Cutts Comp

Ambrose

The 16 ga. Browning A5 I bought recently came with a Cutts with the Modified tube installed. I have other tubes and thought I'd switch to an IC for close range rabbit hunting. The Mod tube has resisted all my efforts to remove it. I even tried the judicious application of a propane torch and no joy. Kroil and letting it set--nope. I can get plenty of purchase on the tube (a 1" end wrench is a perfect fit) but I can't hold the Cutts body. I've tried a strap wrench. Any ideas? I guess a Mod tube ain't bad, but I'm SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO CHANGE 'EM!

On a related subject: Is there a special choke tube lube or does plain old grease work OK?

p3skyking

Try tightening it and then untightening it. You are trying to break the tension that has set up after prolonged attachment.

Put the barrel in a padded vise and use a five ounce hammer to tap the wrench, then use elbow grease. Eventually it will break free.

charliemeyer007

Perhaps Bubba in the past painted the threads with iodine to bond it in because of thread issues - in which case it isn't coming out.

Put the barrel in the freezer for a day. Take it out for a day. Try several treatments.

Look at the IC tube, heat the barrel rapidly at the tread area and reach inside the tube with a cold wet mop (dry ice and alcohol) on a rod. Try and unscrew while the barrel is expanded (hot) and the tube is contracted (cold). Gloves and a assistant will help.

I use a metal filled choke tube lube.

Your Cutts shell isn't silver soldered on?

navc130

Hog out a couple of pieces of wood to hold the body. While in the vise put a piece of flat metal thru the body vents to act as a stop from turning. Use a hammer on the wrench. Use heat, penetrating fluid and every other idea presented here. Maybe first try holding the receiver in the vise but be careful of too much torque there. Whatever way you hold the body I would recommend a hammer on the wrench. Good luck.
Be sure and tell us what worked so we all can learn.
You can buy anti-seize compound at any hardware store.
Another idea: put the wrench in the vice, then try to unscrew the gun from the tube. Or, remove the barrel and use the strap wrench on it for leverage. There is the possibility of damaging / loosening the body this way, depending on how it is attached.

Okie743

The IC tube is for quail hunting, not rabbits.

You are going to be disappointed and depressed if you go to all that trouble then find you should have left it as is for rabbits.

Ambrose

navc130 touched on it.  I finally got it off a couple months ago!  I tried most of the methods suggested here but no luck.  I was afraid to put barrel or Cutts body in a vise for fear of distorting them.  I was also afraid to use the magazine ring on the barrel for leverage for fear of breaking it off.  So while I was fooling around with another project, I got the idea.  I took a 4" long scrap piece of 3/4" T&G oak flooring, cut a hole through the middle of it the dia. of the Cutts body, cut through it lengthwise on the table saw.  I wrapped the Cutts body with a piece of a bicycle inner tube, put my newly made oak fixture around it and clamped it in the vise.  It still didn't give up easily; I had to snug up the vise again to stop it from twisting.  BUT IT BROKE LOOSE!  Once it broke loose, it turned freely--there was no crud or lock-tight on it.  Apparently, whoever put that tube on there, figured it had to be TIGHT.  I greased the threads and put it back on there and I'm good to go.  As I indicated in the origional post, "I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO CHANGE 'EM!".  Now I can.