My Winchester ftw 22-250 has a block in the back of the magazine that prevents me from seating bullets out past an OAL of 2.420,anyone who is familiar with this have any advice on the best way to get this thing out so I can seat my bullets closer to the lands without using it as a single shot. I may be wrong but I can't see where taking this out will cause any problems and not sure why it is there.
Go ahead and take it out. You might need a longer follower, to prevent feeding problems, but that's really the only problem I've ever had with this change. - Dan
Posts: 5284 | Location: Alberta | Registered: 05 October 2001
Be careful because it's not quite as easy as it sounds. When you drill out the spotwelds and take the spacer out the magazine is going to want to spring open since the spacer is what's holding it together. You have to make sure that you file what remains of the spotwelds down really smooth on the inside of the magazine or they'll catch the base of the cartridges and won't allow them to pop into feeding position. You'll also need to get a new ejector blade from a magnum caliber or shorten the one you have because the ejector will extend over the rim of the rounds in the magazine with the spacer removed and will hold the rear of the cartridge down preventing the bolt from picking it up.
It's not that hard to do but there's a little more involved to it than just taking out the spacer.
Boltman, Thanks for the warning, unfortunately I have allready found out what you are saying is true. No big deal but if I had known I would have had the parts ready before I took the block out. Now I'm thinking about trying to set the block back about .15 and putting it back in.
Heavy varmint - yes when you drill out the welds the box will spring. You can either thin the block and weld it back in, or weld the box itself. Careful with this it's thin metal. I haven't had any problems with the bolt stop on mine, but maybe I was just lucky. Good luck. - Dan
Posts: 5284 | Location: Alberta | Registered: 05 October 2001
