The gun is Model 70 Safari Grade .458. I would like to rechamber it to a .458 lott.
I'm looking for some advise, such as should I have the action bedded and with what material would suite the lotts recoil to help protect the stock from cracking.
Is there any other adjustment that need to be made to handle the lott.

Thanks

Steve (aka Scratch)

Scratch: you have a PM JLS

JLS

Your message never came through!!!

Scratch

Amazing all the talk about the 458 lott and nobody has any suggestions.

scratch

...try again, JLS

Steve,

I've been lucky with my .458 and .375 Ruger M77's, never had a stock split on me and have left mine as-is when I got them. But of course some folks have had these problems.

Most of the suggestions here "to be sure" of no troubles and have a reliable bolt gun are to cross-bolt and bed the action, slick-up the feed rails/feed-ramp and then shoot it every-which way to be sure it's 100% in functioning.

The Lott requires a longer magazine box, so be sure you've either got room in your existing magazine or are prepared to have that lengthened to accomodate the longer Lott cartridge.

It's not too difficult of a job from what I have heard and will give you some flexibility over the Win round.

the m70 is already a long action and is "shortened" to accomodate less than 375 length. all you'd need is a mag box and extractor collar and probably follower for a 375 and the action will be magnum length. the way the m70's are bedded and having dual crossbolts from the factory you likely won't have a stock problem.

roger

SL

Dude, go the top of this page. Go to the "Find" button, third from the left. Click on it. Go to Advanced Search. Type in "458 Win Mag Conversion to 458 Lott." Click on Search.

First of, get some brass and remington 405s, and reloader 7 powder with federal 215 primers and go shoot the heck out of that.. you can start the 458 with powderpuff loads and work it up to really serious loads with that powder and bullet... just to get used to it.

depending on which version of this you have, you may or may not have a barrel mounted lug for recoil. You'll need one if you go all the way to the lott.

the conversion should be a simple rechamber and pop in a new mag box from brownells (375 or 416 one) along with a new follower (same as above).. if the bolt wont go back far enough (it will, but it MIGHT not) the ejector box is also available.. and for the time vs money, it's cheap.

Now, if you intend to scope a lott, you MUST know if you are a stock crawler/creeper or not.. I am, and I have rather long arms, which means I've got a pair of scope cuts from the same model 70 you have, though in 416 rem. USE A LOW LOW LOW power scope, way the hell at the end of it's mounts.

(i should type this in all caps)
a scope cut causes a flinch that requires months of effort and retraining to get rid of

good luck!

jeffe

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Lefforge:
The gun is Model 70 Safari Grade .458. I would like to rechamber it to a .458 lott.
I'm looking for some advise, such as should I have the action bedded and with what material would suite the lotts recoil to help protect the stock from cracking.
Is there any other adjustment that need to be made to handle the lott.

Thanks

Steve (aka Scratch)

To convert from the win mag to the lott:

take the block out of the mag box
get the longer follower for the 416 rem mag
move the bolt stop back
tune in the rails and ramp as necessary
dovetail the bottom of the barrel, add a 2nd recoil lug into the dovetail slot and secure it in place with 2 set screws
glass bed both recoil lugs and the space in between them. Some guys prefer steel bed. Available from Brownells.


Other mods to make a M70 work well:

pull the barrel, square up the receiver face and clean up the action threads
open up the extractor cut in the barrel because some of them are a bit too tight to fit if there is grit in there, radius the edges of the extractor cut

open up the cuts in the receiver for the bolt so that there is no binding and some clearance in case you are trying to work the bolt when dirty
polish the raceways
polish bolt body
polish ramp
make sure ramp does not overhang mag box at all and cut it back if it does (source of jams)
radius the sharp edge of the top and bottom of the ramp and the edge of the chamber (source of jams)
adjust trigger to 2.5 pounds
install Decelerator recoil pad
consider installing mercury tube in gun butt
If the extractor is not made of spring steel, replace it.
Consider re-crowning the barrel. Consider shortening the barrel because 24" is not necessary. You can go down to 21" without much velocity loss.

replace front sight with NECG Masterpiece banded ramp
If rear sight is not NECG, replace rear sight with NECG Masterpiece adjustable
Open up holes in the receiver to 8-40 screw size (stronger), install TALLEY bases, and buy Talley LOW Quick Release (lever lock) rings in 1" size
Install Leupold 1.5-5x heavy duplex reticle scope

Shooting:

Buy 1 pound IMR4320. Buy 1 box of Bridger solids 450 grains. Start with 80.0 grains IMR4320 and F215 primers. Work up until you are in the range of 2350 fps. Make sure there are no pressure signs. No need to shoot groups unless you want, just fire these through a chronograph to find out what charge is necessary to get the right performance from you gun.

When you figure out the right powder charge for 2300 to 2350 fps, load up a bunch to sight in the iron sights and scope.

Final step:

Book a safari.

Good luck!

Wow, I new there were someone or somebody that had some great advise, thats a million I appreciated the suggestions. Good-Shooting.

Steve