Gunsmithing Help Removing Tikka T3x Lite Barrel- or...

[Wannashootit]

"are you effing kidding me???"

Any suggestions on removing this fu****? It's not the vise- it's the barrel taper and the bushing.
The barrel has a compound taper- one that runs for about the first 1/2" ahead of the receiver, then it changes (steeper). I tried an epoxy cast bushing (the ID of the bushing is approx that of the breech, then the taper is filled with epoxy), but no go. Barrel "squirts out" the back of the bushing. The taper is extreme- and combined with the crazy torque this thing apparently needs to break loose, when the torque/compression is applied to the bushing the barrel slides back.

I could turn a custom bushing for it on the lathe, but it would be very time consuming (and thus expensive) due to the change in taper and I'm not convinced it would hold any better than the epoxy bushing (yes- I use Rosin). I also plugged the chamber and receiver holes and let some Kroil try to seep into the threads overnight...apparently to no effect.

Does Tikka use Rocksett on these for cripes sake? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Keith Johns]

I have to cut a relief cut in front of the receiver, taking the pressure off the threads. Comes right off then.
I tell customer up front I have to scrap the factory barrel to remove it.

Im sure others can remove it without doing this. But to avoid excess pressure on the receiver, and since the factory barrel is often worthless anyways, this way sure makes it easy.

 

[Keith Johns]

Lead sheets sold by brownells and sand paper folded in half so both exposed sides are rough, both help keep your bushing from slipping around the barrel if it's not the PERFECT profile.


Soaking some kroil into the threads over night won't hurt either.

 

[Wannashootit]

^^
Thanks, did the Kroil thing (in my OP), may do it again with some alternating light heat on the receiver.

This isn't for replacement, so a relief cut isn't possible. Being pulled for muzzle threading. It is being Cerakoted when done (told the customer I won't touch a blued barrel unless it's going to be refinished); sandpaper is an idea to keep the barrel from sliding back out of the bushing- some fine grit (320? 240?) won't leave an imprint on the barrel when I torque down on the vise?

WTF is the deal with these? Sako have monkeys installing their barrels?

 

[Keith Johns]

When we do brakes on those I leave the barrel on, run it through the headstock, and indicate it in off the muzzle end co-ax like we do chambering jobs.

If you run through the headstock you can leave the action on if the barrel is long enough.

I use 120grit emery cloth sometimes if needed (similar to sand paper, but using cloth rather than paper to hold the abrasive and it's much stronger). It can fill a little gap and give some real good grip once there's a ton of clamp force squeezing it together.

Even once you get the barrel to stay put in the vise, I don't like the amount of force put on the action to remove it.


You might be able to find a way to leave the action on and do the brake install.

 

[northern50]

Sako and Tikka do not use any kind of glue, the barrels are just really tight. A set of v blocks a phone book and a hydraulic press have been my method to hold the barrels on these guys. Two snaps with a 1" impact on the end of my action wrench and there hasn't been a Trg I've cut a barrel off of, they all come loose. You might think it's crude but it's a lot safer and easier on an action than leaning on it with a 4 foot bar actually trying to bend it. This is not a small impact rattling around on the action wrench, this is a straight up monster you hold with two hands and a 1" air line, about two good thumps and walla loose action.

sako must have some monster dudes in Finland attaching barrels.

 

[LRI]

You can send it to us if you like. I've not run into one yet that's got me.

I've made dedicated tooling for every action we support. That is the key. In the past I literally used a 6" Kurt vice to grab the sides of the action with the barrel in a conventional barrel vise. Take a pinch of blast media and wet it with a drop of oil. Smear that on your collets for the barrel vise. Amazing what it does. It'll bite and not let go. Not one bit.

 

[Wannashootit]

^^^
Thanks, Chad...I was thinking of doing that- but jeez....never run into a barrel I couldn't break loose. I'm using a Brownell's "Universal" head which seems to be OK on the receiver flats- but I wish there were more surface area for contact, the flats are pretty narrow. But hell, if you're torquing them in the Kurt I guess I shouldn't bee too concerned about tweaking the action. Not interested in buying the customer a new rifle....

Thanks for the advice on using some media in the bushing- I'll give it a shot. If it keeps slipping and I can't break it loose, I'll raise the white flag and send it your way.

 

[Keith Johns]

We could do the muzzle threading or brake install and leave the action on for the process(as long as the barrel length is 22" or more. We indicate through the headstock, aligning the muzzle end(in this case) of the bore straight on centerline so bullet travel is straight through the muzzle attachments.

Our turn around time is about one week.

A thread job would be $100. Brake installs are $120, plus brake. We cerakote in house and refinishing is included. We recrown it while we're at it since we know at that point it's indicated in with the bore square so why not cut a new crown... can't get any better than perfectly square and freshly done. You can choose any crown angle or design you want.

We've done countless APA micro bastard brake installs on those Tikkas, and other barrels smaller than .750".
We use a lot of APA "Little Bastards" for barrels between .750" and .990". And their "Fat Bastard" brake is for barrels 1" or larger, and it is one recoil reducing MOFO. One of our team shooters uses the "Fat Bastard" on his 6.5x47 Lapua Match rifle! Haha. No recoil.

APA makes some of the best brakes, and that "Micro Bastard" takes the top spot in our opinion for smaller diameter, side baffle brakes. One big reason is because the 1/2"x28 or 9/16"x32 threads are only about .400" deep. This means you don't need a long thread length and the 9/16"x32 threads allow you to stay as far away from the bore as possible... these features give a rock solid install with minimal chance for bore distortion. Not that bore distortion due to cutting too close is a common thing, but I definitely like staying as far away from the bore as possible.


Good luck with the project and thanks for posting about it! Those Tikka barrels sure are on there tight!

Keith Johns
Phoenix Custom Rifles
4804678090

 

[dwtaylorpdx]

So I haven't tried this on a gun,, But I work on some equipment occasionally that presents similar removal issues..

I put the part in the vice, and stand a pair of heat guns pointed at it set on high and I heat the part to about 250. (Use a IR temp gun to monitor...)
I then take a can of "Cold-Shot" which I use normally for testing suspect parts on circuit boards and spry it in the "chamber" the colt shot will drop temp to -70 ish..
I deluge it for about 2 seconds while applying pressure to the bar. the barrel component shrinks first before the temperature exchange affects the "action" component. It usually comes loose with a nice ker-pop..

I would bet those finns heat the action chill the barrel and thread them in and when the action normalizes the taper is locked..Not that a taper fit doesn't try and lock anyway...

 

[skeetlee]

cut a relief

 

[Eagle47]

You say you use rosin. How much? I ask because I was always under the impression to use a dusting of it until I went with a guy to a gunsmith to have his T3 barrel removed and have a Bartlein put on. This gunsmith is a benchrest shooter and had never worked on a tikka, but I had built an action wrench for him to use so he stuck the barrel in his simple universal V-block style barrel vise and gave it a few taps and goes I guess it isn't going to be that easy. So he takes it over to his vise with bushing inserts and grabs one that has a taper in it. I'm looking at it thinking that doesn't match the barrel very well. He then proceeds to fill the bushing full of rosin set the barrel on it flip it over and do the same with the other half of the bushing. Then he cranks down on it in the vise and after a few taps on action wrench it spins right off. He then shows us the rosin after doing this and it is compressed into a solid and there was enough of it that the barrel never touched the bushing negating the mismatched taper. Hope this is helpful.

 

[finefire]

powdered sugar. seriously. use more than you think is necessary... similar to the rosin notes above. higher friction coefficient than rosin. will leave no marks on the blueing.

 

[Wannashootit]

. Take a pinch of blast media and wet it with a drop of oil. Smear that on your collets for the barrel vise. Amazing what it does. It'll bite and not let go. Not one bit.

You da man, Chad...thanks.

As I was getting ready to crawl out of the shop this evening I looked over and the Tikka I'd been ignoring since last week was daring me to take another shot at it.
Took a pinch of 100 grit out of the blast cabinet, added a couple drops of oil to make a slurry with my finger and smeared it evenly as I could over the bushing halves. The epoxy cast in the bushing had now had a full week to cure/harden so I figured this was the best shot I was gonna get.

Put it back in the barrel vise and torqued it with a 3 foot cheater, tightened the receiver wrench and with the aid of the cheater and with most of my 210 lbs. it spun loose. So smoothly, I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't the barrel spinning. Very thick consistency anti-seize on the barrel- no threadlocker lol. It'll be interesting to see what torque is required to get it back to the witness marks when I reinstall it.

KJohns- mind reader, it is for a Micro-Bastard on a .300 WM. Furnished by the customer, I had serious reservations about 1/2" threads (I've NEVER gone smaller than 9/16" on a .30 cal). Since the customer had already purchased the brake, I spoke with Jered at APA and while he agreed 9/16" would be preferable, they install these in 1/2" on .30 cal bores- so I'll "stretch" my conservative approach a bit, leery as I am....

I don't have gauge pins to fit this receiver, and the bolt is surprisingly slick/ tight in the raceway (NICE action). Doesn't "feel" like I've got the clearance to Cerakote the bolt along with the action. I was going to order some gauge pins from Meyer to measure the receiver but hell, I'll ask- can anyone advise whether to leave the bolt uncoated on these?

 

[TC308]

Glad you got it off, but thought I'd mention in case others have this same problem.

I had one tikka I couldn't get off for the life of me. Was pissing me off and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. I took it over to a buddy's place and he laughed as I bet him he could get it off. Took it out to his barrel vise, watching d him put the action wrench on barely tight at all and the fucker popped right of. All I could think was that I was tightening the action wrench up south that is was actually tightening to the barrel tendon inside the action. He made it look easy

 

[Billiam1211]

You can send it to us if you like. I've not run into one yet that's got me.

I've made dedicated tooling for every action we support. That is the key. In the past I literally used a 6" Kurt vice to grab the sides of the action with the barrel in a conventional barrel vise. Take a pinch of blast media and wet it with a drop of oil. Smear that on your collets for the barrel vise. Amazing what it does. It'll bite and not let go. Not one bit.

How much do you charge for swapping a Tikka T3x barrel if the customer provides a prefit? I just picked up a benchmark from PVA and after reading the horror stories on Tikkas might just send it off to get the factory tube off.

 

[LRI]

How much do you charge for swapping a Tikka T3x barrel if the customer provides a prefit? I just picked up a benchmark from PVA and after reading the horror stories on Tikkas might just send it off to get the factory tube off.

If it's just a barrel swap, rate is $75.00/shipping assuming there's no headspace issues. If we have to machine on it, then it'll go up from there.