Blackhawk barrel removal

[yondering]

I'll be removing the barrel from my Ruger Blackhawk in the near future. I have a barrel vise and a Mauser action wrench. I can flip the head around on the action wrench so it's flat rather than a V shape.

My question is, do I need to buy the action wrench inserts to fit the frame from Brownells, or will a couple pieces of pine wood (which will partly compress to fit the frame) in the wrench jaws be OK? I don't want to damage the frame, but I'm also on a limited budget so won't buy the inserts unless I need to.
I guess it all depends on how tight these barrels usually are; I've never removed one from a Ruger before. My barrel has been removed by the previous owner to shorten it too, so it may or may not be as tight as the factory.

Any other items to be aware of when removing and replacing barrels on these guns? I'll be putting the same barrel back on again.

[leftiye]

The barrels in Rugers I've messed with were pretty tight for some reason. The barrels are also tapered, and this can thwart a barrel vise. I have a thought about making a barrel vise insert set with cerro safe and just clamping about 4 to 6 inches of the barrel in this in a 6" bench vise with rosin between the inserts and barrel.

Your action wrench with wood "pads" is much preferrable to sticking a 2X2 through the frame, I'm sure. And the ruger single action frame front end is probly much stronger/stiffer than an S&W frame front, But you might want to try the cerrosafe pads there too.

I'd try that myself, but I can't say I know everything will be fine (I think it will though). The brownell's wrench is quite a way over $100.

[Dave Berryhill]

I've made wrench inserts that support both sides of the front of the frame by using 2 blocks of oak. I carve or mill enough wood out until they will fit around the frame then I glass bed them for a perfect fit to the frame.

[S.R.Custom]

What Dave said... ;)

The Ruger frames are stout, but only at the top strap. On the bottom side, the steel gets pretty thin in places, as well as being full of holes. It's not hard to bugger one up.