Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters How do you tighten the stock screws on a Mauser

B-Square made them, but no more I guess. Had to buy slotted ones for my Husky last year. Midway has some for other actions from Forster and NECG. Maybe the Mauser market is drying up. Lots of new rifles have them.

To me a vintage Mauser with hex screws is like a Jaguar XK-120 with mag wheels and low profile tires.

fremont,

I ended up with hex-head screws on a couple of Mauser actions some years ago, but got rid of them in favor of old-fashioned slot-head screws because I was traveling to hunt a lot back then. I started using a take-down rifle case because it was so much handier in many situations, from airports to vehicles, and simply took my bolt-action rifles out of their stocks, then put them back together again upon arrival wherever I was hunting.

I found it a LOT easier (and less stressful) to use slot-head screws than hex-head screws, partly because some sort of standard screwdriver is always available anywhere around the world. But I also always carry a Swiss Army knife, and ground the screwdriver blade to fit the slots in Mauser action screws, along with putting a switch-tip screwdriver in my gun case, with a hollow handle and the appropriate tips for stock or scope-mount screws.

In fact I even switched some of my non-Mauser rifles to slot-head screws for the same reason, such as my NULA .30-06. But I often preferred to travel with Mauser-based rifles, because of their one-piece magazine/trigger guard assembly. I would screw it back on the action after taking the stock off, because it did a great job of protecting the trigger assembly, and also made sure the action screws weren't misplaced.

I'm not as concerned about hex-head action screws these days, because I don't fly with my rifles nearly as much. But I don't see any advantage in hex-head screws partly because after considerable experimenting I never could find any difference in how well my rifles shot with their action screws tightened by a torque wrench, versus just tightening them by hand. And that includes several super-accurate rifles like that NULA .30-06.

Someone should make a torque driver marked "Farmer, Damn, Pretty, Snug, and Friction". Save a lot of confusion.
.............. LMAO Pappy...... Almost sprayed coffee on the screen but that would simplify things. Perhaps the Wheeler Fat Wrench marketing dept. could look into that.

Bring them both just snug, then tighten the hll out of them with an impact wrench.

Actually I have a method that seems to work even on Husqvarna 98 Mausers. I snug both a bit, then I tighten the rear guard screw very tight, then I tighten the lug screw very tight. Short of glassing the heck out of the action, this seems to work adequately. I also frequently tighten the screws on guns I get from out of this area with its dry climate, as they dry out over time.

I gotta believe that Denton typo'd and meant pound/inch. 40 pound force/inch & 20 pound force/inch is reasonable.I don't want to speak for Denton though.