Those of you that work on lever actions how do you set up to tighten the barrel? Do you use a barrel vice and action wrench? How do you keep from crushing or twisting the action? I am not sure if I have the barrel on tight enough and am afraid I will screw up the action with too much torque.

You don't say exactly what action you are dealing with but, generally speaking, I use the same barrel vice and an outside action wrench. I use a spacer block inside the receiver to support it to be sure it doesn't crush. Some lever action barrels are a bit small so you have to be a bit careful with the barrel vice as well. Regards, Bill.

Its model 94. I am putting a tapered octagon barrel on it. I was not sure of the best way to hold each and not damage the flats on the barrel or twist the action. Thanks for the help.

I made a set of tapered V-blocks to the hold the barrels on lever guns. The blocks are marked with an M and B (Muzzle / Breech) so I get the correct orientation so that when my bench vice pulls up tight the outsides of the blocks are parallel.

The tape is just to help me control both blocks and the barrel and run the bench vice with out dropping anything.

The action wrench I made for lever guns is a steel box wrench that I custom form polymer shoes to fit the individual action. The ones in the pic are for a Winchester 92.





I also have a wooden (maple) set of boxes for holding the barrel extensions on Winchester 97's and M12's. In that case the box wrench is held in the bench vice and I use a barrel vice I made that has a handle on it. (the one on the left) The one on the right is for clamping a round barrel and turning the receiver.


Or they can be used on "double round" work. The bushings shown in the wrenches are for clamping a tapered Ruger MKI target barrel in the right hand clamp and clamping the receiver in the left hand clamp.




Both wrenches take 1 3/8" bar-stock clamp bushings.


I hope the above helps.
Rusty