Reports of people screwing barrels on hand tight

[snert]

I have a Sinclair built Superior. The barrel was spun on hand tight. It shot fine.

 

[AlNyhus]

I have a Sinclair built Superior. The barrel was spun on hand tight. It shot fine.

Did you try tightening it and comparing?

 

[Keith Glasscock]

I guess you need to define “without issue”.

Strictly from a Short Range Benchrest Shooters point of view, I hope all of my fellow competitors show up with barrels that are just “snapped” tight by hand.

I've already had my fun with competitors like that. Seen barrels come off the line loose.

For those that advocate hand tightened barrels, would you explain to me how much the last thread or chicken groove in your tenon (elastically) stretches under firing forces, and how that is offset by the tension from your tightening method?

 

[USMCDOC]

John Chubb had a switch barrel where the muzzle was faceted like a lug nut, used a ratchet wrench, don’t remember if he used a torque wrench when putting a barrel on

 

[AlNyhus]

Hand tight works until it doesn't....can't imagine what the upside to that would be.

A wee past hand-tight on Pandas and Kodiaks works well. Index lines make it easy on barrel swaps.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[Will Henry]

A split collar which bears on a tapered shoulder works real well, but no better than just tightening the barrel on conventionally. I don't use a torgue wrench but do put about 100 pounds on a 18 inch breaker bar. WH

 

[GenePoole]

I've been using this stuff as a general assembly lube for 20+ yrs and it has worked equally well on barrels for me. Many high performance engine builders use it on bolts and studs for gasketed joints where torque is critical.

It's #3 so it stays where you put it also.View attachment 1399547

I've got a can of brake caliper grease that I've been using for like 10 years now. Doesn't take much. I got the idea from Chad Dixon at LRI and this stuff is the shitz. Super thick and tacky and I've pulled barrels with over 2000 rounds and the stuff looks the same as when I applied it.

 

[Clark]

The fluorinated grease can work in temperatures ranging from -15 to 300 °C (5 to 572 °F), at vapor pressures as low as -1.0 x 10-13 torr at 20 °C (68 °F), and in the most chemically severe environments.

Love you long time

 

[jackieschmidt]

I do what Al showed in post #45.
i firm the barrel up with the action wrench to make sure it is seated. Then draw a line between the action and the barrel, tighten untill there is about 3/32 space separating the lines.

From personal experience, this takes about 80 pound feet with a 16 pitch thread, an little less with an 18.

Remember, torque is a subjective figure, depending on several factors than can influence the amount of advance in relation to the actual torque reading.
The object is to place the threaded joint in the required tension to insure there is absolutely no movement during the firing cycle. The witness mark insures that the action did indeed advance upon the barrel tenon.

I have cured more than one ill shooting Benchrest Rifle by doing nothing more than sufficiently tightening the barrel.
just a month ago a fellow shooter, who I had mentored through the NBRSA Mentors program, was at the range with his new 30BR. After an entire morning the thing was shooting no better than mid three groups.

on a thought, I told him to follow me to my house to check some things. The first thing we did was check the barrel. It was in a new Panda action. When I inserted the wrench, it was not much more than hand tight.

I tightened it by the procedure just mentioned. When we got back to the range, told him exactly what load and seating depth to use with the 112 BIB bullets. The very first group he shot was about a .180

Rifle cured.

 

[762plinker]

Really? That is interesting. Have you heard of any issues from doing it?

What's the point torquing barrels down then?

I'd imagine you'd need a strap wrench to remove it after a few hundred rounds.

short range br shooters have been doing it for years and still winning matches.
having said that all of my bbls are TORQUE'd in place

 

[AlNyhus]

short range br shooters have been doing it for years and still winning matches.
having said that all of my bbls are TORQUE'd in place

I'm sure any action maker would be happy to explain their barrel torque recommendation. It won't be 'hand tight'.

https://www.kelbly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/KelblyOwnersManualWeb.pdf

 

[spike-55]

I've got a can of brake caliper grease that I've been using for like 10 years now. Doesn't take much. I got the idea from Chad Dixon at LRI and this stuff is the shitz. Super thick and tacky and I've pulled barrels with over 2000 rounds and the stuff looks the same as when I applied it.

what beer you "cuttin" that grease with there in the corner???
stan

 

[GenePoole]

A lager from a local microbrew pub called Old Bakery Beer Co.

Old Bakery Beer Company

The Old Bakery Beer Company is a sustainable craft brewery located in downtown Alton, IL. All of our beers are made with 100% American, USDA-certified Organic malts and hops. Our restaurant and tasting room features a menu of seasonally-rotating sandwiches, salads, and soups, designed to pair well

www.oldbakerybeer.com

 

[AckleymanII]

If its machined right and the threads are clean you cant remove it by hand after a good snap. No issue at all doing this if its for yourself. Ive shot a bunch with snapped on barrels

Me too. Not uncommon in the mid 80's. Stood the butt on the ground, hold firm with both feet. With barrel almost tight, back off, wind it up in your hand, and snap it tight, hard and fast!

 

[INTJ]

All I know is that I used to just pop them a little with a wrench. The first LRBR match I shot with one of my rifles it didn't do well. It was a 300 WSM LG. Oh well, it didn't seem like a good fit for a light gun anyway.

Later at home I started to unscrew the muzzle break and the whole barrel came loose. Nowadays all tenons are greased and torqued to 75 ft lbs for competition rifles and 125 ft lbs for hunting rifles.

 

[std7mag]

I had a customer bring one in several yrs ago and after looking at it, getting the tenon specs, and machining a barrel I couldn't figure out how it loaded the threads beyond the initial tightening. So removed the pins locking the lug to the action face, tightened the barrel by hand and then torqued the lugs locking screw. I was going to try to measure the torque it required to unscrew the barrel but it came loose by hand with little more force than I put it on with.

There was a video floating around a few years ago where a shooter zero'd his rifle with a quick change "hand tight" type system and then "thunked" the barrel with a short 2x4 and moved the zero a significant amount. He then torqued the barrel and repeated the test with no movement.

I realize people don't go around intentionally hitting their rifle with stuff, but it's not an unreasonable situation for a hunting or tactical rifle.

 

[Gil P.]

That was not great test. It proved that breaking cinder blocks with a rifle barrel is bad for accuracy. And that proof barrels are bad? Both groups were big, or maybe the shooter was bad? We'll never know.

 

[Old Navy]

Youd be surprised to know the last few years they have been sending red grease out with their actions!!

For what purpose?

 

[AlNyhus]

"I never put barrels on very tight until I shot one year at the Nationals in Camillus, NY, way back in the '80s with a barrel that was loose. Apparently, riding in our pickup truck with our old camper, it vibrated enough to loosen it up. The gun just would not shoot accurately and I could not figure it out. When I came home and decided to take the barrel off, I put it in the barrel vise and found it was just barely on."

-Tony Boyer 'The Book Of Rifle Accuracy' page 185.

 

[jackieschmidt]

That was not great test. It proved that breaking cinder blocks with a rifle barrel is bad for accuracy. And that proof barrels are bad? Both groups were big, or maybe the shooter was bad? We'll never know.

I doubt the Target Audience for that video are the shooters who frequent Accurateshooter.com.