Just to make sure.....will the action/bolt face for a 7mm Ultra Mag work perfectly for a 257 or should I keep looking for something along the lines of a 7mm/300/338 Win Mag??

Nebraska,

Bolt face is identical for 7mm Ultra and 7mm Rem, but the magazine box is different. Don't know about the action rails.

A mate of mine had a Rem 700 7mm Rem rebarreled to 300 Ultra and it fed OK, although only held 2 rounds because he did not get the Ultra boz for the rifle. I think it would probably be OK to come the other way, that is, Ultra to 7mm Rem case.

If I had to bet, I think a 7mm Ultra rebarreled to 257 Wby would be OK and at most you might need to get the 7mm Rem magazine and follower.

If you have a 7mm Ultra that you can look at, you might try it for feeding with some 7mm Rem ammo. They won't extract as the 7mm Rem will go to far into the chamber. But just point the rifle in the air and with the bolt open the 7mm Rem will fall out. If you do this, just push the bolt forward, bith fast and slow, but don't close the bolt and that way you remove any possibility of firing the 7mm Rem in the 7 mm Ultra chamber.

If you do do this, make sure you do it with a full magazine as feeding problems often only relate to a particular round, that is, it might be from the left or right hand side of the box.

Having said all of that, if given the choice I would always try and start with a rifle action that is for the same basic size case, such as 7m Rem and 257 Wby.

Mike

[ 08-28-2002, 20:43: Message edited by: Mike375 ]

I just went through this going the other way, from 300 Win to 338 Ultramag. The regular box would be necessary and is about six or seven bucks from Remington. The feed rails might be the problem.

The Ultra mag rails are "about" .570" apart, while the regular belted mag rails are "about" .550" apart. Not much different, but it's alot easier to remove metal than put metal back. It might feed ok but I'd be more inclined to just get the correct action and be confident it would feed right.

The follower and bolt face are the same.

Joe.