Help with a bent flintlock jaw screw...

[James Dietz]

Hello all. I have a Euroarms made 1803 Harpers Ferry rifle. Perhaps the jaw screw was not properly hardened at time of manufacture. On pulling the hammer back the crew bent to such a point I cannot remove it. I am afraid of messing up the threading on the hammer. Question is how can I remove it safely and question 2 is where can I get a replacement screw? I cant seem to find one. Any help is appreciated. Thank you so much.

 

[waarp8nt]

Can you post a picture? That may help with opinions of the repair. I found a screw for my Uncle's rifle at Dixie Gunw Works, Track of the Wolf should have something too. You will need to know if it's standard or metric threads and the number of threads per inch.

 

[EC121]

If you can't turn it out, cut it in half with a Dremel tool or hacksaw, slot the end, and turn it out. Then either get a replacement screw or tap the hole to a thread that is available.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

... cut it in half with a Dremel tool or hacksaw, slot the end, and turn it out.

I'd try to cut it at the point of maximum bend so whatever amount of bend is there is split between the 2 pieces. For example, simply cutting off the end of the cock screw would do zero for removal of the other end, if the bend was well above that point.

 

[rafterob]

Common for them to get bent if the cock is fired without a flint in it. That allows the screw (on some locks) to contact the frizzen, thus bending it. I may have found that out the hard way. The gunbuilder I took it to chucked it in his lathe, heated it and using a smooth guide of some sorts coaxed it back to straight.

 

[James Dietz]

Thank you all so much for this information! I shall attempt to cut it out today with my dremel and replace.