KiwiM4

Good point - and I should have mentioned this - I'm not confident that the snap ring was still in place properly - which obviously wouldn't have helped. And yes, nice handling by Mesa. My GG&G bolt release pad arrived today. I decided I can't face any more hiccups at the moment so just dropped the whole lot into the Benelli agent and asked them to fit the pad, and replace the end cap and the ring.

This, taken together with your earlier comments, suggests that it is obviously foolish to use loctite on the screw. Clearly I now know this with the benefit of hindsight, but disagree with any assertion that this should have been so readily apparent to the ordinary layperson that doing so was some type of 'silliness'. The screw can loosen under normal shooting conditions as I have experienced (due to a cost-concious design approach) and it does not seem unreasonable to use non-permanent loctite. And it is not like I didn't tighten it properly to begin with - at 6'5" and 280 pounds I can definitely wield a screwdriver. I suspect you have more experience with the mechanical elements of firearms etc than I do given you could easily judge that loctite would be a bad idea etc, but for most people, loctiting a screw that comes loose is not close to 'silliness'. Anyway, I am certainly not trying to blame this all on the product and totally accept that a good part of it is down to user error. And I still love the Urbino - not allowed to have the C-stock where I am so the Urbino was a very welcome product.

First - NEVER use loctite on the screw I guess. It looks like there was loctite on the threads - but it would have been the blue non-permanent stuff as it's the only type I have. I can remember the stock coming loose a while ago after shooting and I had to tighten it, looks like I put some blue loctite on it as well. I think it was just sticky enough so that the initial 'break' when I torqued the screw to undo it instead started the endcap unscrewing - and after that, there was no way to recover it. Secondly, spoke to Mesa. They have heard of this happening once before. I said I might have used blue loctite, and nevertheless, they were happy to replace the stock free of charge. Suggested I try to drill the screw out and if that didn't work, cut the stock and they will send me a replacement. Really great service. Anyway, couldn't drill it (as it would just spin) so cut the stock up to free the endcap. Once I got it apart, examined the threads and there was a little loctite in them. Have emailed Mesa to say I need a replacement, but will happily split the cost as I contributed to it by using the blue loctite. Have suggested that if they revamp the instructions, an express warning against use of loctite may be a good idea. And finally, yes, like SD says, it would have been great if it fastened like the factory stocks - a very clever design. The Mesa screw can come loose as I know from personal experience, and yet I wouldn't want to tighten it too much or use loctite as I think the issue I had could then result. In future, when I go shooting I will have to take a screwdriver with me as won't rely on it staying tight. Anyway, good on Mesa for being helpful and offering to replace. I will replace the endcap myself as although it still works, it got a bit beat-up and the outside threads aren't great. Hope this helps someone else avoid the same problem with their Urbino. Thanks again for the help - really appreciated. PS - the stock is very solid - was hard work cutting it up ... [ATTACH=CONFIG]1047[/ATTACH]

Thanks StrangerDanger and Bello. Yes, it is indeed a train wreck. Totally. I have spent half the day on this and am getting nowhere, except for busted fingers, a couple of scratches and a lot of elevated blood pressure! It is possible I used loctite on the Mesa screw - can't remember now but I could have. Thanks for suggestion of trying a socket on it. Been going on it since you posted it up. Sprayed it with a WD-40 equivalent, heated it up, and went hard out pressing against it with various sized sockets while turning the Mesa screw. It unscrewed a tiny bit but have hit a point now where the level of force I can bring to bear with a socket is not enough to overcome the resistance in the threads. And even worse, as you say SD, is that I can't even just put it back together witht he Urbino on it. Can't get the recoil spring back in when the stock retaining screw (part 45 - 'endcap') is inside the stock as there is too much tension in the spring to make it line up etc without being able to access the holes in the recoil tube (thanks for tip about pinning the spring). So think you are right - the Urbino stock is a write-off unless Mesa helps me out, and will have to order new parts 44 and 45. Will call Mesa and ask them about it. It's the first time I've ever tried to remove the Urbino, and not happy it is effectively unremoveable in this instance. Still, always loved Mesa's products and have them on two other shotguns as well - and the LOP on the Urbino was great. Maybe it is my fault if I used loctite. Thanks again guys. Will post up how I get on with Mesa - if this is a common issue with the Urbino, people need to be wary. I expect Mesa will be helpful - always had good service from them.

Would really appreciate some help with this. I want to remove the Urbino stock from my M4 and put the factory non-pistolgrip stock back on. I popped the butt pad off and started to unscrew the big screw inside. The one that looks like this: [ATTACH=CONFIG]1043[/ATTACH] Instead of the screw unscrewing from the end of the recoil spring tube and so freeing the Urbino stock, it instead undid the endcap that screws on to the end of the recoil spring tube (the screw for the stock screws into this cap). The stock came off and the recoil spring flew out and hit me in the face - nice Now looks like this - the puddles are my tears of frustration: [ATTACH=CONFIG]1041[/ATTACH] The endcap from the end of the recoil spring tube would screw in here: [ATTACH=CONFIG]1042[/ATTACH] But this endcap is still attached to the big screw inside the stock. And I can't get them separated 'cos they are way down deep inside the stock where I can't reach. When I turn the screw inside the stock, the end cap just spins. Not impressed with the Urbino at this point. What did I do wrong? How do I get the endcap out of the stock? Have literally spent hours trying to figure this out. Thanks for any thoughts ... hope my explanation of the problem makes sense.