Should any rifle used for a serious purpose have the scope screws changed to 8x40 ? Rawhider

Absolutely. Use high strength Torex head.

And I use 10-32 screws on the real bad boys.

Rawhider--

I only change to 8-40 if the old screw holes are off center to the action.

To straighten them they HAVE to be BORED straight. There's NO way to straighten by redrilling.

Scopes have gotten MUCH heavier and MUCH bigger and scope mounts no longer have a recoil block built in. For these reasons (only) are heavier screws needed.

The amound of shear stress against three screws between an old 3-9 scope in old Redfield, Burris, Leupold or Bueller mounts with a recoil shoulder and a new "trash can" scope sitting a yard above the bore in slick bottom mounts are tremendous.....and very impractical.

I degrease the bases and JB weld (epoxy) them to the rifle. If you need to get them off you can heat them and soften the epoxy. Otherwise the never move again. Since the glue takes up all the gaps they never wiggle in the tiniest amount therefore they don't stress the screws.

[ 09-20-2002, 19:39: Message edited by: scot ]