40-X middle screw troque

E

eeleater

Guest
Not specifically a BR question- but you guys pay attention this kind of stuff...

I recently obtained a 40-X through the CMP- overall in excellent condition. I want to optimize for accuracy- but not modify the stock.

I presently have the front and rear screws at 45 in lb- and put the middle at about 25 In lb.

How would the middle screw typically be torqued?
 
All it does on my stock is hold the trigger gaurd on and on most guns I've seen, it isn't even there. I'd say snug enough it doesnt fall out.
 
I am no expert on the subject but I would not think those screws need to any were near that tight . In the testing I have done I have never tighten the screws past 21 inch lbs on my rimfires
 
You need to take that out and see what it does. As already said, it usually just hold the trigger guard on. As for the other screws, Anschutz recommends 5 newton meters, which I think is around 44 inch pounds. I keep mine at 38 inch pounds. But I would guess your middle screw is not holding the action.
 
The 45 inch lb is from the anchutz rifles and other reading I have done.

I had looked in an military appearing manual I had downloaded a couple of years ago- and found no mention of a specific torgue for any of the action screws.
 
While I'm not--

A 22 rimfire competitor I do shoot a 40x 22 cal. I torque front and rear action screws to 25"# with a calibrated torque tool, the action being properly bedded. This is almost white nuckle time with a screw driver for me. If you change to allen head screws you can get a lot moore leverage with an allen wrench, but you may be compressing the wood. As another poster said, you just don't wan't the center screw to fall out.[snug only] For what it's worth, mine shoots better in the wood stock.
Opinions are only that, they will differ.

Steve Moore
 
In my 40x my son shoot that Roger Brock smithed, I torque the front and rear screw to 40 in/lbs. The middle screw has a scale on it (hard to explain) that I have played with to see if it makes a difference. I have never measured the torque on it, but it ended up best right in the middle of the scale and I figure about 20-25 in/lbs of torque.
 
I don't know it all either, but if pillar bedded I always thought you could go over 50 inch pounds, without damaging anything. But best results are in the 30 to 45 range. But if not pillar bedded in a wood stock, anything greater than 25 inch pounds starts to compress the wood too much and can damage the stock.
 
40x

Throw the middle screw away. Seriously, It can only cause problems, especially on a non bedded, non pillared wood base. It was only there to hold the guard and is not necessary. If your bed is low in the middle it has the tendency to bow the action downward creating a stress on the action. As was also mentioned get the front and rear in the 20 to 30 (in/lbs).
Most of the time torque figures are determined by testing with various ammo at different torque settings to find what degree works best, not at somebody elses determined settings. What works best in one may not be true of yours.
Getting into high torque settings increase the possibility of thread stripping, not the screws, but the receiver.
If not mistaken didn't Rem replace that screw with a wood screw?

bjm
 
From my rusty memory . . .

Back when I started glass bedding Remington centerfire actions: Hmm, that would have been 50+ years ago: I remember reading in the American Rifleman that, "You can tune that action like a violin by changing the torque on the middle screw."

Can't tell you for sure who the author of that article was, but my guess is it was Mike Walker. Mike was the Remington engineer who designed the Remington 700 and 40X series actions. He and his wife were also centerfire benchrest shooters.

Joe Haller
 
I too threw mine out, and here's the reason why. My old 40X had been both glass and pillar bedded. One day while playing with different torque settings I found that my bolt suddenly got extremely hard to open. Thinking it might be due to the middle screw causing the action to bend, I started to investigate and soon found it was not because of the action bending at all, but rather due to that middle screw being a tad too long and coming up through the bottom of the action just far enough to press up against the bottom of the bolt. THROW THE DAMN THING OUT AND BE DONE WITH IT!

If for some reason you still feel the need to have that middle screw there, since its only purpose is to secure the front of the trigger guard add some sort of nut inside the stock for a much shorter screw to screw into rather than having it go all the way up and through the action.

Oh, and I found my 40X shot much better without it rather than with it, even when only snugged in place.

Dave
 
If I get the right conditions and have the time and inclination I might try some limited experimenting with different torques- and with no middle screw.

On other guns I have installed custom made aluminum pillar bedding- which I torque to the action and then glue the pillars into the stock while torqued. I have tried different torque values after doing this- but they made no difference.
 
40X screw

Hi Joe,

Just a note on your reply. Today it stuck me, I do recall an article, but it was in GD and was written by Mike Walker. It was about fine tuning with the tang screw, not the middle screw. Next trip to the range I tightened my tang screw 1/4 turn and groups were cut in half. Again, I had no middle screw.

bjm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rusty Memory . . .

Hi Brian:

As I remember, the article I read was in the American Rifleman somewhere about 1956-57. It was a detailed story on glassing the Remington 721-22. That was before the 700 came along. That got me started on glass bedding. My first job was on a 722 in .257 Roberts. I was shooting 1.5" groups with reloads before bedding. Shot it before breaking the action free of the glass, and got .5" groups. Broke if free and it never shot that well again. I didn't learn about "glue-In" jobs until 22 years later, when I attended my first centerfire benchrest match at the SuperShoot on George Kelbly's range in 1978.

Joe
 
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