Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Whew! That was a close one.

I want to tell you a story about my recent bit of gunsmithing heartache. It turned out well, but it took my LGS to make it happen.

Back in early October, my #2 son brought a friend of his down to shoot at the farm. The fellow is a nice guy, a relative newbie in his early 20's. He showed up with a Mossberg Patriot in 308 WIN that he'd just gotten from a gun show. It was a "package deal" rifle: the rifle, a Caldwell bipod, and a 50mm Barska scope. He brought a bunch of ammo to try, including some 180 grainers. By the end of the session the big honkin' scope had nearly rattled off its mount. The scope was showing signs of internal damage. Whoever had put the "package deal" together had not bothered with Locktite.

I suggested a modest upgrade in scope to a Bushnell mil-dot. The fellow gave me $180 on the spot, and I agreed to order the scope and mount it when it came in. When the scope arrived, I went to re-affix the Weaver mount and found I could not get the scope to align. I went to remove the Weaver mount and replace it with a Leupold STD and found the outing with the 180 grainers had partially sheared off the head of the front mounting screw. It came off.

I called my LGS, Hibberd's Armory in Cleves. The said they would get the screw out for me. I dropped off the rifle and then. . .

It was well into NOvember before my weekly calls for status yielded something. It was bad news. The smith had munged up the hole, getting it tapped. I was expecting the worst. Then I got wonderful news: my LGS was going to eat the rifle and replace it! I called the owner of the rifle and put him in touch with Hibberds. A couple of weeks later, a new Mossberg Patriot rifle arrived at my house and I got the scope mounted and returned within a day.

Well at least they got that one part right.
The mounts were probably just too loose to begin with or the screw was damaged or over sized when it was installed, since a 308 wouldn't have had the recoil to break the screw had it been tight.

My guess is of the 4 screws on the mount, the front one was torqued close to breaking. When the guy discovered he was overtightening, he just barely tightened the other three.

The scope was a monster as well. The shooter probably went through 3 boxes of 180 grain ammo with only one screw bearing the whole force.

They need to find a new 'smith'...


But that store stepped up big-time.. Excellent news, IMHO..

I've had excellent work done through them in the past. It's not a full service gunsmith, but he covers about 80% of the things I can't do myself.

Sound like stand up folk.

Good to hear this!

All of you need to go to a treatment center and be cleansed of Barska exposure.

+1 on this

My experience has taught me that packaged rifles are not field ready. The scope should be removed and the bases properly torqued and loctited. Then lap the rings and re-mount the scope with loctite on the screws and again, properly torqued.

I dont understand those who feel the need to loctite everything. I can almost understand, and even get on board with the base screws...but ring screws? Completely unnecessary and does more harm than good.

Only if you use the wrong Loctite.