Things to do before you screw on your new barrel?

[broncman]

Got my shillen in for my Savage PTA today! This is my first custom barrel I will do myself. Others were done by smiths. So, beside cleaning with a patch , cleaning threads etc, what do you guys do to new barrels? Just cleanem up, screw on, headspace, tighten barrel nut and go shoot the recomended break in?

Ken

 

[Cort]

That is pretty close to what I do; however, be sure to put anti-seize on the threads before you screw the barrel into the action.

Cort

 

[nosualc]

+1 on anti-sieze

after taking out the old barrel, clean the lug mating surfaces from the open end. Amazing what ends up in there.

-nosualc

 

[M-61]

Just finished my first..Savage.I just made sure everything was clean, anti-seize on threads and a lot of tries getting the headspace right. First one so I wasn't expecting it to go so smoothly. I see yours is a Savage also, so one thing I checked was the forward scope base screw. That is not a blind hole and I wanted to be sure that screw did not touch the barrel threads. Put the base on, screwed it down and this is the one chance without a barrel installed that you can see (feel) if that screws comes through the action into the barrel threads. ( It doesn't but it is close)

 

[jonbearman]

I am assuming you have a nut wrench and reciever wrencg? While you tighten using the go gage ,back the barrel off slightly because when you tighten the wrench tends to drag the barrel a bit while final tightening with a dead blow hammer.

 

[broncman]

Aaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhh!..... :'(

So, I got everything ready, installed barrel and used the gogauge, backed up a slight hair and tightened everything down.......drop in a dummy round minus primer and it would not extract! No feel at all....

Inspected everything and noticed a slight groove on the face of the extracter. The extracter did not slide over the lip of the steel gogauge so headspace was way off... So, removed extractor....piiiiinnng....spring shoots across the room. Finally found it.

Reset headspace, tightened nut, reinstalled extractor. Everything felt great so I try one of my dummy rounds that the barrel was chambered for and it would NOT chamber from the single feed trough! Ugggghhhh!!!

After further inspection, the breech entrance had little to no chamfer at all! With the much longer 215 berger, it has to align faster and would catch in the lip of the case. The factory barrel has a nice chamfer.

So, I put the darn thing up for the evening. Will pull the barrel tomorrow and chuck it up in the lathe and add the chamfer...

Ken

 

[M-61]

I damaged an extractor.....same thing fail to extract.....mark on extractor. Midways stocks them.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/107108/savage-arms-extractor-top-loading-all-calibers
They also stock the ball http://www.midwayusa.com/product/149221/savage-arms-extractor-detent-ball-top-loading-all-calibers
The spring they sent me which was supposed to ft does not. It is way too long (maybe I got a mis-packaged one) but there was nothing wrong with the one I had.
I ordered an extra two balls as I pictured these things flying across the room never to be found.
Bottom line the go gauge was what I think ruined the extractor. Now I remove the extractor, insert gauge, set the headspace and in the end I wound up using a pencil magnet to withdraw the gauge. If the vise was in a different location a cleaning rod would have worked but I prefer the magnet.
All of the above is my assumptions (gauge ruining extractor)...based on my own experience. Since I want to switch barrels having the extra extractor detent balls is not a bad idea. I never even heard it hit any where at all.

 

[jonbearman]

Ptg grinds a relief for the ejector so you can snap it in and leave it.I have a forster and I ground a small relief for clearance to miss the ejector and it works flawless.

 

[Tnslim]

Be sure to check for freefloat clearance and take nothing for granted on any part of your build. Check and double check everything you can think of.

 

[M-61]

Ptg grinds a relief for the ejector so you can snap it in and leave it.I have a forster and I ground a small relief for clearance to miss the ejector and it works flawless.

Do you remove the bolt and snap the gauge into it? Is that the way it works? Sure would beat removing the extractor and ball.

 

[RHux]

I remove the plunger and insert the go gauge under the extractor and guide it in.