I picked up a carbine length m70 a couple months back .... I have an idea that it probably was a .223.... not sure, but the boltface has not been altered.... anyway, its been rebarreled to a 17 mach IV... ( or 17 fireball)... the mag box probably needs a spacer, as the loaded rounds just kind of go haphazardly in.... they don't sit level, and slide too far back for bolt to pick them up... and when it does, they pop out, instead of chambering.... so where do I find a shortened mag box and follower??... or is something else wrong??... the gun shoots great, very accurate with factory Remington 20 gr's..., no recoil... can't wait to whack a coyote or fox with it...thanksin advance, jim

Numrich sometimes has mag boxes but what you need is to rivet or solder a spacer into the rear of your box, and maybe tweak the feed lips on it. Short follower; that is not the problem; you will need a short spring; have to make one for so short a cartridge. Fireball is shorter than anything ever put into a M70 except the Hornet and that was not on a push feed, and it had it's own special magazine and follower. Probably you will have to make one, which is just sheet metal; the follower will be a good challenge.

Feeding issues with a Winchester that's been rebarreled to another cartridge that's not a "cousin" to the original chambering can be a challenge. Not a lot of 'drop-in' parts like there are for Remington 700s. The AR/1911/Savage boom has created the illusion of "kit guns".

They are usually no big problem as the post 64 M70 mag box lips control the feeding and they can be tweaked. In this case/situation, someone has rebarreled it to a case that is so much shorter than anything ever put into a conventional bolt action that making it feed will be a challenge. But doable.

ive got several mag boxes to shorten by adding a spacer... and moving the lips isn't a problem either... main problem so far is finding a follower that will work.. if the one ive got would stay level, front to back it would help... it acts like it needs "legs" on it like the follower out of an ar-15 mag...

I don't know if this will be of any help to you. I had a similar issue with my Classic M70 that I made into a 404 Jeffery from a 300 RUM. I could not get it to feed the 44 Jeffery rounds reliably. I tried different followers and different mag springs. I noticed that the rear of the follower did not have enough spring tension to keep enough pressure on the rear of the round so that the bolt could engage the round to feed. I was going through my "excess" parts bin and I found a mag spring that looked like it had a lot of spring tension on the rear end of the follower. I had to do some minor modification to the spring to get it to fit the floor plate and follower. I installed it in the rifle and my feeding issues were cured. I am sorry, but I cannot tell you what the mag spring came from. It looks like a standard M 98 Mauser spring, but it definatly has a wider spread that puts ample pressure on the follower in the rear as well as the front. On second thought, it may be one of Brownell's Mag M 98 springs used when converting M 98s to mag rounds or a Ruger African mag spring as I had some feeding issues with that rifle a few years ago.

Your best bet is to come up with a center feed solution. Sorry, I can't help with the Winchester, but, I've extensive experience making the Dashers feed reliably from SA 700s. Those short cartridges,,,,,, well, you 'loose control' during the act of feeding from mag to chamber. The solution for the 700 is Wyatts box for the 6BR. Don't know whther that'll work in your 70, or not. Probably take alot of extra 'fabrication', if at all. I ,iterally, spent weeks trying to make the Dasher feed off the feed lips,, trying this and trying that. And, it's not like this is the only feed issue I've ever delt with. Your cartridge is even shorter than the Dashers. Ain't no 'simple cure', just time and trial.