Help with Tikka Sporter

[Ruggedtouch]

OK, so I have a new Sporter and a picatinny rail purchased from Mountain Tactical. The four screws in the top of the receiver are clearly smaller than the 6x48 screws supplied with the rail. I understand that Tikka's manufactured after '04 accept the 6x48 screws. Su'um don't look right.

 

[JGorski]

Have your smith drill them out to 8-40s. That's what I've been doing with my remingtons.

 

[Ruggedtouch]

That's a possibility.

I just feel like there's something I'm not understanding here. The rail attachment to the receiver should be a simple matter with four screws and a supplied recoil pin. All the research I've done tells me the screws supplied with the rail should fit.

 

[bmacconaghy]

I thought the tikka rifles were metric?

 

[Ruggedtouch]

The Beretta website lists 6x48 as the screw size used for bases. The screws that came out of the receiver were clearly not. They were absolutely miniscule screws.

 

[6brshooter]

It is 6-48, tikka uses plastic hole plugs. The plastic fills the threads and stays in them after the plugs are removed. My sporter i picked up last year did this, i got the smaller metric screws from egw and they were too small. My smith used a 6-48 tap and cleaned them out. The tap just removed plastic, no metal, and the 6-48 screws threaded in perfect. Gorski, the mountain tac base op has uses a SS heavy pin that acts as a recoil lug. The receiver has a machined hole that accepts the SS stud, pretty damn nice and rock solid.

 

[Ruggedtouch]

Thanks for your reply, 6brshooter. Sounds like I'll have to look around for a gunsmith to have the same thing done.

 

[6brshooter]

Brownells sell that tap, might not be a bad thing to have on hand.

 

[Graywolf.260]

Thanks for your reply, 6brshooter. Sounds like I'll have to look around for a gunsmith to have the same thing done.

Just carefully and slowly unscrew the plastic fillers and they will come out in one piece- if you already took them out and there is plastic remaining in the holes just use a toothpick or something you don't need to tap the threads. The performance rail they make works great with the lug and 6-48 screws.

 

[Ruggedtouch]

Thanks for the advise, Graywolf. I used a toothpick to carefully scrape away bits of plastic clogging the threads. The screws were tight when starting into the threads but all is good.

Thanks all for the advise.