A friend asked me to remove his Howa 1500 barrel.   I have all the right tools, and have done tough military barrel removal before, but I've never encountered anything like this one.   AFAIK it's a stock .223 barrel.    

I am using a Brownells 4-bolt barrel vise with a custom sleeve I made from hard maple, which is now VERY tight, but still not quite tight enough for the extreme amount of torque I am having to use.  The sleeve OD is 1.75" for the vise, the ID was carefully cut to match the barrel profile.   I have about 100 ft-lb torque on each of the 4 vise bolts.  I am using generous amounts of rosin inside and outside of the sleeve and on the barrel.  I'm using a Wheeler action wrench, which is working fine - no issues there.

I keep making the barrel vise tighter and tighter and increasing the amount of torque until I'm now up to what must be well over 1000 foot pounds of torque before anything will move.  But the barrel still barely turns in the vise and the action does not unscrew from the barrel.  I'm using a 6' cheater bar of 1" black pipe with the Wheeler action wrench, and even with using all my weight on that 6' bar, I still have to bounce my weight to get anything to move.   I'm using so much torque, I've even bent the 1" black pipe.

I then made an additional sleeve of 0.040" aluminum sheet, to go between the vise and the maple sleeve, thus making the whole thing much tighter.   The vise is now withstanding at least 1000 foot pounds of torque, but even at that torque the only movement I can get is between the barrel and the maple sleeve.

I've also tried impact, rather than just torque.  I have about a 5# lead hammer that I am whacking the Wheeler action wrench with, swinging with both hands.  The barrel barely turns in the vise when doing this, but the barrel still does not break free of the action.

I'm about ready to give up on it, but it seems like it must be possible to get the barrel off.   I just don't know what more I can do, unless perhaps I make a new sleeve insert using aluminum bar instead of hardwood.

Any thoughts on this?

I think your idea on the aluminum insert may be what it takes. I was going to suggest shock but you tried that.

I've thought about heat, as I've used it plenty of times on stuck nuts, etc.  But the amount of heat that's been required on some nuts is a LOT - like red hot or nearly so.   And of course applying that heat isn't scientific, so it might be easy to apply a bit too much.   I'm afraid that applying that much heat to a receiver will no doubt screw up the bluing and probably the metalurgy, too.

You do NOT need to get something cherry red to remove it. A stuck nut is literally frozen in-place and should be completely different than the precision thread engagement of a receiver and barrel.

I wouldn't hesitate to put heat to that receiver. Not talking OA, but just a propane or Mapp flame.

You can, conversely, hit the outside of the barrel, right near the receiver threads, with an inverted bottle of canned air (right after heating the receiver). This should "shrink" the barrel right after you "enlarged" the receiver.

This picture is with the sheet metal sleeves I made to go outside the maple sleeves, to get even more force and crush on the maple.  They let me put quite a bit more torque to it before anything moved, but still it's the barrel that moves.


This is the whole thing, with 6' cheater bar.   I will say that this Wheeler action wrench has stood up very well to this tremendous torque.  It's stayed nice and tight, with no bending at all of the bar.


I may ask my friend if he minds taking a chance on messing up the bluing, and I can put heat to the receiver with just a Mapp gas torch.   That'll get it fairly hot, without the overheating risks of using oxyacetylene.   The trick there will be to get the action wrench and it's protective shims back on quickly, before the heat dissipates.

Not up on Howa, but are you sure they didn't use a left hand thread?

Otherwise, heat to 300°f, or so, then douse with Liquid Wrench.
When it has cooled down, repeat.
After about half a dozen times, put your BAW (big ass wrench) on it.

The cooling effect of the Liquid Wrench will draw it into the threads, and eventually break the friction/rust/scale, etc..

I've taken apart giant hydraulic cylinders, that were last serviced decades before, and had sat out in the weather, or underground.
Other shops said it was impossible, the cylinders weren't serviceable, and would need to be replaced.
I had them apart in less than an hour...

I think you're right.   Thanks for the tip.   I'll give that a try.

I've wondered about the left-hand thread myself, but the replacement is a McGowen, supposedly a direct screw-on for this action, and it's definitely right-hand thread.    I will try you guy's ideas about Mapp-level heat and some Liquid Wrench

heat it up

I'm very reluctantly giving up on it, and having the guy come get his rifle tomorrow.   I tried all the above solutions.  Repeated heating and Liquid Wrench.  I put yet another shim in between the wood sleeve and the barrel vise, to crush that sleeve even tighter.  The sleeve is a perfect fit, for max friction.   Lots of rosin.  Over 100 ft-lb on each of the 4 vise bolts.  Soaked in PB Blaster for a couple days.  More heating.  I can look through the forward-most scope base mount hole and the bottom forward stock mount bolt hole and clearly see the threads.  No rust, no damage, no apparent locking compound.   I'd also soaked the threads for days from those 2 holes, too.    

I get that barrel incredibly tight in the vise and nothing moves.  When I finally apply absolutely huge forces, the only thing that moves is the barrel rotating in the vise sleeves.  

It's been very frustrating, and I really hate to admit defeat, but at this point I'm just doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  I simply cannot get that barrel vise any tighter, and this barrel/receiver has already withstood probably some 1200-1500 foot-pounds of torque/impact.
I've taken barrels off WWII military rifles - super easy compared to this.

I froze the barrelled action overnight and tried heat yet one more time.    No go.

I've watched some online videos of people removing these barrels.  It's amazing how easily they come off.  One guy was using a Brownells 4-bolt vise and wasn't even using all 4 bolts to clamp the barrel.   Another was using a Wheeler vise that is less than half as wide (and thus gripping surface) as the Brownells vise.  Popped right off easily.

I have 2 possible options - one is to put the barrel in the pipe jaws of a very large bench vise I have.  That MAY grip it tight enough, although of course even attempting it will completely destroy the barrel.

I can also try chucking the barrel up in the lathe and use a cutoff bit to cut the barrel shoulder away from the action, supposedly thus relieving any pressure.   My lathe is tied up right now so that would have to wait until the present job is done.  This SHOULD theoretically work and would be less completely destructive of the barrel.   Of course, the Browells vise also "should theoretically" work for even the tightest barrel, but it isn't enough for this application.

The ironic thing about this is the guy is removing a perfectly good .223 barrel to install a McGowen 5.56mm barrel.   He's coming over later, and I guess we'll decide then what to do next.

I finally got the barrel off.   My lathe was tied up with another job, but I finally finished that job, so I chucked up the barrelled action and made a relief cut a few thousandths forward of the receiver.   The barrel wasn't even hand tight after that.  And there was no loc-tite or anything else like that on the threads; it was all just incredible pressure against the tenon shoulder.   I can see I cut a little deeper than necessary, but I didn't want more problems from not cutting deep enough.

Glad you got it.

I would have put it in the freezer for a few hours then use a hair drier on the receiver.

The barrel would have recooled while the receiver stayed hot.

Barrel can't be reused probably

I'm glad you got it off.  For what it's worth, I think your aluminum blocks would have done the trick.  I had a M1A barrel that wouldn't budge until I had about 6 feet of breaker bar on it.  The aluminum blocks I was using held it tight, but it was slipping in the wood blocks.

Wood barrel inserts suck.  Mine are aluminum and shim with copper or lead if needed.

On terribly tight Mauser barrels, if I don't care about the barrel, I put the action wrench in the vise and use a pipe wrench on the barrel.

If using heat, I don't remove the action wrench, I direct the flame at the wrench and let it transfer to the action.

Tried that.   Froze it overnight, then MAPP gas torch to receiver.   1500 foot pounds torque still wouldn't budge it.

I'll keep that in mind for the future.

good tips to remember - thanks

Howa's are notoriously screwed on tight. I tried every trick in the book for mine and eventually had to do a parting cut to release pressure. Came right off after that