Rick,
Thanks for the info! I never bet on one horse so I'm trying to find out the possibilities and impossibilities.
Decent clamping of a very, very smooth barrel is difficult and I'm starting to understand why the postwar East-German barrels have a rough surface on the muzzle-end. I did notice some barrel-changers using lead as a means for extra grip and protection.
As I mentioned. I was lucky to find a barrel from the same production line as my original one, so that'll help (a little). And I wouldn't even think about barrel installation, were it not that I have been working on slightly larger German stuff for several years (Mercedes-Benz kinda stuff
. Also the barrel that needs to be removed is no longer usable, so it can be 'sacrificed' in the process.