My Barrel Suddenly Unthreaded

[Morning Wood]

I have about 12 hours in this rifle trying to get it back to original condition. Lately I posted my exploits of hunting down Savage parts and then refinishing the wood. Well, as it was, I couldn't sleep last night. I was up about 4am and was looking for something to do. I decided to go down and start a detailed cleaning on the barrel receiver. I got it all lathered up in Hoppes #9 and was brushing away, when all of a sudden the barrel works loose from the receiver. I mean it was like taking a cap off of a diet coke. Initially, I had to laugh. The old video of the two guys talking about a ship saying "the front fell off" came to mind. Then, the heartache set in.

OK, so where am I with this thing. It times perfect when it stops threading by hand. So if I try to cinch it, It's gonna overtime. How much torque is supposed to be applied in setting the barrel? Do they make breeching washer for Enfields? Is that even viable. I have no barrel mounting tools. It's actually a pretty decent barrel in terms of erosion, but now I'm sure it was a replacement barrel at some point. Should I just sell the parts and start over.

Help me out here guys. Give me your best ideas.

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[tbonesmith]

It likely could be reinstalled with a breeching up washer and the right gear... BDL???

[Peter Laidler]

Be warned out there, breeching up washers on their own won't (?) solve anything. You have just encountered something I mentioned in a thread a fre weeks ago regarding barrel and body threads made to toleranced drawings.......... but I digress.

If you breech up now using shims, say, an .006" shim cut accurately to size and threaded onto the barrel thread, then you have effectively INCREASED your CHS by .006". This is what you have to do:

All is not lost but the answer is going to take an hour or two. While you are at the breeching up station, just keep trying the 20 or so barrels in the rack until you get the best fit with an 8 degree or so underturn and use this one. But the chances are that unlike big Armourers shops, you won't have such a large selection - or even one extra....... So now, measure the gap that you have between the breeching up face and the body when the barrel is underturned by 8 or so degrees. Let's say that it comes to .010". Now machine up a breeching-up washer to .110" and then machine .100 off the breeching up shoulder of the barrel

Common sense will now tell you that with the barrel screwed in hand tight it will underturn but will index/align when tightened up. Furthermore, there is no chance of your thin home made shim rucking up or splitting

I won't tell you how to accurately torque up your barrel on a surface plate as it's already been covered in an earlier thread. But there are your four options
1) use a large selection of barrels
2) hammer a shoulder around the breeching up face of the barrel
3) bodge it with a thin shim
4) do it properly by machining a wide breeching up washer and machining away the barrel to suit

Obviously I have simplified things but what you have is a classic example of a low/high toleranced barrel being fitted to a high/low toleranced body. Something that any budding barrel maker ought to be aware of.

[Homer]

Peter if you use a breeching up washer like you've just described, what happens to the ejector groove.

[Peter Laidler]

On a No4, the breeching up washer will be placed between the breeching up shoulder of the barrel and the body. IN other words, the new washer slips OVER the threaded part of the barrel so leaves the extractor way unimpeded.

I just assumed that Morning was talking about a No4 because he was looking for Savage parts

[jmoore]

...I won't tell you how to accurately torque up your barrel on a surface plate as it's already been covered in an earlier thread. But there are your four options

1) use a large selection of barrels
2) hammer a shoulder around the breeching up face of the barrel...

Too funny that, as I've been "knee deep" in M14 barreling jobs lately, and the second option not only works, but it's been often employed by Springfield Armory, Inc. to fit GI barrels to their receivers. As long as one doesn't rotate the barrel too far (requiring a bit of unscrewing) it works fine, and that's on a semi-auto. Done well, it's not unsightly either.

The stupid thing is that I've reused two barrels previously peened and then pulled for whatever reason and installed them on a receiver which tends to "unpeen" the shoulder as it's apparently longer up front than whatever those barrels were on previously.

Peening is a no cost option that may work great! If not, you can always fall back on the thick breeching up washer.

BTW, I use highly polished hammer faces when peening. With patience and the right technique it won't do more than shine up a blued or phosphated finish. Can't hardly tell it's been done.

[Peter Laidler]

Oooooops.......... I hope everyone realised that I was being VERY tongue in cheek when I suggested peening around the breeching up shoulder. Not a thing that I'd do - ever!

[Morning Wood]

Peter, If you could post a link or give the title of to the "how to accurately torque up your barrel on a surface plate" thread, I'd be appreciative.

[Morning Wood]

Oops, double post.

[Peter Laidler]

I'm someone who is more computer literate will bring it up but unless you have some serious breeching up kit and the correct stuff, then my advice would be to leave the breeching up to an expert