You'll occasionally still see or hear of the business of shoving a hammer handle through a revolver frame window and twisting the frame off.
Worse, some of the people writing about it are otherwise knowledgeable people who should know better.
What you never hear of are the numerous revolvers destroyed by this.
First, this is pretty well guaranteed to bend or spring the frame. This may not be readily apparent, but often people do a home re-barreling job, then wonder why the gun never shoots very well again, or why it suddenly spits lead.
Second, take a look at a revolver frame just below the barrel threads.
You'll notice how thin the metal is in that area.
NOT using a special frame wrench with special inserts that fit THAT specific brand AND model of frame over-stresses that area and the frame cracks right through the threads.
The fact is that many of the old-timers just didn't know they were doing damage to the guns, and good gunsmiths were expensive and hard to find.
They gave it a try and got away with it, and just figured that was an OK technique.
In the case of your rifles, the exact same problems hold when using "expedient" barreling tools.
First, in most cases a shop vice and quickie barrel blocks simply can't hold the barrel tight enough and it'll slip in the block, stripping the blue off.
Barrels are torqued in TIGHT.
Second, unless you use a real frame wrench made to fit that action, you run a high risk of bending or twisting the receiver.
Last, barrels are not just pieces of threaded pipe you can screw on and off at will.
They have to be turned in a lathe to index the barrel correctly so the sights are at 12:00 o'clock top-dead-center, then the head space has to be set.
No BS, there's a LOT more to barreling work than just screwing it on.
People who think all this is just some BS to try to make more money for a gunsmith are in for a rude awakening when they start the job and bad things happen.
There's been a good number of times after some gun magazine writer mentioned using the hammer handle trick I'd have people show up asking me why their prized gun suddenly wasn't working or shooting right.
Other's wanted to know how much it would cost to "straighten the frame" or weld up the crack.
Sorry, even the gun companies are not able to straighten a bent frame or receiver.
