15-22 Pistol Flash Hider Removal

[Bergy24]

Looking at buying the new 15-22 pistol and may buy a suppressor for it as well. I know the correct way to remove the flash hider is to clamp the barrel in a vise before torqueing the flash hider off. How can the barrel nut be removed to remove the handguard if the flash hider is still on? Sorry is this is a stupid question, but I don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks

 

[Gunslinger808]

I always just clamped the receiver in a vise and tapped the handle on the wrench rather than just yanking away.
I've done 3 15-22s like that including a pistol, with no adverse effects, maybe I'm just lucky.

 

[cjt50]

Since the barrel is fully covered by hand guard and no way to clamp onto the barrel, I clamped the hand guard in a vice to keep it from rotating. Using an adjustable wrench I gave it a quick pop with a mallet and it broke loose very easily.

Thankfully the factory didn't gorilla it on and it broke loose with minimal effort.

 

[Lost Californian]

In the "Notable Thread" sticky, there is a link to a DIY barrel wrench, with instructions and photos on removing the barrel. I used that to remove the flash hider and handguard on my first gen M&P 155-22 pistol. Well, I bought the Tacticool22 barrel nut wrench, did not make my own.

 

[strobro32]

If you clamp to the hand guards or upper and the flash hider breaks free easily, great. That is not the safest way to do it. The best way to do it is to clamp to the barrel with a tool that slides through the hand guard slots or the end of the barrel and makes contact with the actual barrel.

What happens when you clamp to anything but the barrel is you risk spinning the barrel in the upper. The ejector is pinned to the barrel. When the barrel/ejector rotates, the ejector bends on the bolt or the ejector gets misaligned in the upper...causing ejection problems. The 15-22 barrels do not have a barrel pin like a typical AR barrel to keep the barrels from rotating during barrel installation. The SOP for installing or removing FHs should be clamping to the barrel.

I'm not sure if the factory has a special tool to clamp to the barrel. Maybe S&W is clamping to the upper to install FHs. Maybe that's why all the pistol the FHs are so easy to get off. It may also be the reason so many people are reporting ejection problems with the new pistols.