Thread: Switch barrel : any experience ?

Good god @ChrisF. I like you reviews of scopes and things but you appear to have a hard on for a rifle you have ZERO experience with and regularly bang on about it. Come up with some real proof for once aye.

It's funny 'cos there's people on the internet quoting his posts about a plastic washer holding the action together or some such as fact

Gimp, if it is on the interweb somewhere it HAS to be true

Had a think about your Leupy question, you might need to use a bit of duct tape before sending it in for warrantee repairs... On second thought, maybe you should buy a mega roll

Originally Posted by Callum

A switch barrel rifle a mate has just brought is a very easy set up, the receiver end of the barrel has been milled so that a truck sparkplug wrench will go over it, a piece of aluminium put into a vice that sits in the ejection port of the action holds it still, just a matter of unscrewing one barrel and screwing a new one in to the right torque. takes about 5 mins.

Cool, what calibers and what is the action ?

Originally Posted by gimp

It's funny 'cos there's people on the internet quoting his posts about a plastic washer holding the action together or some such as fact

If it breaks can I just get another one from the plumbing shop?

Originally Posted by Barefoot

If it breaks can I just get another one from the plumbing shop?

you'd probably want to take the bolt out of your eye first.

Easy peezy....
Buy headspace gauges for calibers.. Get barrels externally threaded and fit Savage style barrel nuts.
Screw onto gauge, do up external nut and nip - job done
Mitch Max has a long tube nut for doing the barrels up on his tube guns.. Could go that way or just a std savage spanner

Originally Posted by gimp

Think Leupold would honour the warranty on the scope?

Probably... worth a crack Nigel....

Originally Posted by ChrisF

Because I donot like them .

After talking to a couple of smiths with alot of experience , UK & Germany , they said they have good barrels & usually shoot accurately , but most other parts are cheap .
the German smith said , a large police unit guarding airports in Germany , brought a number of their tac rifles , and returned them 3 times as they would not constantly hold a zero over time , in the end went with something else , this was using the blaser saddle mounts.
If you ever see photos of what the european & german police use , its actually rare to see the Blaser tac rifles in use , what you do see is lots of HK PSG-1 , PSG-1As , DSR-1s , PGMs , Sako TRGs , BT APRs , Sauer SSG3000 , Steyr SSGs , Steyr SSG04s , Steyr CISMs , and a assortment of AIs .

They have had a number of cases of the bolt unlocking during firing , usually due to gases from a blown primer running down the firing pin hole and melting a thrust washer camming the finger splines closed , and when that happens its very messy , do a search and you will find photos of guys that have had the bolt driven into their face .
It has not happened much , I think about 4-5 times , BUT it has happened , and ME I am NOT very luckly , actually I have no luck at all .
The idea of a switch barrel rig saving you money , again in theory , and not really in practice .
The point is how they fail , other actions have blow ups , BUT in virtually every case the bolt and action have held, and not seperated , when a blaser fails it lets the bolt go .
I look at blaser being the Fosters ( beer ) of rifles , bloody good marketing hype & advertising , but a crap product , JUST like Aussie Fosters beer .
Even our own Swazi man had some drama's with blasers , Opps . barrel blew , he was lucky , its normally the bolt .
So I chose other rifles , actually , almost any other rifles .


Later Chris

Cool story bro.

Originally Posted by Spanners

Easy peezy....
Buy headspace gauges for calibers.. Get barrels externally threaded and fit Savage style barrel nuts.
Screw onto gauge, do up external nut and nip - job done
Mitch Max has a long tube nut for doing the barrels up on his tube guns.. Could go that way or just a std savage spanner

Yup, savage barrel nuts are cool.

The "varmint" barrel I have is pretty chunky, so you'd probably end up with a shoulder and tiny gap.

The barrels aren't pre-fit, so more likely to go with machine to correct dimensions and then tighten to known torque with witness marks as backup.

Still investigating options for lug : pin it, external cradle for alignment or notch action and use savage style lug ?

Just tig tac it to the receiver

Originally Posted by Spanners

Just tig tac it to the receiver

Hmmmm, ...... Naah

Looks like I have already scared away one gunsmith with this thread, if I start mentioning welding the lug I suspect several others may join in...

Why not? It's just to stop it rotating and keep it in position.
A dab of silfos on the receiver side under the action wood do same job
There are a number of ways to do it better, but it's a 788 and $500 to get machine work done on 2 barrels and get fancy with it... You've got limited factors before you start

Existing barrel should not need rechambering, maybe a tweak or 2 on tennon and shoulder to get headspace ok for specific torque.

Cradle would be some fly-cutting on a block to get receiver profile, drill hole for front action screw, and mill slot for lug, no need to start messing with the action.

Barrel #2 was $100
Re thread, chamber etc $250 (only part of the build that I am paying commercial rates for)
Materials for action wrench & cradle $50 ?
Machine time for wrench and cradle $100 ?

Barrel vice I can do from some oak and bolts I have in the workshop.

Only thing left is go/no-go gauges for both calibers as a safety check after swopping.

Visa card=Blaser!!! Job done

bloody shit phone