS magazine article, this sort of scope mount serves to stiffen the action. Do you think these actions need additional support in the form of a barrel block or some other form of barrel support rather than the traditionally free-floated barrel when mounting heavy straight barrels?

Thanks, shcal.

 

[shcal]

Here's the new barrel on my rig. Only thing left to do is install the SSS tactical bolt handle when it arrives.
shcal

 

[kells81]

wow, very nice man, I think the strongest Savage action you can get is the SS version. The bottom is not milled out so it has the extra metal. Anyway seeing guns like that make me wish I would have went the savage route instead of the Rem route on my 7mm. I have 1500 in a gun thats one barrel and no chance of taking it off till i blow the riflings out of it as much as it cost. Very nice gun man hope it shoots like a champ.


LOL just noticing I have that exact same Front rest and rear bag, and maybe even the same bench

 

[tenring]

Hey, that is a nice lookin set up. Just to pass along another tip: After my barrel installation is complete, I always run a stripe with black magic marker horizontally along the nut and barrel. If the barrel begins to unthread, it can be detected before there is a problem,I did have a Savage factory barrel unthread while I was at the range).

 

[shcal]

Thanks tenring, thats a good idea.

 

[Forum Boss]

Do you think these actions need additional support in the form of a barrel block or some other form of barrel support rather than the traditionally free-floated barrel when mounting heavy straight barrels?

There have been plenty of people having real good results with reasonably long, heavy barrels and Savage actions. That barrel nut gives the barrel a little extra support. Keep in mind that the action flex will be reduced by good better and sufficient action bolt tension. If you have pillars you want to snug those action bolts pretty tight.