I know this has probably come up before, but to Ray A. or any of the other talented riflesmiths, can you build a .404 Jeffery from a 7mm Rem., .300 Win. or .338 Win. mag., or do you need a "long" mag. M70? I have a craving for a .404 as my DGR. Thanks!

fredj338,
I have the exactly the same plan of rebuilding my 7mm Rem mag , the action is the same length as a 375 , but the ejection port might need to be opened in order to handle the 404 Jeff.
English contour 27 inch bbl, barrel band sling swivel, island 3 bladed sight, straight long bolt handle, the list is long.. and eventually a new stock.
What a rifle , only a 318 WR missing

Someone can probably list all the specs for converting a "short" to a long ,ie remove the mag box spacer, mill the ejection port, shorten the bolt stop,ejector etc.

Good luck with the project.

All the best

Jens

Fredj338---

Yes, it can be done. The action has to be opened considerably and new bottom metal fitted. Blackburn makes it.

Jbelk,

Is the Blackburn metal mandatory or can it be done later? Is the .375h&h a better bet for conversion?
Thanks

Fredj338---

The 375 is a piece of cake. You can use on original, long, box for it. Sometimes a 404 will feed from a 375 box but it'll be short a round in the mag. There's only .010 difference in case diameter but it sure causes trouble, sometimes.

It's much better to fit everything to the Blackburn box and have it feed like it *wants* to....or buy a Dakota.

Fred,
Buy the Blackburn box and save yourself many headaches...You can use any M-70 action as they are all the same lenth for the mostpart...the Blackburn box is wider and stacks the fat rounds correctly....

Thanks guys, another thought though. If I could get my hands on a .300 ultra mag, it seems that the cases (.404 & .300 UM) would be so close that feeding would be less of a problem. Any comments?

fredj338,
I'm all ears, as I have had the same thought. The Winchester M-70 Classic in the 300 RUM has a windowed magazine box, to give more room to the shoulder area of the stacked cartridges, as Remington does with their RUM boxes in the M-700.

Could this be a misfeeder waiting to happen?

I don't know about that but the 404 is a tapered case and not nearly that wide at the shoulder I don't think, I don't have all the specks handy, but I do know its no big deal to get a 404 to operate from one of Teds boxes if you just cut the rails to the box....