Yesterday I went to a yard sale and noticed a pile of shooting accessories (many of which which I bought...) I got to talking to the guy and it turns out he is a former employee of MRC in Kalispell (of 1999 action fame among other things) and had access to all the take off barrels he could use for years. He took me inside and offered to sell a 458 winchester built by installing a Ruger #1 barrel on a Ruger 77 old style tang-safety action. Both are in great shape and the rifle has not been fired much at all. The price is right but I'm not interested unless I could punch it out to the Lott. Can this be easily done without action modifications and still maintain reliable feeding? Thanks for the advice guys.

Hi Snowcat:

The cost to, as you say punch out the barrel wouldn't be so bad.... Just have someone ream it out.. BUT the cost from a GOOD gunsmith to modify the Ruger 77 Bolt would be way to expensive, I believe it is to short.

Save yourself the trouble and buy a CZ 458 Win Mag and have someone ream out the barrel to 458 Lott.

Regards... Jim P

Snowcat- That Ruger 77 is like my test rifle for my wildcat.I was able to make magazine long enough
for a 3 inch case with 350 gr round nose, that I
tried before I went to the long case.It will
work for the Lott also.Get a longer magazine box,
and little feed rail work.There are smiths on
here that can do it if you need.Ed.

Pa hunter...I am buying a Lott from Ruger waiting for it to arrive...I am going to scope it with a burris 1.5 x5X safari with posilok system and light the lighted center crosshair and if light fails blackcross hair is there..Also QD mounts any ideas ...And a decelerator pad....

Thanks

Mike

Freedom is Not Free

Gee, since the price is right, and the advise is not to convert it to a Lott, well, send me an email, maybe I can take it off of his hands!! Be assured that I am smiling as I make this friendly offer!!

Hi Retreever:

The Ruger 458 Lott seems like a very nice rifle. I only seen one. The bolt seemed slick and the wood was very nice.

IMO..I would definitely put on a Pachmyr decelerator pad, or Kickezze... I am partial to the Pachmyr.

I use Leupold scopes on most all my rifles. I do have Burris and Nikon, but the Leupold always takes a licking and keeps on ticking on the big boomers. I have two 1 X 5.5 Vari X III's. One on a 458 Win Mag, the other on a custom 416 Rem Mag.

I also used the Leupold quick detachable mounts, survived Africa in flying colors. Two other QD mounts you can't go wrong with are Tally and Warren.... but get your wallet out $$$...LOL

Hope this helps...

Regards.... Jim P.

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

Ed, it sounds like you have first hand experience with this conversion: am I into milling down the bolt stop, feed rail work etc. in addition to rechambering and new mag box? Did you ever give the 500g bullets a try with your test gun? Any additional info would be great.

If its too much hassle for me to make this work I'll contact the guy and sell it for him here. Again thanks for the input.

Snowcat-With 3 inch case I didn't have room for 500 gr seated out properly.Then I went to a longer case so I ended up using it as
singleshot,and that rifle was used as I developed my wildcat 458HE, which has brass 3.45 inches long.Put 1900 rounds through it.It gets 500 gr
over 2800 fps ..If you see one in
375H&H you can see what is to be done.A little
opened in the back and front for mag.If it is like mine, it has the long bedding bar which can handle any recoil that you can.Ed.

Thanks Ed--
I'd like the flexibility of using the 500 grainers, this isn't probably the rifle for me. I think I'll look into the CZ as PA suggested. As for your 458 Express, I'm still working up to the 110 ft lbs. of recoil level (at 72 with my Taylor) again the CZ gives me options. Thanks for the input on this one. Still a good deal though--400 rds of loaded 500 grainers, rifle, 1x scope, bullet casting equip. etc, Horn. Custom dies. Tempting. Take care.