I'm having feeding problems with my converted win 70 (458 win to 458 lott).

The bolt slop at the rear of travel and feed rail thickness is such that when worked vigorously the bolt face sometimes have very little contact with the case head of the next round to push it into the chamber.

Worked slowly/gently the rounds feed fine, but when worked hard the nose end of the round tend to move more towards the center line and the case head gets even less contact with the bolt face, sometimes the bolt would slip on top of the round instead of chambering it. Sometimes the belt is grabbed and push fed into the chamber with the case rim in front of the extractor causing a lot of resistance in turning the bolt down.

http://imgur.com/a/35PK4

Could get me mauled by a chupacabras one day.

It appears that the mag box is a bit small for this round? The reason I picked the win 70 was because I could work the bolt without moving my face out of the way, shouldered.

Would converting this rifle to a single stack mag present the rounds a lot higher on the bolt face and greatly improve reliability?

I want at least 4 rounds capacity and don't care if the rifle end up lookin' kinda preggers, but it must feed perfect!

Now who does the experts recommend for this kind of work?

I put 5 rounds into my CZ 550 mag action (416 rigby bolt face) and it fits so nice and seemed to feed well despite the lack of a barrel and rattling around on the bigger bolt face. (Might turn it into a 500 a-square some day.)


I went through 3 followers to no avail. Still not 100%, and two of them won't even hold the last round securely.

That is an easy fix for a good gunsmith, I noticed the rear of the receiver does not look like it was opened up which is one of the things that gunsmiths usually do when converting a 300wm, 338wm, 458m, to a 375 H&H, 416 Rem mag or 458 Lott. Not that will fix your feeding problem, but it is something I would have done if it has not been opened up, it will speed your mag loading up considerably, You might know Andy Hawks in Anchorage AK who is the master of fixing M70 problems. Do you have the newer FN follower or the classic follower? The newer one is much better, of course the bolt stop has to be moved back, replaced. For 4 rounds down your going to have to get a drop box which is available for the M70.

The rifle was shipped back to me after the conversion with an unknown aluminum follower. It didnt hold the last round in place too well and the round would pop off of the right rail and be pushfed into the chamber if the bolt is worked vigorously.

So I bought this:

http://www.midwayusa.com/produ...long-action-aluminum

Which seem to work okay and held the last round securely but the rounds would do what I described on my first post. Not 100%

So I then ordered this:

http://www.midwestgunworks.com...r-model-70-followers

Which could not hold the last round in at ALL! And it seems to be made from a hard plastic material.

I tried the trick of tying 3 rounds together and they seem way too big for the magazine box. So I guess that the other gunsmith told me was right. The 458 lott probably is a bit too big for the win 70. At least mine. The front of the magbox seems pretty cramped with the rounds staggered.

I'm pretty sure I wanna make it into a single stack mag for the most consistent feeding possible. Perhaps I will give Mr. Hawks a call in a couple of days. Ask him if he can convert to single stack mag, maybe a 10 round "mini banana clip".

Were that my rifle, I wouldn't mess about with anymore "home grown ideas"...I would just contact Mr. Hawks and/or ship him the rifle...or any of the other Md 70 experts...my hide is worth much more than what the cost of CORRECTION would be.

No diss or flame intended or implied.

Luck

You are right. I'm tired of messing with it. Any further fixes will be done by an expert.

You guys should see me run around in circles everytime a 1911 or a new pistol have a malfunction.

Yeah...me too...that's the thing about our toys, they DO mess about with us...NOTHING in this world is 100%.

Luck

My Model 70 .450 Watts (slightly longer than the Lott) is based on a pre-64 .375 H&H Magnum action and it feeds perfectly. Changing your action and magazine to .375 H&H specifications should do the trick.

Your problem can probably be fixed with a little judicious massaging of the sheet metal mag-box. Slightly narrowing the top
Edge of the back makes the cartridge sit higher and jump the rail sooner. Wider and
it sits lower and stays captive a little. Same
thing with the front.

When the conversion was done didnthe gunsmith install a proper .375 length box or
Cut out the spacer? How about the follower, was it changed to the full length as well? Even up
here in Canada these two parts can be bought for
35 bucks apiece, yet people
and their gunsmiths will cheap out for a few
nickels. Often they get away with it, but not always. Or to look at it another way, all the damage
you can do is limited to the price of a mag box.

Another thing to check is the back corners of
the mag box recess in the action. As a Win Mag the rim never got that far back,and there might be a little
interference.
A tiny bit of tuning can be all it takes to eliminate glitches,or
To take one the works and make it into one that performs. The difference can be extreme. Some
CRF are little different than a glorified push feed,
But a tiny tuning can make it snap to attention.

I agree let a qualified gunsmith fix it..If that bottom round is poping out over the magazine then you also have some rail prolems, most likely someone took a bit too much metal off the existing rail would be a guess..

Also if the bolt face is a tad large but feeds the first couple of cartridges. then why wouldn't it fit the 3rd or last round is a question that needs to be addressed first of all. I would take a peek at the spring not stout enough to push as hard on the last round as it does the the first rounds to start with, lots of things can cause these problems and you just need someone that can glance at it and say "no problem I can fix it"...

I converted a pre-64 Winchester .375 win mag to a .450 Ackley. Mine feeds empty cases upside down as slick as snot! The mag box trick is to take three cartridges and rubber band them together. Then make sure your mag box dimensions match that of the cases with 0.030 clearance all around in X and Y dimensions. Poor mans cosine rule! I didn't even need to mod the .375 follower but the front feed ramp needed to be seriously modified for the longer round. It sounds like your primarily fighting a mag box and follower problem possibly exacerbated by a weak spring I would agree to find a good gunsmith who's done this before and send it to him and wait and wait till it's done!

For what ever it is worth...
I converted a new SC Win Mod 70.458win mag to a 458 Lott, besides the chamber all I did was to shorten the ejector and removing a magazine block, feeds like a charm. I did replace the firing spring with a stronger one.
If you have the original stock I would recommend rebedding as I found a small crack through the bolt notch after approx 400rnds

Thanks all,

I will contact another expert in a week or so after the hectic holidays are over.

What bothers me is I had it converted by a pretty well known smith, to whom I emphasized perfect feeding!


Which was why I kinda felt disillusioned and tried to remedy the problem on my own with different followers, etc.


Any other gunsmith recommendations?


One who has, for sure turned out win 70's in 458 lott with flawless feeding?


Recommendations by PM is fine too.

I don't know if Denis a Olsen is still working but he has a great reputation.

quote:

Originally posted by Robgunbuilder:
I don't know if Denis a Olsen is still working but he has a great reputation.

+1 IMHO Dennis is a magician with M-70's
Olson Gunsmithing Inc
Phone: (406) 826-3790

Plains Montana