Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors rear sight mounting screws for Savage 23B & C

Looking for two sets of mounting screws for the Lyman 48Y rear sight for the Savage 23 B and C. The receiver is factory drilled for a large and small screw about 1.1 inches apart and I have the Lyman sights, but no screws. They are evidently odd sizes (5x36 and 10x36?) and no one I have spoken with has them. I can have it re-tapped and use more common screws but these rifles have made it 90+ years without being messed with and I hate to do that. Can anyone help?-Matt

You can find 10x36-1/4" brass round head slotted machine screws but the 5x36...good luck. I think Savage went to a 6x48 on the later production 23AA and 19's.

Another option would be to have a batch made. Lots of sight but few screws!

I do business with this fella, and Joe is as good a guy as there is.

Contact him, he might have some or could/would make 'em.

dave

http://www.aperturesnmore.com/

Is the Savage 99 bolt stop and trigger spring screw a #5-36?

Of course they are hard to find too.

Assuming they are the same as on a 23-A the larger screw is the same as the front mounting screw for Winchester tang sights, they screw right in but the head would not be correct. Size is listed as 3/16-36 which is an obsolete size but is almost the same as #10-36, just a little larger. The smaller screw is #5-48 (or the obsolete 1/8"-48, I think in this case they are exactly the same size).

Original Savage sights use slotted button head screws, most other sights and scope mounts require fillister heads with the head on the #5 needing to be the same size as the head of the larger screw, which makes it even more of a problem.

I bought a supply of NOS slotted button head unplated wood screws in both sizes that are long enough that they do not have threads full length, I thread these past the wood threads and then cut them to size. They a rather soft steel though. I found threading dies for both of these sizes. If you try to thread these with a screwdriver in the slot it will damage the slot, I leave the wood threads on and run them through the die until I can grab the end in a drill chuck or a vise and thread them that way without touching the head. You might be able to do about the same thing with long allen head cap screws that are not threaded all the way.