Remington Rolling Block

[klausg]

Greetings,

I have recently purchased a Remington Rolling Block SRC that is in the process of being stripped down. I plan on a complete re-build. While I'm no gunsmith I do know my way around a machine shop; and am hoping to save myself a little money by doing most of the prep work myself. The receiver is stripped with the exception of the two screws that hold the trigger mechanism in and the barrel and is currently soaking in about a gallon of diesel with a quart of ATF thrown in; in an attempt to break things loose.

My questions are as follows:

a) When it comes to removing the barrel, I'm thinking vise, pipe wrench and about 5 foot of cheater bar. Is there an easer/better way?

b) For the receiver, there are some fairly deep pits in the tang and on the front of the trigger assembly. Is there any problem with having a welder MIG or TIG a little steel there to save me some filing time?

c) Can you reccomend anything that will work better than the diesel/ATF mixture for breaking things loose? I've already tied "Liguid Wrench" and no luck; I'm trying to not have to replace all of the screws.

Thanks very much for any input in my first project gun, I will be sure to post before & after photos on completion. Take care & God Bless.

-SSG Klaus

[KCSO]

Pipe Wrench???

No! For the cost order the cheap midway barrel vise, or make a barrel vise from a couple of stout steel bars and a pair of 3/4" bolts. The barrle clampoing part is just a couple of oak blocks with rosin on them. Remember even if you don't want the old barrel once you bubba it with pipe wrench marks its no good for anything and you still have to put the new barrel in. As to filling the pits the welding will be ok, but test your rod to see how it blues as you don't want a finished gun with a bunch of purple spots on it. Most of the rolly blocks I have unscrewed are not so tight that you can't do them with a 2 foot wrench. When you unscrew the action use copper or brass shims on your wrench.

[klausg]

Thanks very much, the barrel is already shot, the exterior is pitted as bad as I've seen; it looks like someone soaked the forend in salt water and left it for about five years, with ocassional wetting to make sure it was still corroding. Having said that the receiver is in very good shape with the exception of minor pitting @ the tang and some major where the forend butts. I plan on having the receiver finished in a satin nickle plate; am I correct in assuming that will preclude any worries about color with the welding? Again, thank you very much.

-SSG Klaus

[wills]

http://www.gunthings.com/vise.htm

[4060MAY]

http://www272.pair.com/stevewag/bblvise/bblvise.html

some ideas for barrel removal. lots of information mostly bolt actions but barrel removal applies.

[rocklock]

Try Kroil on the screws. Works better than anything else I've tried.

[Buckshot]

...........I'm no expert on rebarreling the RB action. I have one I've had for many years that I began work on, and even bought a Badger 32" tapered octagon 40 cal bbl for it. I also have a buttstock fitted but no forend and am missing a couple parts.

Observations. I don't know what action you have but the big military/sporting #1 was produced beginning when true 'real steel' was a new thing, and finished up when they were just barely getting a handle on a foggy idea of how to utilize and alloy it.

The RB action I have was an Egyptian contract rifle I think. In any event it had the thin round reciever ring. For instance the Argentine contract also had a round reciever ring but it was much thicker and gunsmiths have no problem milling it octagon. At best, consider the action to be made from surface hardened mild steel (1018-ish kind).

When polishing don't try for a mirror finish as it may be hard to get. When the actions were forged any inclusions (carbon and otherwise) were stretched out and can appear as scratches. They won't go away but color casehardening will hide it. Also your satin nickel finish will do a good job as the copper underlayment will hide lots of inclusion pits/scratches.

Be especially carefull of the action when turning it off. Leave the trigerguard on and if possible put a fillerblock in the breech-hammer opening on top. All this to keep the action from twisting or bending.

The top tang on mine was pitted pretty bad on the back end down by the stock screw hole, plus 2 pits on the action ring. I used regular common mild steel wire to MiG it all up almost closing the hole in the tang. Then it was filed and Dremeled down. A test with cold blue showed no difference in how they blued. I can't say about color case, but your nickle finish shoudn't have any issues.

Check your tolerance stacking in the action. You have clearance on both pins through the action. You then have some on the hammer and breech block to thier respective pins. You then have the clearance between the rolling breech and the hammer at firing. Upon firing all these clearances close and end up as slack between the breechblock face and casehead.

.............Buckshot

[Char-Gar]

For a really tight barrel and one you don't plan on keeping, take your hacksaw and cut a 360 degree groove in the barrel about one hacksaw blade's thickness in front of the receiver ring. Cut the groove about 1/3 of the depth of the hacksaw. This will allow the metal to spring away from the receiver and make it much easier to remove.

Of course when you get through the best use of that old barrel is as a tomato stake or tent peg.

[Char-Gar]

On a siggle shot action with parallel sides, I think I would use a BIG Cresent wrench with brass pads on the jaws. If a fellow could get on of those big brass adjustble wrenches the gas companies use, it would be just the huckleberry.

Of course remove any pins, screws or parts that would be under the wrench jaws.

[mhb]

For many years I have used a really big monkey wrench (with flat, parallel jaws) and leather padding for removing and installing barrels on any flat-sided action - works perfectly. If you don't care about salvaging the barrel, a pipe vise holds them quite well enough, though if the shank appears to be rusted-in, I'd advise soaking the receiver/barrel joint with Kroil for a few days, at least, before putting the torque to it. FWIW, good, big monkey wrenches have become somewhat hard to acquire, but it's worth the effort, if you can get one.
mhb - Mike

[wills]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_wrench

[mhb]

You seem easily amused. Do you ever offer opinions or information on the actual topic under discussion? Or just snickers from the peanut gallery?
mhb - Mike

[waksupi]

You seem easily amused. Do you ever offer opinions or information on the actual topic under discussion? Or just snickers from the peanut gallery?
mhb - Mike

Mike, Wills is our information guy, and our lawyer.

[Antietamgw]

If you have the time, soak the barrel shank from outside the reciever ring and inside as well with KROIL. Just a touch of heat a another shot of KROIL will really get it to wick in. If you can do this several times over maybe a week, it will make a huge difference in the effort required to pull the barrel. I just finished pulling the barrel on a Ballard that I didn't want to harm the reciever or barrel. It came loose with very little effort ('course I'd already made an octagonal bushing for the barrel vise, had the reciever in a flat sided barrel wrench I'd made years ago and made a filler block for the inside of the reciever). None of that would have been needed but you never know until you go to break it loose. The KROIL had weeped to the root of the threads the entire length of the shank. I don't know how it does it but it does. Great stuff and a fine bore solvent as well. I think you can still buy gallon jugs online from kanolabs.com. A gallon would likely last a shooter many years. I've used Charger's idea of a relief cut for many years and do it automatically if the barrel isn't going to be reused. I also sometimes use it if it's OK to set the barrel back, on a milsurp sporter for instance. Just keep the relief cut close to the action. 1 tweaked action will make you a believer and I'd strongly recommend it if the barrel doesn't mean much to you. On Enfields, Swedes and anything rusty a prayer seems to help too.

[Antietamgw]

If you can't find a good large Cresent wrench you can make a flat sided action wrench that won't flex pretty easily. Get a 3' piece of 1" square steel. Cut a 8" long piece off. Drill a 3/8" hole 1" in from both ends of the 8" piece and matching holes in the remaining 2 1/2' piece. Get a couple 3/8" X 4 1/2" Grade 8 bolts and nuts. Sandwich the action between the 2 1/2' handle and the 8" piece, padded with a little lead or copper sheet. You have an action wrench. I generally make a filler block for the inside of the action though on a Rolling Block you probably don't need it as it's well supported inside.

[KYCaster]

Interesting handle Antietam. Would you have anything to do with Maryland Gun Works? I recently bought MGW sights for a 1911 through Brownell's. I've used them before and really like them.

Welcome to the board.

Jerry

[mhb]

Oh. O.K., I guess. It just seemed that he had taken the 'It Pays to Increase Your Wordpower' task as his mission in life, as opposed to adding something specific to the topic of discussion. His standard 'text' for these sallies is fairly annoying, in the absence of any comments of value (or even opinion, worthwhile or otherwise) - at least to me - but in future, I'll just ignore the background noise. Lawyer, huh? Probably charges the customary hourly consultation rates for 'on-the-record' information, with the standard caveats.
mhb - Mike

[klausg]

All- thanks very much for the information. I will be sure to post photos upon completion.

-SSG Klaus