I have an older tang safety Ruger 77 in .35 Whelen and was looking at the possibility of using it as a switch barrel gun. I was looking at a .280AI or a 6.5-06AI as a long range deer rig. Since the Ruger uses a fixed lug would it be as simple as having the barrels and action marked for proper indexing or would I have to use headspace gages each time I made the switch? I would use it most of the year as the Whelen for pigs but would swap it out for deer season. I also thought with the Ruger rings it would be easy to keep a different scope set up to be switched over based on the barrel used.

Todd

You can put a witness mark on your receiver and factory barrel. Then fit and finish a second barrel and witness mark it. Providing you have access to an action wrench and barrel vise you can interchange the barrels at will as long as you line up the witness marks.

Many bench rest and target shooters do this and fit the barrels so they dont require much torque to mate them up. Then they build a small light action wrench and barrel vise that they can carry to the gun range and clamp to a bench with ordinary C clamps and switch barrels when ever the mood strikes them.

One caveat is if you switch back and forth a lot you will eventually loosen the thread fit and the barrel will rotate too far before it seats.

Thank you Craftsman, thats the info I was looking for.

Unless you have a rather large gorilla snapping your barrel in place on a properly made switch barrel you would not in a thousand years see the barrel threads loosen up.

Jim is correct, I think. I have been changing barrels on BR rifles for a long time and have yet to see threads "loosen up". I have one action that I expect has seen over a hundred barrel changes and the threads and action face look like new. I don't use witness marks either.
Just my experience..