A male dovetail for a bucket mounted on a drum rotor for a steam turbine is provided by a tight hook-to-hook fit with the female dovetail of a retaining groove around the periphery of the drum rotor wheel. The tight hook-to-hook fit eliminates the use of loading pins which heretofore have been driven between a base of the male dovetail and a bottom of the retaining groove, a manually intensive operation with the potential to damage the bucket and the rotor.