I was flicking through my new Sinclair catalog and noticed a Davidson action wrench & barrel holder for Winchester, Remington, Nesika & etc and it also said not for use on factory barrel's.
Well I'm in the process of sending rifle (Win 70 classic) to Gre-tan and I was thinking that having the Davidson set-up would be "ideal" for me so I could switch barrels for different uses instead of buying new rifles and paying for gunsmithing services.
So here my questions, what is required for this set up? Any disadvantages?

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Unless you had extra stocks the barrels would need to be the same countour...the chamberings in each barrel would need to have the same head-size...other than than building a switch-barrel rifle isn't a big deal...just tell Greg what you want and he will do the appropriate recoil lug. You made a good choice on a 'smith.

I haven't looked at the Sinclair catelog but, normally their action wrench and Barrel vice are built for benchrest. The reason they say no Factory is they don't have the strength to break them free. Once that is done you shouldn't have a problem. I have several 98s I use for swap barrels. I either take the action out and use my equipment at home or I've done it in the field with an action wrench and a strap wrench for the barrel. Best to have the same contour for looks. If you bed the chanmber it is critical that demension is the same. I can go from .257 to .375 on the same action and stock.

[This message has been edited by ramrod340 (edited 02-22-2002).]

Something which is wise to have around if you are going to have a switch barrel system is a set of GO/No-Go gages to use when switching barrels. Some people claim they are not necessary if you have line up marks but I like to check things out every few times anyway. Also, with a switch barrel system all the different cartridges must fit the same bolt face, unless you have multiple bolts and feed thru the magazine properly.
I have two switch barrel rifles.
One is a short action that originally started out as a 243 Winchester and has extra barrels in 22-250 Ack. Imp. and 308 Winchester with another in a couple of months in 6mm BR or perhaps 260 Remington.
The other rifle, which I haven't actually used for a number of years started out as a 300 Win. Mag. and has a 7mm Rem. Mag. barrel and a 350 Rem. Mag. barrel. The reasoning for the 350 Rem. Mag. barrel was so I could load up some 110 grain pistol bullets for cheap practice without the recoil.
The setup works well, as the shotgun guys have proven thru the years. The downside is that a couple of times I have gotten to the range and had one caliber of bullets and another caliber barrel in teh rifle. Oops.

Ramrod, how much scope re-zeroing would you expect to go through changing from one barrel to another? I've always longed for a switch barrel setup but was always leary of it.

A slightest zero change, no matter how small or how big, will require re-zeroeing of the rifle.

Ray, I'm sorry I missed your post. For the most part the rezero is very minor. No more than changing a load or switching bullets. I've found really no difference between doing the change in the stock or out as long as you have a good glassbedding job. If you have a good scope that repeats it's adjustments you can switch and not even fire a shot in many cases. The majority of the adjustment is simply elevation one direction or another. There is normally very little windage involved. Most of the time I swap at home. Go to the range and fire 1-2 groups at the most to check. If I'm taking more than one barrel to the field I have a little cheat sheet which allows me to make the scope adjustments and be comfortable that it will hit in the right place.

My favorite combination to take is my 257 (100 gr) & 338 (210 gr) wildcats. They will both print 2" high at 100 with no scope changes and the switch takes less that 5 minutes. I loosen the front screw. Stick an action wrench in and use a strap wrench to unscrew and install the new barrel and tighen the screw back down. If you don't bed any of the barrel (on a mauser I've had the best luck with bedding the flat area of the chamber) then you don't even have to loosen the screw. To set the barrel use a repeatable procedure. I run the barrel up snug. Back off about 1/4 turn and snap it back tight. I've never had one come lose.

Has anyone built a switch barrel rifle with interrepted threads (I think that's right) that can be switched in the field? If so, what did it cost for that conversion?

That is the type of system that the HS Precision takedown rifles have. You might take a look at their website to see how proud they are of them.

1-pointer.
I've seen what you are talking about. Match Grade arms here in Houston had a simplier version. Instead of needing a wrench to make the barrel tight they make a system where you run the barrel up hand tight then use a Allen head set screw type arrangement to hold it in place it both keeps it from backing out but indexes it as well. The set screw sets in an indentation in the barrel threads. Last I checked it was not much to set the action up and no incremental cost to the normal barrel fitting charge. I have never used it so I can not give you any first hand results.