Thread: Remove loctite-fastened howa superlite rail?

Good chance that, as well as the screws, the rail has been glued to the receiver, same as factory fitted rails on Tikkas. There may or may not be loctite on the actual screws - they may simply have picked up some adhesive from the rail on their way in.

The bloke who runs the YT channel "Bolt Action Productions" removed the rail from his Howa U/L, and it shouldn't be hard to contact him and enquire as to how he got it off.

Rails are an abomination in most cases - make low scope mounting impossible with most rails, and then the owner puts on a cheek riser to compensate for the scope being up where it doesn't need to be. They have their uses, but on a Howa U/L isn't one of them.

Either way, I 100% agree with those who suggest getting it back from the shop before they bugger something.

My superlite rail came off ok but was a very poor fit, there was 0.5mm of error between the front height and rear (I couldn't get my scope to go low enough). It wasn't a canted rail either, if ya tightened the rear screws the front of the base lifted off the reciever ring!

Fairly easily fixed with 30 minutes of file work but shouldn't have had too and a real trap for houng players!

Unfortunately I'm out of town for a week, so it's in their care now. I suspect they were using rubbish tools, I heard one of the guys mention they'd need to go buy a proper Milwaukee bit, which apparently wouldn't toast itself so easy.
I could call tomorrow and tell them to leave it, not touch it.

Originally Posted by Brad S

Unfortunately I'm out of town for a week, so it's in their care now. I suspect they were using rubbish tools, I heard one of the guys mention they'd need to go buy a proper Milwaukee bit, which apparently wouldn't toast itself so easy.
I could call tomorrow and tell them to leave it, not touch it.

I would not let these muppets service a toaster, but your call...

Either way, I 100% agree with those who suggest getting it back from the shop before they bugger something.

and give a gunsmith a mongrel job trying to fix - worse the holes are stuffed -

If they've flogged out the head of the Allen capscrew, the next option is to drive the next size up Torx bit into it and it's pretty rare that that with a bit of heat won't do the job.

If the torque, Allen key head is stuffed get someone who knows what their doing to drill the heads off the screws, remove the base and remove the remainder of the screws with grips and heat if required.