Trying to help a friend with rebarreling his Stevens 110E (same as Savage). Even with a correct tool for removing the lock nut, cannot loosen it. We also noticed the recoil lug beneath the barrel and nut is slightly bent forward (viewed from the side) which doesn't seem right. The lug has a small detent that locks into a notch on the bottom front of the receiver. Is this normal?

Any ideas?

I'd recommend you go to the Savage Shooter's Forum--

http://www.savageshooters.net/

The small detent is normal, it locates the recoil lug and keeps it aligned as you install the barrel and nut.

Savage torques the barrel nuts on viciously. The normal method that I use now on new guns is:

Hold the action with the action wrench in a vice with padded jaws or HARDWOOD blocks.

Put the barrel nut wrench on the nut and whack it hard with a deadblow hammer. (A 2 Lb hammer works OK, but a deadblow works better)

Throw away the stock recoil lug (none of them are straight) install a replacement lug from Sharp Shooter Supply or another vendor.

get a fired case or a "Go" gage and screw the new barrel on until you feel it snug against the case/gage.

Torque the barrel nut on to about 30 LBS-FT, this will give you about .010" of stretch on the barrel threads and that much headspace on the "Go" gage.

There is a great step-by-step procedure for this on http://www.savageshooters.com

Let me second the need for an action vise. Luckily, an vise designed for a 700 action works great.

Anymore, I pay my smith $10 bucks to pop them loose. The last one I took over, he hit a couple of times with a small mallet, gave me a dirty look, and went to get a bigger hammer..... FWIW, Dutch.

I don't know how the nut gets on there so tight. I have been to the Savage plant, and watched an old man of (70) at least, tighten them on just enought to be "tight".
I asked him about it, and he said all they do is be tight and it pulls the barrel back just enough to chamber a cartridge.

Had the same problem. Wooden blocks wouldn"t work for me, so I ended up getting a barrel vise. While I was waiting for the vise to come in, I stood the barreled action on end (action down) and put a few drops of Kroil oil around the top of the nut. Did this again after a couple of days. After the vise came in, I put the barrel in it tightened it down and hit the nut wrench with a dead blow hammer and it came off fine.