How to modify a screw to fit your project’s needs.

by Norman E. Johnson

We should not throw a gun away or quit using simply because a part isn’t readily available. A good gunsmith can make the part, although doing so might becoming a lost art.

When a customer came to my shop in dire need of a special screw for his old Model 500 Mossberg shotgun, he had that “I really need help” look in his eye. The missing screw that retained the ejector was gone and he needed the gun repaired for the shotgun deer season only two days away. With no time to get a replacement screw, I suggested I might make one if the thread size was that which I had a screw for. This really excited him to stick around and I’d see what I could do.

The needed screw here is sandwiched between the bolt and the receiver with passage through the threaded receiver wall. The head thickness couldn’t be much over …

Read more in the December 2020 issue.

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