Getting ready to start a rifle project I'd like to build at home. I have a Tikka T3 action. I've read they are hard to get off so I searching for some tips and tricks for removing it. I have what think is a good barrel vise, but not sure.

Also, I bought a rear entry Tikka action wrench from bugholes. Do i need to worry about applying too much torque on the action or warping it?

I have seen the difficulty in removing the factory Tikka barrels. They are on there very tight. I know gunsmiths who make a special action wrench for the Tikka actions to aid in getting more torque on the action for this.

Tighten your barrel vise all it will go.

When you apply your action wrench, make sure the handle is located where you can swing an 8 pound sledge as hard and fast as you possibly can, and hit the handle of the wrench.

I am serious.

It needs high torque as well as the shock of the hammer. And it still may not come loose.

Dang do the glue them?

The 8 pound sledge makes me feel not so bad about using a pipe wrench on my savage lol.

No glue, no thread locker.

They have a Silverback gorilla tightening barrels on.

Haha, i feel like i've seen you say this before. I don't own a hammer that big but your point is taken.

So guess the rear entry action is fine to apply that much torque? won't do anything to the raceways? If it matters, i plan on putting as much liquid wrench as i can into the action. i have no clue how useful it is as I never use the stuff.

Based on what I’ve read about removing tikka barrels, and talking about it with a gunsmith who’s removed a couple for me, I wouldn’t use a rear entry action wrench to remove the factory barrel. Get an external wrench and a good barrel vice, or just pay a gunsmith with the proper tools to do it.

But a rear entry wrench would be fine for installing pre fit barrels yourself after factory is removed

Some reading for you:

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/what-action-wrench-for-a-tikka-t3-barrel-swap.6965520/

I did a barrel swap on a Tikka a few months ago and it was so tight that I wound up using an air hammer on the action wrench. It popped loose in a few seconds after hitting it with an air hammer. The only other barrel that I've seen that was on the action so tight was on an old Enfield 1917. A hundred years of rust and dried grease may have contributed to that.

What type of action wrench did you use? Excuse the ignorance, but is an "air hammer" the same thing as a pneumatic impact driver? I assuming you used one of these rear entry wrenches with a socket head on the end.

Having used a combination of hot and cold to get everything from lug bolts to flywheel nuts to break loose. I recently used the approach to break the bolt cap screws loose on a couple of my rifles. These too are often installed at the factory with an enormous amount of torque.

Put everything in a freezer for 20-30 minutes to get both the action and barrel freezing cold.

Remove from the freezer and secure quickly for applying sufficient torque with the wrench

Use hot water from the faucet to heat a bath cloth or rag and wrap it quickly around the action as close as you can to the barrel for a brief time. The idea is to warm the metal in the action surrounding the barrel so that it expands while the barrel is very cold. When timed correctly, the very slight gap expansion created between the two can greatly reduce the amount of torque needed to break threads loose.

The last time I used this basic approach but with an opposite spin (pun intended) was to break loose the hub nut on the rear axle of an ATV. I first used a propane torch to briefly heat the end of the axle and nut. Then I took a piece of ice from my cooler and applied it to the outside edges of the nut. The nut broke loose with far less torque than when I tried to remove it earlier. Of course in some situations heating the nut sufficiently is all that's needed. Still, applying a lot of heat to blued metal can be very tricky.

I should add that it's not so much the amount of heat applied that makes this approach work but the temperature differential you create between each side of the threads. Typically, a lot of heat is applied since the other side is usually at ambient temperature. If you can significantly drop or raise the temperature of both and then quickly change one or the other, the mating of the threads should be impacted.

I used a Brownells action wrench handle and I made my own action wrench head using both Steel and that lead/tin/ bismuth stuff that you can melt with hot water for some extra grip. You are correct, I used an air impact driver with an attachment that looks like the face of a hammer.