Thought scope was at fault -- Loose Barrel!

[Mikemontminy]

Shot a match last weekend. When shooting my sighters I was about 30” low at 600 yards. Had to add an additional 5” to my normal elevation adjustment to get my shots back on center. Wasn’t shooting as consistent as normal either. After I got home from the match I started looking things over and found the barrel had come loose. After tightening it back up things went back to normal and shot two perfect scores the following day at a club match. I remember the same thing happening to another shooter while shooting F-Class about a year ago and never thought to check my barrel when I was shooting low. The barrel had backed off just enough that I could turn it freely by hand. I now have an index mark as a quick reference so it doesn’t happen again. I also checked the shoulders on my brass to see if they had grown more then normal but they hadn’t. Any one else have this happen to them while shooting.

 

[jackieschmidt]

I would venture a guess that the vast majority of shooters know that a properly torqued barrel has very little chance of “backing off” during firing.

The fact that yours did indicates that you are not tightening the barrel to proper tension.

Through the years, I have helped several shooters cure what ailed their Rifle by the simple act of tightening the barrel.

Which leads to the question, how tight are you installing your barrels?

 

[Mikemontminy]

I would venture a guess that the vast majority of shooters know that a properly torqued barrel has very little chance of “backing off” during firing.

The fact that yours did indicates that you are not tightening the barrel to proper tension.

Through the years, I have helped several shooters cure what ailed their Rifle by the simple act of tightening the barrel.

Which leads to the question, how tight are you installing your barrels?

I never checked the barreled action after it came back from my gunsmith. I have about 1100 rounds fired on that barrel before it came loose. As far as torque goes my torque wrench doesn’t adapt to my action wrench so I can’t put a number on it. All I know is I tightened it up as much as I felt comfortable doing and will keep an eye on it. I also use a barrel cooling device between relays and wonder if cooling it down quickly could have contributed to the barrel coming loose. The cooling device is an air mattress pump inside a cooler filled with ice packs with surgical tubing inserted into the action.

 

[okie]

some little index marks on barrel/lug/nut etc. make it easy to check...

 

[TAJ45]

I saw this happen to the Famous Henry Rivers at our home range. Abt 2013.

 

[billlarson]

How time should a barrel be put on...???
Bill

 

[SG4247]

I hate it when the barrel does that!

Guy I was spotting for at a match, shot a smiley face, he is like wth?

I said check your barrel, sure enough it was loose.

 

[INShooter]

For any shooter that changes his own barrels a barrel vice, action wrench and torque wrench that fit are definitely needed.

 

[Shooter13]

How time should a barrel be put on...???
Bill

Mine torque at 75 ft lbs

 

[Will Henry]

When barrels become loose after a number of shots, it is not usually because the barrel has "backed off". It is usually because the threads, which were not a precise fit, have deformed enough to loosen the joint. By "not a precise fit", I don't mean they were loose but that the angle or even the pitch was a little off or the thread was tapered minutely. If the compound was set a little wrong or the tool ground a little wrong, this can happen. Setting the barrel up tight, the first time, can give a better fit. WH

 

[HTSmith]

I do mine at 80 ft lb. That is what my gunsmith recommended. Jackie what do you recommend? Thanks.

 

[PRR1957]

I would venture a guess that the vast majority of shooters know that a properly torqued barrel has very little chance of “backing off” during firing.

The fact that yours did indicates that you are not tightening the barrel to proper tension.

Through the years, I have helped several shooters cure what ailed their Rifle by the simple act of tightening the barrel.

Which leads to the question, how tight are you installing your barrels?

Just how tight is a barrel supposed to be tightened to ?

I have replaced barrels on a few bolt guns and was told for Remingtons or any clone to tighten to between 25-35 ft.-lbs.
I’m not sure what a Savage or a remage should be tightened to, but figure it should be the same somewhere between 25-35 ft.-lbs or so also.

 

[LVLAaron]

two ugga duggas

 

[jepp2]

I’m not sure what a Savage or a remage should be tightened to, but figure it should be the same somewhere between 25-35 ft.-lbs or so also.

Don't know about Savage, but Greg at SPR says:

Recommended torque values:

• Custom actions, or Remingtons trued by SPR: 70 Ft-Lbs
  
  
• Factory actions: 80-100 Ft-Lbs
  

 

[carlsbad]

There are pretty much 2 or perhaps 2.5 schools of thought on this. Many if not most are in the 75 to 100 ft lb school.

2nd school is those who like light torque and they generally don't have problems with their barrels coming off--perhaps 25 to 30 ft lbs as described.

The 3rd small group which I will call a part of the first group are those who want it really tight "so it won't move", perhaps 150 to 200 ft lbs...yikes.

There are the stories of the benchresters with their switch barrels who spin them on by hand and let the momentum seat them when they spin tight. I'm guessing most barrels that come loose were seated like this and then they forgot to torque it.

--Jerry

 

[snert]

I had this happen to my PPC. Suddenly went 5 inches low at 300 yards. I thought I smacked the scope. I took it to the range, re-zeroed. When I lifted it off the bench, I felt the barrel "give". DUH moment. I hand tightened it and lo and behold, it was now shootng high. I took it back to the original setting, and it was zeroed. The frustrating part was I had assumed it was tight. When I had my smith tighten it, all my brass was too tight! GRRRR

 

[dgeesaman]

Torque itself is an indirect way to verify a threaded joint it properly tight (axially tensioned).

When the threads are clean and accurate, then torque represents the pretension in the joint. It should spin smoothly by hand until the very end when the shoulder bottoms out and takes on torque. All good.

The problem is when something else causes torque to build up. Dirt, a burr, galling, etc. It seems to be unlikely in this case but it’s something to keep in mind.

 

[JMayo]

I tighten using the 3 bump with rubber hammer rule .. so far getting them off has been tough.

 

[carlsbad]

I tighten using the 3 bump with rubber hammer rule .. so far getting them off has been tough.

Make sure you use a calibrated hammer.

 

[Mikemontminy]

I haven’t seen loctite mentioned for barrel retention. Would that make it too difficult to remove the barrel when needed.