I am looking for recommendations for good barrel vise and action wrench. I will be using on Rem. 700's mostly. I have seen the type that use hydrolic jacks and also anywhere from 2 to 6 1/2" bolts that clamp steel bars over wood, steel, and aluminum blocks. As well as using rosin, lead, and brass shim material. I don't want to go broke but also and worse yet would be buy something that doesn't work well.

Any input will be appreciated! Thanks!

Well, I use the type which has the two large bolts. You insert hardwood blocks inside the vise, and line the blocks with aluminium strips . It works OK, you just have to ensure that the vise is VERY securely mounted. The first time I mounted it on a wooden bench, and it worked alright until I hit one stubborn barrel, and I managed (with a cheater bar) to rip the whole thing loose. It's mounted on steel pipe cemented into the floor now, which works well. You can buy them from Brownells or Midway for not too much money. I have never tried the hydraulic ones, I figured I could control the clamping forces to a much finer degree with the bolts. FWIW - Dan

I made my own.
I takes time to bore through 2x2" steel, but it is satisfying.

I have about 6 wrenches, 3 home made and 3 otherwise. The best commercial one is made by Cliff LaBounty in Maple Falls WA. It used to be sold by Brownells but I don't see it in there anymore. It has a large bent loop that fits over the action and uses a steel shim in the bottom that becomes the handle. No bolts to tighten and you can ruin an action if you overly tighten them. There is a special peice for the Remingtons.

Cliff's business is fitting barrels and reboring. He built this to make the better mouse trap and he succeeded very well.

My barrel vise is from Brownells and it mounted on a pedestal. The bushings were bought.

Chic Worthing

For flat bottom receivers I use the Wilcox type that I built myself. for thew barrels I use the Brownells barrel vise with custom bushings that I have made over the years. Here is a photo of one I built for Remington receivers. The image on the right shows the wrench locked into a Rem 700 receiver ring from the rear. You can see the feed ramp at the bottom of the photo.

The tool is a bit larger than life size. I beleave the larger the tool the easier it is to use the weight & leverage of the tool to do the work & you can control(FEEL) what you are doing better.
Doug Humbarger

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NRA Life member

Chic,
I was pouring over Sweeney's Gunsmithing book last weekend at B&N and noticed that he showed this LaBouny action wrench in use in some of the pictures. I had never seen one but it sure looks like a slick way to go.
Jeff P

Does any one have a picture of a wrench that fits a mauser?
Has any one used a wrench like this on a mauser?

Thanks,
Scout....

I thought it worth the effort of showing the LaBounty wrench on here. The bushing for the Remington is beside it. It is fairly easy to see how it works. The speed of use of one of these is so much faster than the bolt type.

I have also posted 4 others, two like bear claws, actually 6 since there is one on each end of the two, a model 70 and a 98 on one and a rem 700 and a Sako on the other.

In looking at the LaBounty wrench it looks like there is a cutout on the bottom for the recoil lug. I am not sure but do I also see a hole in the strap for a bolt to be screwed into the front action screw hole?

Also, things seem to be split between the wrap around wrenches and inside wrenches. But I also detect that the outside wrenches are used for the really tough stuff while the inside wrenches are mostly used after the factory barrel has been replaced or at least removed once, am I correct?

GREAT INFO!

Byron, a picture is worth a thousand........

The recoil lug just goes against the large wedge/handle. The band just slips over the action and the wedge goes in to the slots on the side. The flat wedges against the flat on the bottom of the action. When used on a Remington the shim piece goes against the round action with the flat out.

I use the one in the photo for both. Either type works fine. One advantage to the inside type is that there is no chance of marring the finish. The other is that it will not slip on around on the reciever like a outside set-up might do when you run into a real tight barrel. It's like that box of Forest Gump had. You don't know what you're going ot get till you bite into it. Well you never know how tight the barrel is till you start puling on the wrench. I've run into Remington barrels that were dog tight & then into Rugers that when you started pulling on the wrench it almost from you hands from its own weight! the toughest barrel I have ever encountered was on a British 303 Endfield. Broke my vise on that one.

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NRA Life member

You have mentioned that the inside wrench does not mare the exterior of the receiver. Has it damaged any thing else?
Now, who has the best deals out there if I wanted to buy these tools?

No problem there either scout. If you make your own you just need to make it as snug fitting as possible. You want ZERO play in it when you lock it into the front of the receiver.

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NRA Life member

So it sounds like the LaBounty action wrench is only available from Cliff these days? Any idea on price? JP

Pfeifer,
I just called Cliff and he said he is the only source right now. They are $90 and you can reach him at 360 599 2047. He will have a booth at the NRA show this year.

He did say that he suspects that Brownells stopped selling them because it was hurting their sales of their wrenches. Most people did not they even existed unless they saw them in the catalog.

Chic Worthing

[This message has been edited by Customstox (edited 03-06-2002).]

I too was facinated when I saw the Labounty action wrench in Sweeny's book on rifle smithing.
Here is a link to Labounty.
http://benchrest.com/sst/labounty.html
It looks like the guy is located in Maple Falls WA, which is the last gas station on the way to Mt Baker [very remote].

I have three , make that four action wrenches and make all except the last one. They fit Mausers, Remingtons and springfields. The springfield one is the only one that is used only on them. The others are somewhat universal except for the last. It is a 15" crescent, adjustable jaw wrench that I us on Sakos, and Ruber #1s, padded of course. The Remington one has an integral cut in the front to align the recoil lug when reinstalling a barrel.

I made my Remington 700 action vise like the old factory action vise prints they gave us in the 80's

I took a 2 x 3 x 4" block of 1018 steel, bored a hole in one side 1.355 dia. This is just over the dia of the receiver. You drill a "F" hole to line up with the fron guard screw. You mill one side to line up with factory lug. On the other side you split it and clamp with two 3/8" bolts. I drilled the thick side for a handle of one inch stock 18" long.

You slide the receiver in, line up the front guard screw and snug the 3/8" bolts. make sure the lug will not butt against the bottom of the recess. Tighten the 3/8" bolts and you are ready to tighten the barrel.

We have used this wrap around stlye for years.

Jim Wisner

(Note: I should have edited this before I posted)I think mine is about the same; I did it from an idea, I did not have a print, but it sure works. The recoil lug lines up beautifully every time. Mine was made with a piece of hot roll, 1" x 4" x 6" and has a shank turned on one end to accept a piece of 1" pipe for leverage. Have never hurt a receiver with this or the 15" crescent. I would be interested to know what kind of a wrench the fraternity uses on the Ruger #1 or the Sakos. As for the barrel vise, mu son made it for me at a class at Vo-Tec out of two pieces of mild steel 4 x 4 x 2 bolted together with 1/2"-14 allen head cap screws and with a hole bored in the middle utilizing 1 1/2" aluminum bushings. It is mounted on a 4" H-beam anchored to the floor with concrete anchors.

ALso, at the risk of extending this thread beyond reasonable limits, I have for sale a floating reamer holder, can't quite remember the type right now, was touted by Jim Borden as the ultimate one, and it don't work worth a $hit for me; I don't trust it. I think it is a Bald Eagle one. Anyone want to try it?

As for the internal wrenches previously posted, one word of caution; make sure they extend into the front receiver ring evenly, or better yet, do not bear on the rear bridge area. You run the risk of twisting the receiver.

[ 09-26-2003, 18:04: Message edited by: Jim Kobe ]

Well, I thought about building an action wrench many times....then I just took a piece of SAE660 bronze and made a split tapered sleeve about 3" long to fit a Rem 700 magnum barrel contour.It has about a 2" OD. Then I made a rear entry action wrench with a pilot on the back which slides into a bushing I put in a 3/4" drill chuck in the tailstock of our 24"x120" Mazak lathe.You can't twist the receiver out of shape with the wrench supported on the back end. The wrench has a 1/2" hole thru it in which I slide a long tapered punch.I chuck the barrel up in the brass bushing in a large 4 jaw,put the headstock in neutral and use it as a flywheel by turning it by hand to pop the barrel loose with the punch up agains the toolpost or the cross-slide.Just as easy putting them on.I just use a level across the magazine cutout and the bottom of the recoil lug to line it up.I've done three this way now.If you have a big enough lathe with a 4 jaw chuck this works great.I don't think the average three jaw chuck will grip tight enough unless it's a bigger one,maybe a 16" or bigger would work.