Silly_Ghillie
Well-Known Member
I looked for an existing conversation on this and couldn't find a good one. Some didn't have the right answer for me so here we are.
I have a Savage 110 with some thread issues in the scope base holes. My nearest gunsmith is over 150 miles away, so help on this matter will be surely appreciated. This is a long story, and I want to preface the situation that way I don't have to answer inevitable questions I know will surely come.
So, I tear down the rifle for a rebuild. I get all the way to the scope base and the holes are full of old blue thread lock. So I go out of my way to buy a tap from North Bay Tool in 8-40. Now, I know for a FACT that the existing screws are in this pitch. I have a nifty little tool that reads standard scope base screw sizes- so, I buy a tap, replacement rail and a screw kit from Brownells. All is Good.
About a week later, I get the time to start doing receiver work and start tapping the holes. I notice nothing out of the ordinary other than a slight tension- I thought it was the copious amount of Loctite I had used. I get to the point where I am threading in the new scope base screws and I notice an ever so slight increase in the amount of slop in the threads. I don't see any shavings, I get to the last hole closest to the barrel end of the receiver and the screw BARELY engages with the threads. I look deeper and the threads are trashed… I used every method at my disposal to do this the right way, but somehow, I screwed up. whether I did it while tapping or before that I don't know.
I immediately start to panic. I look at the tap, "yes, it's the right pitch", I look at the screws and test them- "they are all the right pitch". I put the tap in the thread tool and it wont thread…. The height of the cutting edge of the tap threads is about .015 over the original threads… never in my life have I ever had a tap that didn't work right or was the wrong size, so I didn't even think to check it in the thread gauge until it was too late.
So, here is my conundrum. I mounted the base as carefully as I could, using 30ish inch pounds as recommended by the manufacture of the base. I tightened the screw in the bad hole as tight as I felt was safe, and then used JB weld on the base and receiver surfaces to hopefully mitigate movement. I have no doubt that this will more than likely hold for now. The base was well fitting before so no worry on misalignment.
Now I don't ever intend on selling or getting rid of this rifle. But, in the case that I want to take the base off and repair it properly, what options do I have realistically? 8-40 is usually the next size up after a stripped #6 thread scope base hole, but what if the 8-40 hole is stripped? Do you go up to 10-32? Do you fill in the hole with cold weld and drill another one- having to customize every scope base to fit the new hole pattern?
I am up for suggestions. I would love to do something like weld the base on the receiver, but I already know you cannot do that without weakening the receiver. Any ideas that will help me fix my blunder? anything I can expect my gunsmith (last resort) to try and do?
I have a Savage 110 with some thread issues in the scope base holes. My nearest gunsmith is over 150 miles away, so help on this matter will be surely appreciated. This is a long story, and I want to preface the situation that way I don't have to answer inevitable questions I know will surely come.
So, I tear down the rifle for a rebuild. I get all the way to the scope base and the holes are full of old blue thread lock. So I go out of my way to buy a tap from North Bay Tool in 8-40. Now, I know for a FACT that the existing screws are in this pitch. I have a nifty little tool that reads standard scope base screw sizes- so, I buy a tap, replacement rail and a screw kit from Brownells. All is Good.
About a week later, I get the time to start doing receiver work and start tapping the holes. I notice nothing out of the ordinary other than a slight tension- I thought it was the copious amount of Loctite I had used. I get to the point where I am threading in the new scope base screws and I notice an ever so slight increase in the amount of slop in the threads. I don't see any shavings, I get to the last hole closest to the barrel end of the receiver and the screw BARELY engages with the threads. I look deeper and the threads are trashed… I used every method at my disposal to do this the right way, but somehow, I screwed up. whether I did it while tapping or before that I don't know.
I immediately start to panic. I look at the tap, "yes, it's the right pitch", I look at the screws and test them- "they are all the right pitch". I put the tap in the thread tool and it wont thread…. The height of the cutting edge of the tap threads is about .015 over the original threads… never in my life have I ever had a tap that didn't work right or was the wrong size, so I didn't even think to check it in the thread gauge until it was too late.
So, here is my conundrum. I mounted the base as carefully as I could, using 30ish inch pounds as recommended by the manufacture of the base. I tightened the screw in the bad hole as tight as I felt was safe, and then used JB weld on the base and receiver surfaces to hopefully mitigate movement. I have no doubt that this will more than likely hold for now. The base was well fitting before so no worry on misalignment.
Now I don't ever intend on selling or getting rid of this rifle. But, in the case that I want to take the base off and repair it properly, what options do I have realistically? 8-40 is usually the next size up after a stripped #6 thread scope base hole, but what if the 8-40 hole is stripped? Do you go up to 10-32? Do you fill in the hole with cold weld and drill another one- having to customize every scope base to fit the new hole pattern?
I am up for suggestions. I would love to do something like weld the base on the receiver, but I already know you cannot do that without weakening the receiver. Any ideas that will help me fix my blunder? anything I can expect my gunsmith (last resort) to try and do?
