The rifle is brand new in 458 win mag. I heard of people improving the finish of the stock and doing some polishing to smooth the action etc, but what I really care about is reliability and faultless feeding. Are they reliable out of the box, or do I need to do some work on bolt or extractors first?

Thank you

Brian
What do you plan on doing with it?
If you are shooting whitetails or hunting Cape Buff in the thick the answer may be different.
If it were my decision I would buy the rifle I like and try it out see if it feeds and functions flawlessly or needs some tweeking.
I have numerous Model 70's that have required nothing except a trigger adjustment and that was purely optional.

They have Lothar Walther barrels in them, so it should shoot.

Check the feeding with some dummy rounds, if it passes that test and shoots OK, you are fine.

quote:

Originally posted by Blair 338RUM:
They have Lothar Walther barrels in them, so it

Where did you learn that? I'm quite sure factory Zastava M70 don't have LW barrels.

Thanks both. Dangerous game is not on the agenda now, but like having a capable rifle for when this finally becomes possible. I'll test it with dummies and see how it goes. Thanks

I would have bedding job done.

Dummies are OK but nothing beats practicing shooting with real ammo. A couple hundred rounds should smooth things out and reveal any feeding/ejection flaws. You also will get a good idea if the stock will hold up.