When last you heard from me, I was the proud owner of a way-sub .5 MOA 10FP in .308. Fred at SSSupply had trued the action, installed the trigger and machined recoil lug and all was happy in the world.
Fast-forward to September 2004 --
To celebrate the end of the AW Ban, I was planning on getting both and AR15 and FN-FAL kit and have a build party at a local gun shop. I decided that since I already had both a FAL and an AR, that maybe I'd just by a suppressor with a quick-disconnect feature which would allow me to use it on all my fave rifles (I'm going with a Fisher Enterprise can that uses the Vortex flash suppressor as its connector).
I had to remove the barrel from my Savage, and lacking the proper tools, I took it to a fairly well known gunsmith shop here in Phoenix.
The head smith was at his doctor getting his blood drawn so I witnessed the #2 guy put my barrel in a rubber vice and crank the thing. It didn't budge, so he put it on a metal barrel vice. He was humpin' on the dang thing trying to get it to turn. "Wow, this thing's really on there tight."
He eventually got the thing off only to discover that the back-half of the threads (chamber side) were flattened and shiny. I couldn't tell if the threads on the receiver were damaged. Since he couldn't find any metal shavings, he assumed that the damage was done when Fred re-installed the barrel many months ago (doubtful).
One of the other guys working there said, "Ah, yeah. The front screw on the scope base (which was still attached) must have cut through the treads.
Uh-huh... so why the heck didn't he remove my (Ken Farrell) base?
I called Fred tonite and he said that he had a guy come into his shop with the same problem. The guy forgot to loosen the screw and boogered the threads. Fred was able to re-turn the threads and a little extra machining to avert disaster (but I don't thinks his was a stock Savage barrel like mine).
So, if this smith doesn't come up with a fix, and tries to blame Fred, then it looks like there might be some bad blood.
Any smithy fixes and/or legal advice?
Rick
Suppressed in Arizona
Fast-forward to September 2004 --
To celebrate the end of the AW Ban, I was planning on getting both and AR15 and FN-FAL kit and have a build party at a local gun shop. I decided that since I already had both a FAL and an AR, that maybe I'd just by a suppressor with a quick-disconnect feature which would allow me to use it on all my fave rifles (I'm going with a Fisher Enterprise can that uses the Vortex flash suppressor as its connector).
I had to remove the barrel from my Savage, and lacking the proper tools, I took it to a fairly well known gunsmith shop here in Phoenix.
The head smith was at his doctor getting his blood drawn so I witnessed the #2 guy put my barrel in a rubber vice and crank the thing. It didn't budge, so he put it on a metal barrel vice. He was humpin' on the dang thing trying to get it to turn. "Wow, this thing's really on there tight."
He eventually got the thing off only to discover that the back-half of the threads (chamber side) were flattened and shiny. I couldn't tell if the threads on the receiver were damaged. Since he couldn't find any metal shavings, he assumed that the damage was done when Fred re-installed the barrel many months ago (doubtful).
One of the other guys working there said, "Ah, yeah. The front screw on the scope base (which was still attached) must have cut through the treads.
Uh-huh... so why the heck didn't he remove my (Ken Farrell) base?
I called Fred tonite and he said that he had a guy come into his shop with the same problem. The guy forgot to loosen the screw and boogered the threads. Fred was able to re-turn the threads and a little extra machining to avert disaster (but I don't thinks his was a stock Savage barrel like mine).
So, if this smith doesn't come up with a fix, and tries to blame Fred, then it looks like there might be some bad blood.
Any smithy fixes and/or legal advice?
Rick
Suppressed in Arizona