Someone got screws stuck in my "New" rifle!

[spitfire_er]

I am wondering if anyone has a good way to get action screws out of a bad bedding job.

Here's what I have. I just bought a custom .264 WM. All the metal work was done by an old timer gunsmith that does BR quality work, However ........ since then, someone has since made a poor attempt at bedding the action in the laminated stock with Devcon, and I can found some "Wet" devcon around the stuck screw, and the front screw that came out. I know the guy that did the metal work and he is old school and does not use Devcon, so I know for a fact it was not him. This is on a 1917 Enfield. Now I have tried doing it by hand, to no avail. Then I soaked it in Kroil.... nothing.... getting serious, I broke out the hammer, and impact driver.... it turned about 1/5 turn and it's stuck again....... so it is now soaking in kroil again....


I was thinking about maybe taking a propane torch to the rear tang, and giving it a little heat to see if that would help, but other than that or drilling out the old screw I'm stuck.

Any sugestions!

 

[shooter63]

turn what you can without stripping and soak turn back& forewards soak some more till kroll soaks right on through not a gunsmith but id try this good luck shooter63

 

[watercam]

Put the whole thing in the freezer for a couple of hours and try again. Should break free. Avoid torching any part of the action! At worst torch the head of the screw for a SHORT time.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Heat will help release the bedding from the screw. Try heating just the screw by holding a soldering iron on the head of the screw for a while. It may take several minutes to get it hot enough, but at about 200 degrees the glue should let go.--Mike

 

[tinkerer]

Freezer. Worked for me when I got a little overzealous with the devcon.

Larry
Tinkerer

 

[brfun]

a iron like Mike mentioned is the way i would go at it. recently i had to remove a trigger guard that was glued in during someones P pour attempt at a bedding job. five minuets with the wife's iron and it was like pulling the guard from butter.
Brian.

 

[spitfire_er]

Well, I got it out. I soaked it in kroil again for about 4 hours then tried the iron trick. My soldering iron was not sufficient enough to heat it up, and I'm not sure I could have fit a regular iron in there. I ended up using a mini propane torch on the lowest setting for about 15 seconds and it was still hard but it came out with the impact driver.

I was really happy that other than the screw, I didn't get a scratch on the rifle. I will most likely end up replacing the rear screw, but that's easy enough.

One thing that I did find on top of the bedding job was whenever they finished the stock, I guess they felt the need to finish the bedding job too. I cleaned it up best I could, but by the looks of things I'll most likely end up cutting it all down and giving it a good skim job.

The barrel is also canted down at the front of the stock, and didn't get fully seated at the tang area.....

I know some people have the best intentions when they make an attempt at these things, but if you don't know what you are doing, try it out on a practice rifle, not a $1,500 custom.