Krag Collectors Association Forum

If you did it with the vice and board sitting on that bucket it was not that tight. When they are tight you worry about turning a heavy work bench over. I could see using a receiver hitch in a truck or car to bolt the vice down if it was exceptionally tight.
On the big trailer hitch ball i put on my truck asked for 450 Foot pounds of torque. I turned the hitch sideways and used a 3-foot-long wrench with 150 pounds estimated of body with on it. Sometimes it takes a lot more than that to break a barrel loose. If it does, pushing down on a wrench is easier than pushing it across.

So far you and I had moderately tight (I call that easy) ones, one member had a really tight one, and I am not sure how tight the one CarbonOutlaw's was.

I know U.S. Rifle - model 1917 barrels are on a whole different planet and require great effort to un-breech!

U.S. Krags used a much different system for fitting completely 'Finished' barrels that were intended to be interchangeable.

Somethings that add resistance are rust, crud, and ancient hardened grease, binding the threads. A little propane-torch heat can help remedy this.

butlersrangers wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 9:31 pm I know U.S. Rifle - model 1917 barrels are on a whole different planet and require great effort to un-breech!

U.S. Krags used a much different system for fitting completely 'Finished' barrels that were intended to be interchangeable.

Somethings that add resistance are rust, crud, and ancient hardened grease, binding the threads. A little propane-torch heat can help remedy this.

The 1917 Enfield was legendary for that. I saw a recommendation that one use a part off blade on the lathe just forward the barrel shoulder of the barrel. That relieved the pressure and the barrel screwed off easily after applying that advice. I needed to set the barrel back a couple of threads anyway, so it was a good solution. No way to do that on a Krag if one finds one that is extra tight.