Daga,

I dropped my .458 cz off at the smiths today for re-working to a .458 Lott.

I have opted for crossbolts infront of & behind the magazine, is this what you reccomend ??, secondly what becomes of the cross bolt through the pistol grip of the cz's do you leave that there ??

The smith suggested I would only need one infront of the mag box and just change the cz pistol grip bolt to make it match but leave it there, due to bedding he does not feel one is also needed behind the mag box ??

It would not look to out of place with the cz bolt through the pistol grip and two different bolts behind & infront of the mag box would it, or if you were to have three should they all be the same ??

PC,
The matching crossbolt thing is aesthetic, whatever makes you happy. It would certainly be nice to have them all matching.

The crossbolt between the trigger and magazine well is an excellent idea, or be prepared to repair the crack later, in this little sliver of wood. You can simply hide a headless machine screw in there, covered with epoxy and not have anything showing externally. I have done it both ways, exposed or hidden in that area.

I recommend adding the two crossbolts fore and aft of the magazine well. Whether they match precisely the one in the wrist behind the tang is not so important to me, but that would be nice.

My latest 45 Lapua had the two external crossbolts added to mimic the CZ wrist crossbolt.

Thanks DagaRon,

I may add the thrid matching cross bolt but at any rate I will definitely stick with three cross bolts.

I have opted for a barrel band but I am not sure if this serves a purpose over the sling swivel or is just for asthetics

Out of all the methods you have used to cover the whole where the forened sling swivel goes when you have opted for a barrel band which has worked best ??

My smith said he has for other customers filed them down to match the contour of the forend flush. He said there may be a little lip there, but it looks "alright".

I also opted for a 2.85 Chamber which allow me to seat bullets right out and trimming Hornady .458 Lott cases won't have to be a priority in a hurry

I am looking forward the .458 lott as I did not have a proper .458 rifle other than my Marlin 45/70.

I am looking at using the woodleigh 480 gr Softs.

Dagaron's answer should be much better than mine, but the purpose behind eradicating the forend sling swivel (stud) is to keep it from ripping your hand open under recoil. This can be a problem with some of the larger cartridges. The two best choices are the typical barrel band sling swivel, or rarely you can get the hardware for a recessed, ball-and-socket joint forend sling swivel that won't tear your hand up. Can't remember who makes that.

I would not be inclined to leave any metal behind in the stock. As soon as the wood wears or shrinks a few thousands of an inch, you will have a razor sharp piece of metal sticking out of the stock, hungrily lusting after your blood...

PC,
SDS is right on about why to get rid of the forend mounted sling base: To prevent it from cutting the index figer of the forend gripping hand in relaxed grip shooting off of sticks etc. It won't happen all the time, but may occasionally, and once is enough.

A flush filed, blued screw counter sunk a bit into the hole will prevent it from ever hurting you, especially if the head is made oval/rounded on the edges. That looks best as an expedient. Or fill with epoxy, or fill with a walnut plug and refinish the whole stock, to go to extremes.

Thanks Daga,

I will not refinish the whole stock (as much as I would like to) Graduate Accountants don't get paid that much mate

It seems like my .458 Lott is a lot lighter than my cz .375 and I feel this may be due to the fact they use the sam barrel length, this means there is more chance of the forend gashing me so better to have the barrel band.

By the way I also remembered last night that I have a spare cz cross bolt to send to my Smith from my Rigby Hogs back (I replaced for a custom composite). I asked him for the third cross bolt to cut slots in it so as to mimmick the two cz bolts. I will send that to him on Monday.