Wondering if anyone knows the maximum cartridge length that is useful in a short action Remington 700 BDL?
Planning on rebuilding to a short .338 or .358, and kinda wondering how heavy bullets I can use without seating them too far into the case.

[ 04-29-2003, 21:46: Message edited by: kevral ]

Not sure of the overall magazine lenght but I do know that a 338-08 or a 358win will work just fine.

The mag box on both of my bdls`runs 2.805 which limits ammo lenght in them. The action its self will take a bit longer round but I`m not sure how much more.

Weird. 2.805 is a tad shorter than maximum overall cartridge length for .350 RM that I've seen, fired from a Rem 660.
Not being able to use most of the heavy bullets for .350 RM was what worried me, and had me planning a SAUM wildcat. Only gains .4 centimeters clearance that way though...
.358 Win might be the ticket. Easier to have it rechambered to a .350 RM or a .358 wildcat than the other way around, too!

How about opening up the magazine somehow, to accept slightly longer cartridges? Think I heard something about that somewhere.

You can extend and weld up the mag box, do a little filing in the action opening (mostly at the rear, a little at the front) and you can fit cartridges up to 3" COL. Actually, now that I think of it, I've done this on 600-660's, you could probably get a little more length out of a 700 short action. - Dan

A friend has a SA 700 in 284 Win that has had the bolt stop ground back and the mag. boxe extended to 3.100" long, inside. He is going to bring it over, someday, and let me see how it was done. Supposedly it was done by an old fellow in NE that has retired.
(I think that they cut a section out of a LA mag. box and welded it back together.)

A buddy and I have each had short-action Rem 700s switch-barrels made with 3.1" long magazines. Calibers are 6.5 WSM and .338 WSM. Our gunsmith is Rich Riley of High Tech Customs in Colorado Springs (not Mark Bansner's High Tech) Fit and feeding are excellent.
Max