OK I know this has been cussed and discussed to no end but I want to ask again.

When removing a Mauser barrel one should always use an action wrench, but do you need a barrel vise or will a bench vise with padded jaws work?

I make oak wooden blocks roughly to fit the barrel contour and rosen in the blocks and almost always the barrel comes off without damage.

That said, I have several 8 X 57 milsurp barrels with pipewrench marks on them because I rsorted to that to remove them.

It's of no consequence as I don't attempt to reuse them.....tomato stakes at most.

It depends on the barrel and the vise!

Yeah if you have a good vise that is solidly mounted it should work just fine, as Vapodog says make some bushings out of wood and use rosin on them (if you don't have any rosin I heard someone here say powdered sugar works just as well, just don't get caught stealing it with dirty hands!)

Otherwise make the vise out of some 3/8" X 2" metal with some 5/8" or larger bolts.If you use a 4-5 foot section of I beam for the bottom strap you can leave it on the floor and not worry about twisting your bench.

if one makes a channel cut out of oak the channel should run perpendicular to the direction of the grain....and it really is important that this happen.

I'll not say how I know this, but if you don't plan on using the barrel again you can get by without a vise of any kind--but if you're not extremely careful you could twist the action.

Here're two ways I've seen:

First way is to clamp the action wrench in a stout vise and use a good sized pipe wrench to turn the barrel off.

Second way doesn't use a vise at all. Put the action wrench on the action and a medium size pipe wrench on the barrel placed so you can set the thing on the floor. You may want to put it on a piece of carpet or a rug. Then, with one quick motion, stomp on the pipe wrench handle--viola; barrel comes off.

Thirty years ago when people were much younger these practices were quite common but I haven't seen them done in a very long time

I would really like to save the barrels. They may not all be mil-surp, but even those will bring a dollar or two on Ebay. I need everything I can get to complete projects.

Wes,

In my opinion a bench vise had better be really sturdy for what you are considering. Some of those Mauser barrels can be really stubborn. I'm not sure you can get a bench vise tight enough for some without damaging it. I guess it depends a lot on the size and robustness of your vise. You are better of with a proper barrel vise.

If you are not keeping the barrel then just cut a relief groove just forward of the receiver and you can un-screw the barrel with your hand.

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
If you are not keeping the barrel then just cut a relief groove just forward of the receiver and you can un-screw the barrel with your hand.

Most if not all Mausers are tightened against the inner ring and cutting the relief groove may not help at all. It certainly will destroy the value of the barrel unless you grow tomatoes.

quote:

Originally posted by duikerman:

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
If you are not keeping the barrel then just cut a relief groove just forward of the receiver and you can un-screw the barrel with your hand.

Most if not all Mausers are tightened against the inner ring and cutting the relief groove may not help at all. It certainly will destroy the value of the barrel unless you grow tomatoes.

What about the pre-98s of which millions were made? They all have no inner ring?

Pegleg, you are correct in that trick does work well on actions where the barrel shoulder only contacts the receiver ring face. It does not work on 98's though.

I have a steel pipe sunk three feet into the cement floor in my shop and my barrel vice is bolted to a plate with a pipe welded to it that slides down into into the other one. Some Mausers and about all 1917 Enfields are tight enough to require a pretty bomb proof set up to remove them.

I made the pipe rig after I popped the top corner up on my work bench trying to remove an Enfield barrel one time by just clamping the barrel in my bench vice in a set of bushings.

The rosin made all the difference in the world to me. I went to the local music store and bought a small block of the rosin, then scraped some off like powder with my pocket knife blade. Never even marred the barrel. Before trying the rosin I could not get the barrel to quit slipping in the oak blocks. Thanks...Bill.

At times cutting the military barrel on a M98 right in front of the reciever face WILL allow you to get it off. Speaking from experience here, and know many others who have the exact same experience.

Think of all of the Mausers ever made and God only knows how many touched on both inner ring and action face, action face only, and inner ring only. Who knows how many had just a skosh of clearance between the barrel and action face and it has a lot of corrosion right there today.

Yes Virgina, cutting the barrel right in front of the action face will at times allow you to unscrew the barrel, even on M98's.

I don't think I'll have too much trouble with the vise being big enough or the bench stout enough. We have a pretty big vise and bench in the ranch shop. I am going to try it as soon as my action wrench arrives on a couple of VZ-24's. If the barrels are marred it won't be the end of the world and I'll invest in a barrel vise for future use.

To report on my experiment.

I successfully removed the barrels without damage to the actions. A few taps of a rubber mallet spun one off and a cheater on the action wrench removed the other. The vise and bench stayed put. I had no doubts about that. You should see that bench. We had to place it with a front end loader. I'll get a picture.

Now for the damage report on the barrels. I used a piece of rubber baler belting for padding. The barrels took no visible damage but I screwed up the rear sights on both beyond repair. I was too lazy to figure out how to take them off. I think I'll get a proper barrel vise for future use on other rifles.

I purchased the Wheeler Engineering Action Wrench from Midway USA. It was different than the Brownell's one that my gunsmith has but seemed to work as well. Has anyone else used these?

FYI
on military mauser barrels, the rear site is soldered on, so a torch helps the removal process. I have been converting my old mauser 8mm barrels to pry bars, and they work well. Just my $0.02 wk

quote:

Originally posted by Marc_Stokeld:
At times cutting the military barrel on a M98 right in front of the reciever face WILL allow you to get it off. Speaking from experience here, and know many others who have the exact same experience.

Think of all of the Mausers ever made and God only knows how many touched on both inner ring and action face, action face only, and inner ring only. Who knows how many had just a skosh of clearance between the barrel and action face and it has a lot of corrosion right there today.

Yes Virgina, cutting the barrel right in front of the action face will at times allow you to unscrew the barrel, even on M98's.

Marc,
You are not very convincing. The 98 military barrel ahead of the threads is the same diameter as the thread major diameter. There is nothing there to bear against the receiver.

quote:

do you need a barrel vise

A barrel vise WILL make life MUCH easier AND you will NEVER regret investing in one.

I just pulled 5 random take-off M98 barrels from under my grinding bench. 5 out of 5 are a larger diameter after the threads.

Even if the barrel diameter was the same as the major thread diameter, you can't keep screwing it into the reciever forever. The barrel will stop when the face of the barrel hits the inner ring on the reciever or when the male thread diameter barrel hits the front of the reciever. Whichever comes first.