Uh oh.... I screwed up

I bedded my picatinny rail to the top of my Christensen ridgeline this morning and it actually came out beautiful. This is the third one I've done so I wasn't completely ignorant about the process. The problem is that somehow someway I've ended up with hardened epoxy in the front screw hole. All the other screws came out with no epoxy in the holes. The funny part is the screw came right out and actually threads just fine. It will thread down enough to hold the rail in place but there is epoxy in the bottom of the screw hole. I must have pushed some epoxy down with the screw initially or something. The epoxy does not interfere at all with the bolt operation or the intended purpose of the screw but it is bothering me that it is in there. My thought is to get a really small drill bit to drill it out but I'm not knowledgeable enough to know what will happen if the bit accidentally hits the bottom of the chamber. Looking for the experts help please... I don't want to screw up my new rifle!!!

Gunsmith.

Maybe remove the rail and then screw the screw in so it pushes it all the way through and then clean the piece out of the action? I'm just guessing here as ive never done it. Maybe it wouldn't work

That hard thing might be your barrel tenon.

Take a smaller than hole drill bit and spin BY HAND in the hole......you'll feel right away if its steel or epoxy. If it's epoxy the small hole left will give some room for epoxy to go when you run the screw back down (or use a bottom tap) First do no harm, but I think you can clean this up in a couple minutes.....your front hole should stop on your barrel threads on most guns.

Ckgworks said:

Take a smaller than hole drill bit and spin BY HAND in the hole......you'll feel right away if its steel or epoxy. If it's epoxy the small hole left will give some room for epoxy to go when you run the screw back down (or use a bottom tap) First do no harm, but I think you can clean this up in a couple minutes.....your front hole should stop on your barrel threads on most guns.

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I'll run a bit and see, problem is I didn't see if it was completely open before I started. Maybe there is no epoxy in there after all. Thanks I'll report back shortly.

laker said:

Maybe remove the rail and then screw the screw in so it pushes it all the way through and then clean the piece out of the action? I'm just guessing here as ive never done it. Maybe it wouldn't work

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Thanks I did try that but it would've stripped the threads if I kept going.

dok7mm said:

That hard thing might be your barrel tenon.

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You sir are correct! As soon as I started spinning the bit I knew it immediately.

Sorry for the false alarm guys, I guess I got a little paranoid. Thank you all for the slap to the back of the head - I guess I needed it.

HaHa! Bet you're not the only guy to freak out on that front screw hole. Glad that's all it was.

Depending on the type of epoxy it should not be that hard to remove. Take a REAL dental cleaning pick and use the sharp, bent end to scratch away the epoxy. Epoxy has to be really hard to be harder than the plaque in your mouth that these picks are designed to remove. This will not hurt your threads.

The other choice is a bottom tap if you have one that is exactly the right size and pitch for your screw hole. Personally, I would use the pick, far less chance of messing anything up.

Dean2 said:

Depending on the type of epoxy it should not be that hard to remove. Take a REAL dental cleaning pick and use the sharp, bent end to scratch away the epoxy. Epoxy has to be really hard to be harder than the plaque in your mouth that these picks are designed to remove. This will not hurt your threads.

The other choice is a bottom tap if you have one that is exactly the right size and pitch for your screw hole. Personally, I would use the pick, far less chance of messing anything up.

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Thank you for that tip. Thankfully I was mistaken but if it ever happens I know what to use.

Maybe a silly question, but what did you use epoxy for?

woodnut said:

Maybe a silly question, but what did you use epoxy for?

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To bed the picatinny rail

I kinda thought so. I believe that's way over kill, unless on a hard recoiling rifle. At the most, I only use blue locktight on bases and nothing on rings. Been doing this for many years and many rifles. If bases are correct and rings too, that's all you should ever need. unless on a very hard recoiling rifle.