You can cut the barrel with your tool of choice, I prefer a portable band saw, but a hack saw works. I tape every surface near the work area with masking tape covered with several layers of electrical tape. I don't like using abrasive cut-off tools as they tend to discolor the bluing. There is a shoulder on the barrel about 3/8" in front of the sight, cut the barrel 1/2" past the shoulder toward the muzzle. This will be the threaded area as the threading die won't cut over the shoulder. The stock Ruger flash suppressor extends past the end of the threads. I used a Brownell's 90 deg. barrel facing tool to square the muzzle, and a 45 deg crowing tool to clean up the rifling. Make sure you clean any shavings out of the barrel between each step. Coat the crowning tool pilot with heavy axle grease to keep the cutting chips out of the barrel. I used an adjustable threading die and started at it's largest setting. I decreased the thread diameter until the flash suppressor screwed on firmly, don't try to force it if the threads are too large. Then I just screwed the flash hider on until the threads bottomed out, verified it was straight and pinned and welded the flash suppressor in place. Verify the barrel length before you pin to make sure it's over 16" mine is right at 16.25" Buff the areas to be re-blued with 220 grit paper followed by steel wool and then used Oxpho-blue, I also blued the new crown and threads before installing the flash suppressor.
I really want a railed handguard cover, but I kept the original cover because I hold the stock right in front of the receiver, and I want to keep my finger-tips