Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Action wrench for rem 700

Has anyone used the action wrench made by surgeon that takes a 1/2" ratchet?http://www.brownells.com/mobile/aspx/search/product.aspx?pid=26568

My experience is that they (the Surgeon-style) work fine for those barrels that have been off and on a few times - aka a switch-barrel rifle. For first-time barrel or really tight barrels, nothing beats the 'real deal'.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=25119/Product/REMINGTON-700-RIFLE-ACTION-WRENCH-HEAD

Read the reviews of the Surgeon on Brownells page.

Some Remington action won't hardly break lose using a Strong Arm Wrench

That is a good wrench for spinning a new barrel on an action. It would be a great way to muck up and action if you were trying to pry a 20 year old tube off.. WiFowlers link is the wrench you want if your removing factory tubes....

JMO

W

That's true . . . especially some of the newer models !

Mine is like WiFowler shows.

Found this one in a heap of junk:

Your barrel vise sucks.... It's way to small...

W

Like the added tab for the recoil lug. Simple and gets the wrench back a bit... What is the material in the vise? Is that wood on lead strips?

W

Bushings are brass. Barrel wrapped with a strip of file folder cardboard. No marring, even on blued barrels.

I have one of the Surgeon action wrenches that you ask about. It's not really worthy of more than 40 foot pounds of torque.

Wait till you see the big one 'ol Squatch uses for his Fat Mac builds.

Back to One Horn's question:

First you need to decide just what type of barrel work you will be acomplishing.

There is a lot of difference in wrenches and vises required for switch barrel guns, benchrest guns, and easy to assemble rifles such as the Savage, and the tooling required for military action work.

The old ugly military actions require a good bit of horsepower to remove the old barrels. And, if you are into big bore builds where the new barrels will never come off and should be set up tight, your tooling needs to be skookum. Forget about oak inserts and all that. Big heavy tooling makes the job quick and easy.

A little resin or powdered sugar works well in the barrel vise as well. Resin can be had from Brownell's, Midway, and in a pinch - the local sporting goods store in the form of resin bags for baseball.

I don't need rosin with my setup.

Good fitting bushings combined with "tight" vise bolts makes all the difference in the world.

40 Ft lbs? I have one of the Surgeons and it's been fine up to 90 ft lbs which is what I torque my actions

I torque to 100 and the Surgeon one flexs pretty bad right off so I aborted and use a Holland wrench for torqueing up.

Cabriolet, like that vise... Mine has 4 bolts and I hate it as you chase tight and I never feel like I get a good even grip...

w

Made my own.
Don't forget the soft shims.
Watch out for Rem700 & barrel galling.