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August 30, 2026
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New to the Forum with my first post. I’m trying to clean up a takedown model 1897 #C 204664 and I’ve managed to get everything apart EXCEPT the Action Slide Lock because I can’t get the Action Slide Lock Joint Pin Stop Screw to budge. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a smaller screw on a shotgun (maybe some sight screws). I’ve soaked it in Kroil with no luck. I’ve used “precision” screwdrivers with no luck. I’m thinking of heating the carrier to see if that works.
Judging from the other parts I’ve removed, I don’t believe it’s been fully disassembled since it was made, and I know that’s probably the problem. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I did a search for this problem but couldn’t find anything, I apologize if this has been asked before.
Are there any recommendations for where I can find the small screwdriver that fits this little devil?
April 30, 2023
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Keep dripping the kroil and if you add heat, use a hair dryer or a lower-setting heat gun, not a flame. Also once you have a nice fitting tip in the screw head, give the driver a few light taps with a hammer to help shock it. I think those are also pretty well known to strip too…you might want a gunsmith to drill it out if you’re not comfortable with that and still can’t get it to budge…
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March 15, 2020
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My old gun nut friend said if you have access to a drill press, insert proper fitting screw driver in chuck. With the stuck screw item firmly secured, lower the screw driver down into the screw slot. While holding pressure down and the drill press off slowly turn the chuck by grasping the drill press belt. This has worked for me a few times.
December 9, 2002
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Jeremy P said
Keep dripping the kroil and if you add heat, use a hair dryer or a lower-setting heat gun, not a flame. Also once you have a nice fitting tip in the screw head, give the driver a few light taps with a hammer to help shock it. I think those are also pretty well known to strip too…you might want a gunsmith to drill it out if you’re not comfortable with that and still can’t get it to budge…
Welcome to the forum, consider joining as a full member!
86Win said
My old gun nut friend said if you have access to a drill press, insert proper fitting screw driver in chuck. With the stuck screw item firmly secured, lower the screw driver down into the screw slot. While holding pressure down and the drill press off slowly turn the chuck by grasping the drill press belt. This has worked for me a few times.
I do like both of these suggestions and can understand them completely as I have been there using both methods and almost combing them. I have always been a fan of Kroil, and have stated this in the past. When we work on a project as this, hurrying isn’t the proper method to use. Think about “the one shot you have to not screw it up”! Taking you’re time and revisiting it to add another drop of kroil, and a light tapping practice, of several small hits, with a small hammer, of choice, on the right small and proper screw driver is Paramount. Having the proper set up and securing the firearm is second to none. By doing this you’re shocking and working on breaking the bond whether it be rust and corrosion or even some sort of thread locker holding the small screw in place as someone, possibly, didn’t want it to work loose. Then the drill press method slowly and carefully, can be tried, helping to place the needed downward pressure and slowly trying to turn the screw loose at the same time. IMHO!
Tony
August 27, 2014
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Shooter, welcome to the Forum
Your predicament is precisely the reason I resist the temptation to take old guns apart to clean them up.
Over the years I’ve found (with maybe 1 or 2 extreme exceptions) that simply wiping down the gun and if necessary cleaning accessible internal and external cracks and crevices with a q-tip, toothpick and a solvent/oil soaked patch is more than sufficient and scratches my itch.
You’ve received some good advice. I’ve removed stuck screws on scope rings a couple times by applying Kroil, securing the gun securely in a vise, applying heat to the screw with a soldering iron and having a go at the screw with a reverse drill bit (but I didn’t have to reuse the screw). If all else fails take to a gunsmith.
Good Luck
“If you can’t convince them, confuse them”
President Harry S. Truman
January 20, 2023
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Is there any possibility the screw has been “staked” in place with shellac or phenolic varnish? When the gun was first assembled, LocTite and similar products did not exist. Unlike modern threadlockers, which are often color coded to reveal themselves in cured form, old dried shellac is invisible after being stained by oil and powder residue. At the time your gun was made , shellac was the “go to” threadlocker for gunsmiths. Anaerobic threadlockers were not commercially available until 1956 and not in broad use until later.
Kroil is not a solvent for shellac. Methyl/Ethyl (“denatured”) alcohol is the standard solvent. 91% Isopropyl alcohol is its solvent too but works much slower because of the water content. The fastest solvent for shellac is acetone. Just be careful with it because it will damage plastic and wood finishes.
More than a year ago I broke off the threaded shank of a 6-48 filister head screw, leaving it frozen in place in a scope mounting hole. It had been locked in place, no earlier than 1960, with shellac. I’d used Kroil, then pinpoint heat with a gas operated mini-soldering gun, then more Kroil. No luck. After I finally figured out there was a colorless threadlocker in place, I switched to Isopropyl alcohol and eventually got two of the three screws out, then tried to use the one-piece scope base as a lever to turn out the balky screw. Ping!
What made this event more than usually tense was the gun: a Winchester Model 52C Sporting rifle, one of only about 1,314 ever made, according to Houze.
A gunsmith’s fee later for getting the broken shank out of the hole and chasing the female threads in the receiver, I put the Redfield Jr. base in my parts box, I recently decided to re-use it and saw the filister head and part of the shank was still frozen in the unthreaded mounting hole of the base. I soaked it in an airtight tray of acetone overnight and was able to brush the residue out with a stiff old toothbrush. A little Kroil cleaned the part up.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
August 30, 2026
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Thanks for the advice. Anthony, I know from experience the need to take things slow. Zebulon, I can’t see any evidence of shellac or staking. TedK, I’m sure it hasn’t been disassembled to this extent since it left the factory over 100 years ago, so I want to get as much gunk out to get to run a bit smoother. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even consider taking it down this far.
I’m going to keep trying the Kroil and tapping method for a while longer before the drill press.
Thanks again, great information.
January 7, 2017
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Using a hot soldering iron tip to directly heat the screw will allow it to stretch a bit and maybe break loose- just let it cool. A shot of Weicon freeze spray will do the opposite….
Technically, the glass is always full; half liquid, half air....
WACA #10293
December 9, 2002
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rwsem said
Using a hot soldering iron tip to directly heat the screw will allow it to stretch a bit and maybe break loose- just let it cool. A shot of Weicon freeze spray will do the opposite….
Ron,
Some very good reminder tips that you added.
The tip of the soldering iron has been mentioned before and always a great suggestion to try to help solve these stuck screws. IMHO!
The Weicon Freeze spray, is an old time trick also that I haven’t seen mentioned here before, but it really does work when needed.
Think about what you’re trying to accomplish, as the temperature change whether it be hot or cold, can really effect the molecules in the metal screw that you’re trying to loosen. One small screw can kick you’re but on a project and some will walk away or shy away from these projects to do so.
Each project is a little different, but requiring the same methods, just in different stages, depending on the severity of the frozen/rusted/thread locker part or parts!
The gun smith is a lost Art as many professions, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. I can’t tell you how many times I have put a little juice, depending on the project to what I use, on and came back the next day or so, and tapped and refreshed the process. Patience is so important, and especially when dealing with collectable firearms, where we don’t want to harm the finish, in any manner. Be it a scratch, or whatever! IMHO!
Tony
April 30, 2023
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…forgot the soldering iron trick, that’s a good one!
January 20, 2023
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Shooter27 said
…….. Zebulon, I can’t see any evidence of shellac or staking. …….I’m going to keep trying the Kroil and tapping method for a wh ile longer before the drill press.
My point was the shellac threadlocker was invisible because it was below the screw head. I never saw it until after everything was broken loose. I deduced it was there because everything else that has been suggested to you here, except the drill press, was tried and failed.
I employed the rough equivalent of the drill press technique by using the scope mount base as a lever. It broke the screw off. Had I used the drill press, the same thing would have happened unless the screw slot wallowed out first.
Before you decide you need to apply the torque a manually turned drill press provides — which will break the screw or destroy the slot if the threads are sealed — I strongly suggest you drip some acetone below the screw head and let it work. If it doesn’t, it evaporates and you can relubricate with Kroil before proceeding with the drill press. Nothing lost except time.
If you are dealing with a bond stronger than rust and dirt can develop, what you propose to do won’t work. Mind you, I hope I’m wrong. But prudence requires assuming the bond can’t be broken by force alone, before you apply more force.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
August 27, 2014
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Shooter,
When I get the urge to be the first to turn screws on a 100+ year old gun that looks like it’s never been disassembled a look at my Brownell’s set and a big whiff of Kroil will usually bring me to my senses.
“If you can’t convince them, confuse them”
President Harry S. Truman
January 20, 2023
Online
Tedk said
Shooter,
When I get the urge to be the first to turn screws on a 100+ year old gun that looks like it’s never been disassembled a look at my Brownell’s set and a big whiff of Kroil will usually bring me to my senses.
Remember the Saturday TV program,
Ramar of the Jungle? “Sahib, a thousand pardons but the men will go no further, even should you shower them with rupees. This land is cursed and any so foolish as to enter it will never know a good day afterward. Beware!.”
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
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