Indexed Floor Plate Screws

[B. Dudley]

When looking at the bottom of the gun, blank is left, - is right and + is at rear.

That is how they are supposed to be. They dont always go that way and line up. Sometimes you have to shim the screws if they go past where they should be.

[Dean Romig]

Looking at those screws from the underside it appears to me that the threads were stretched downward indicating they were pulled down away from the screwheads from overtorquing.





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[edgarspencer]

Most often, when the trigger plate is taken off, it does not go in all the way, as it was before. I always tap around the edges with a small nylon hammer to seat it. If it's up .0005"(a half a thou) the screws will not be oriented as they were. Never use the screws to draw up the trigger plate.

A technique I was taught by Judson Darrow, long past, but the best gunsmith I ever met, was to take a sharp prick punch, and stamp one spot in the center of the thread end of the screw, that will put a small upset around the impression, and then tighten the screw back down. Alternatively, three prick punched impressions, in a triangle.

It's highly unlikely a screw with a perfect slot was over-tightened to the extent it stretched it. It is only the un-threaded shank that can stretch. Proper fitting threads, in holes don't stretch with hand tools, and the finer the thread, the more it resists deformity.