Phoenix gunsmith trashes my Savage 10FP barrel threads

[AZRickD]

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

 

[Mylhouse]

Rick,

I'm sorry to hear of your problem. I was thinking of doing the same thing to my Savage. I don't have any advice for you, but I would like to know which gunsmith you used so I can avoid that place! If you don't feel comfortable saying who it is publicly, please PM me...

Thanks!

 

[threefeathers]

Rick, call Bernie Morrison at Trailboss outfitters in Sierra Vista. He can repair your rifle. 520 515 0048.

 

[keederdag]

Actually I would like to know who did this as well! We seem to have pleanty of bad smiths in Phoenix!

 

[AZRickD]

I went to the gun smith today after lunch. The head smith is saying that he *did* back out the front scope mount screw and the reason it was so difficult for his assistant to unscrew it was because of some of the epoxy resin that leaked into the area (there was some epoxy in there). He said that he thinks the threads were shaved because of a burr on the hole that Savage drilled for the scope mount. I saw the hole after the grunge was cleaned out and there does appear to be a raised area. I'm still doubtful.

He says that he's going to run a die on the barrel and the receiver to clean them up. His opinion is that only a tiny bit of the thread height was taken off and that it will work just fine.

Developing...

 

[AZRickD]

I took my barrell to a machinist-friend/gunnie who took a thread-pitch gauge (a $250 micrometer-like device) and found that although a small portion of the thread peaks are flattened, the "bearing" portions of the tread (approx halfway down the valley) are just fine.

He also said that the smith's story about the burr was nonsense and that the thread showed signs of major rubbage.

Time to get it turned for the suppressor.

Rick