[Tactical Coyote]

A good friend of mine bought a new vleh less than a month ago and we shot it together and the accuracy was nice. I was really liking the hammer forged barrel and his plan was to buy a tactical solutions barrel and sell me the hammer forged barrel. He tried to remove this barrel to install his new barrel and he and his buddy clamped it in a rubber jaw vice and beat on the chamber face with a punch to try to dislodge it. He claims the barrel is stuck and will not come free. Unfortunately I wasn't there to help and I fear they have damaged the chamber creating inconsistent headspace. I think I can put it back in a vice and use a wrench to spin the barrel free. He wants to trade me even for my stripped receiver which is clean as a whistle. Should I trade even or Remove his damged barrel and give his receiver back? Do you think if I took a tiny bit off the chamber face with fine grit sandpaper and polished it the vleh barrel would function or is this barrel trashed due to headspace problems? Would ruger sell me a me vleh barrel and how much? Help!

 

[Tactical Coyote]

Chamber face

 

[Tactical Coyote]

Pic

 

[redriver]

Start with a call to Ruger and explain the situation and see what they recommended. Most of the time they have a solution that I like...sometimes they don't. Either way, they're home today so give them a call it's free.

Good luck.

 

[OldCrow]

I know there is a tool to repair barrels that have been struck with a firing pin to many times. I do not know if the barrel repair tool will work on a Ruger barrel since they are designed to be dry fired. Either way the barrel will probably have to go to a gunsmith. Tools for gun repair are not cheap and the gunsmith has already learned to use these once in a lifetime tools.

 

[jbooker82]

I'd keep your stuff. Remove his barrel and give him his receiver and barrel back.

 

[Slugger]

First, lightly heat the receiver and tap on the corners of the receiver while holding the barrel in the vice.
Second, the headspace on a 10/22 is determined by the depth on the face of the bolt. Since your friend decided major pounding on the breech was the solution, once the barrel is out, drop a round into the chamber, see if it seats completely around the rim, if it does great, if not take it too a gunsmith to have the face of the barrel redone. If you take material off the back of the barrel, depending on how much you take and how deep the chamber is cut, the gunsmith may have to ream the chamber to get the proper clearance.
Ruger tends to cut their chambers to the large size, that's why these rifles
perform so well with many different brands of ammo, so maybe you'll get lucky and be able to use it as it comes out of your buddies receiver.

 

[Slugger]

Sorry, didn't really answer your original question.
No, I would not swap a good receiver for this suspect barrel.
Receivers are hard to come by, you need to go thru an FFL to get one. Barrels on the other hand can be bought from any number of after market suppliers.
I don't know if you can buy the hammer forged barrel directly, don't know anyone who has. I like the look of them myself, was able to shoot a couple of friends guns that had them and decided I wanted something more accurate.
Just my 2 cents on the topic.
Good luck