I was out shooting my M70 Ultra Grade the other day when the accuract suddenly went to hell so I started looking at what could have happened and found that the rear ring was loose on the base (Leupold type rings/bases). No big deal until I also noticed that since it allowed the scope to move during recoil both of the screws holding the front base on snapped off flush with the receiver!

What is the best way to remove these screws?

I use one of two ways. A moto tool with a tiny dental burr can cut a screw driver slot or center punch the screw and drill it out with a smaller bit then the screw is. If the holes go all the way through the action, they will usually screw through when drilling.
Yours should not be tight and sometimes just sticking a sharp pointed tool near the edge and turning the screw will remove it. It sounds as if your screws were not loc tited. Loose screws will shear, they must be TIGHT.

if they have been loc-tited you may have to drill a hole in the screw , and put a reverse thread in it so when u put a bolt in it itll loosen the screw but you will be doing the bolt up.

hardish to explain it.

If you loctited them in, get about a 60w soldering iron and heat up the screw for a few minutes to break the bonds of the glue. Then if you have something to "bite," use a sharp punch and a tack hammer to spin the screw nub out.

If that fails, well now is great time to upgrade to that 8x40 hardware everyone's been talking about.

If you're successful in backing the piece of screw out, you might put a bug in Leupold's ear about their defective hardware and ask them to replace it. I've had pretty good experience with Leupold's customer service thus far so I'd bet they'd give you a new screw.

The proper tool to use is called an Ezi-out.

They are 8 or 9 bucks at your local hardware/auto shop.

You need to drill out the centre of the broken screw first.
You then insert the appropriate sized ezi-out into this hole and then simply unscrew the broken screw out of its hole using this little tool.
The Ezi-out has a left hand spiral on its flanks that bite into the sides of the hole you drilled in the screw and simply backs it out of the hole.
The harder you turn it the more it bites into the sides of the screw.
The hardest part is drilling the hole.

I have some Tin coated carbide mini end mills that I use. Works great on broken taps also. It does need to be done in a mill.
Butch

quote:

Originally posted by Avatar:
You need to drill out the centre of the broken screw first.

Well since you're planning to dril the hole anyway, do it with a small left handed drill bit, That way if the screw happens to break free while you;re drilling it, it will come on out. Usually sets that include a 1/16" bit are not much.