I know, it depends on the individual rifle and the manufacturer. So let's keep it simple: Say you have a brand new Ruger M77, Mark II RSM in .458 Lott, What do you do, or have done, as a matter of routine?

How about a CZ 550 American in .416 Rigby?

What about a Winchester Model 70 Safari in .375 H&H?

I'll start by saying I have the RSM in .458 Lott, and besides adding a scope, I did nothing to it. My gunsmith says he would prefer not to bed it unless it either cracks or won't shoot, since the Ruger is difficult to bed due to the tight wood-to-metal fit. The factory trigger is really quite nice and it feeds everyting except FN bullets with no problems. I could have it altered to feed FN bullets, but what the Hey! Round nosed bullets have been killing dangerous game for a hundred years, why should I argue with success?

My .404 is a custom job in progress, so I don't have enough memory left on my computer to list everything I did or am having done to it.

Both my .375s are Mauser knock offs; one's an Interarms Mark X, and the other is a Browning FN action in a custom stock. Both have been bedded for accuracy and strength, and both have had trigger jobs. One shoots the eyeballs out of crickets at 300 yards, the other has trouble holding 2-inch groups at 100. Which does what? I'll give you a clue --It ain't the expensive one that shoots the good groups!

OK, Your turn.

I had CZ 550 Safari's in 375 H&H, 416 Rigby, and 458 Lott.

1) The 375 was bed, cross bolted, trigger adjusted, and smoothed the action. This rifle shot so well I decided it was pointless to do anything more to it...it is scary accurate!

2) The 416 and 458 Lott both went straight to Roger Ferrell who did the following:
a. Bed and cross bolted
b. installed barrel band swivel
c. slow rust blued entire barrel and action
d. installed a NECG bead.
e. smoothed out the actions and adjusted feeding.
f. disengaged the set trigger and adjusted triggers.
g. adjusted open sights for 50 yds.
I may have fogotten something, as I do not have the list with me...

I was very pleased with the work Roger Ferrell did on my guns. The 375 & 458 Lott both went to Africa with me and performed very well on everything from Buff to Impala.

All three of these rifles have new owners and I am sure they found a good home.

CZ550 - 416 Rigby (did the same with 375)

I take it out of the stock, put the stock on AR and sell to someone who has a cracked stock.

1)buy a blank and send it out and have it turned.

2) I inlet the stock, bed it/cross bolt it and finish it.

3) slick up the trigger

4) slick up the action and work the feeding if need b.

5) send to Bill Soverns for checkering, cause I aint worth a crap at it.

6) then shoot it like I got good cents.

7) oh I forgot I put a barrel band swivel on it.

I replaced set trigger with conventional one provided adjusted pull with that stupid skeleton screwdriver and shot that ZKK 602 .375 300+ times, no problemos! If I bought one of those bigger bangers I would replace wood stock with a synthetic one.
PS. I did clean that barrel every 5 to 10 shots with stinky commercial NH4 based solvent to break that barrel in.
Oops, I also replaced front blade with a larger one, and painted small triangle with fluorescent paint on fixed express blade to improve visibility.
I put one of these $20 Euro-style slings on it:Huetter FINITO
You see, I did a lot more work on mine than staff at Tanzanian Game Department!

If I ever finish one of mine I'll tell you what I did....

On an M70 classic, the first thing you do is pull the action out of the stock, strip out the rubber cement and re-bed it.

CZ 550 416 Rigby. I put it in a Brockman laminated stock, magnaported it and replaced the factory bolt handle with a M70 (pefect fit and feels a lot better). It is now a large critter thumper par excellance.

M70 Safari Express: get rid of the awful front sight and put on an NEC banded front sight with a fiber optic bead and the windowed front sight hood. Looks very nice, the fiber optic front is a blessing for old, tired eyes.

I always have the inside of the action polished so it feeds as if it were on ball bearings. With the CZ a new stock is in order.

All the action work and bedding work is of course a must, but I have seen a few big bore owners who don't pay enough attention to the iron sights and I think that is a mistake. I believe you should be able to hit fast with the iron sights and that they should be sighted in with the load with which you will most probably shoot dangerous game. You can always fiddle around with scope settings but you can't and you shouldn't with iron sights. If you can't hit anything with the iron sights that came with the rifle then change them to something that works best for you. Nothing will open up your eyes better to this requirement than doing a rapid fire drill, say three quick shots, at a target from 30 to 50 yards away. Some people are fast and accurate with peep sights, some are good with the rear express sight and front bead and some do well with the open "U" and front post. The sights on a Model 70 Safari Classic are OK from a rest but I think inadequate for rapid fire in close quarters from the shoulder. I also think the front bead on the CZ's is too small. But you should select the one you shoot best with and that means trying out several kinds, on other peoples rifles if you have the opportunity.

So far, most of you are confirming what I have always heard about CZ rifles: the out-of-the-box rifle is simply a good starting point.

What about my Ruger(s)? (My 404 is built on a Ruger action) Am I headed for trouble (cracked stock) by not bedding it? Roger Ferrell, whose name came up above, says I am not as long as I keep the action screws tight. Just wondering.

I have a nib Ruger 375 that I just got. First rip out the lousy trigger and put in a Timney. Second, jewel the bolt and polish the raceways. Third, put a Kick-Eez pad on it to lengthen lop to 14". Oh, and using Warne QD mounts for a 1.75-6 VariX III.
Then will shoot and go from there as needed.

#1 - bed it #2 - do a trigger job #3 - sell it and buy a double

High Butch,

Did you ever get your elephant released by National Parks? What do you hear from Jumbo?

Gila Jorge

Why 14 inch lop? Also, what lop is stock on Ruger .375?

Thanks

I just went through this on 4 big bores ( 3 - .375's and one .416), all M70's, all but one bought from AR members on this website.

I took them to the gunsmith and had the triggers adjusted to 3 lbs., installed the scopes, had them boresighted, checked all of the screws for tightness, checked the bolt, etal. for smoothness, fixed what needed fixing, then went to the range. All of them shot within 1 1/2" at 100 yds. and help together. No bedding done, no new stocks.

Ultimately, we took the .375's to AFrica and left the .416 at home (kicked too hard for me). All were scoped with Leupolds and all shot the same ammo - practiced with Federal VitalShok 260 gr soft points, then hunted with Federal 300gr TBBC and Sledgehammers.

Then went to Africa and shot everything I could afford. No problems.

Three dead buff, one dead giraffe, two sable, several baboons, a couple of warthogs, impala, one very old eland and other great stuff.

Hello,
Recently acquired a Parker Hale Mauser action, not sure of origin of action, believe Spanish Santa Barbara?????, in 458 Win. Mag. Stock of what appears to be English walnut, nice solid grain with dark streaks in butt section, and will say they were apparently concerned about the stock splitting for it has three lugs, one way forward w/ screw, middle one with recess and final action lug, plus two cross bolts. All of the action and barrel channel is glass bedded and has lead slugs poured into a recess in the front forearm section and two such plugs in the butt stock. Rifle weighs in "fight ready" at 11 lbs. with heavy leather sling and 4 rounds in magazine box. I was not expecting the rifle to hold 4 of these rounds in the mag, but does so with ease. Rifle feeds smoothly and bolt is easy to manipulate. Rifle was new, I have now fired it some 13 times, and for a new Mauser to be this smooth was a suprise to me.
Parker Hale trigger, breaks at just over 2 lbs. tiniest bit of creep, but has not been adjusted as of yet. One large island sight for rear with shallow v and white line,vertical combined with good size ivory bead on ramp/hood for front. No complaints on the sights so far.
Metal finish is matte and appears to be rust blued???
Complaints- bolt handle not as long as I am used to using and the knob, small as well. Used to using match/tactical style knobs for quick grab and lots of leverage, but can say this one works fine and no hesitation on opening with fired rounds. Would prefer the Winchester style bolt handle and may have that done?? Not sure if the Santa Barbara action is a quality one or not, but lots of British proof marks all over the thing, so must have withstood some formal test firing. Any comments on this rifle, pro or con would be appreciated.

PS Should add that off hand the rifle placed 3 out of four shots in the ten ring at 100 yards and that is not my best position for shooting, but heavy and easy to obtain a good sight picture. First rounds were high, with center of mass hold, and then switched to 6 o'clock hold and placed shots in top edge of 10 ring. Load was 350 grain Hornady and some 78 grains of H4895 for velocity in the 2500 range. Only 458 bullets I currently have other than the big lead 530 grain for the High Wall/ 45-70. Believe heavier bullets would put the rounds dead on unless the barrel dwell time is a factor, but not sure on that as of this date.

OldCoyote: as I'm looking at it its 13.5 lop and I'm used to Winchester's 13.75 BUT the area of the buttstock is smaller on Rugers also and by going just slightly longer its increases the area somewhat due to the slope of the toe. I may also have one fitted up for 13.75 also but am leaning toward 14. I shoot 14.5 to 14.625 on shotguns.
U have a long neck, 34 inch sleeve, and after years of comptetitive trap and skeet shooting am an incurable stock crawler. Blessings.

Just went through the same thing with my M70 Safari .375 H&H that I bought last summer. Rifle had major problems right out of the box. It took two trips back to Winchester to even get it functional.

When I got it back from Winchester I sent it on to Mark Penrod to workover. He pillar bedded it and free floated the barrel, repinned the bolt stop and trigger with oversized and hardened pins, surface ground the sears, smoothed the action and adjusted the trigger to 2.75 lbs, timed and smoothed the safety, and replaced the follower spring and corrected the feeding. Mark said that the rifle came from the factory with a Williams machined steel extractor so he did not replace that.

Gun is now very reliable and has the best trigger I have ever tried on a M70. I am going to eventually have him do his action job on my other 3 M70s. The work was beautifully done and while not cheap very reasonable in price.