Restocking a pre 64 300 H&H and I am removing the rear iron sight I am either going to fill in the dovetail left by the rear sight or I have thoughts of turning the knuckle off completly.....If I do the former I would like to get rid of the forward stock bolt and bed to the knuckle and free float from there. If I turn the knuckle I will free float from the lug forward.......Any thoughts on this project?????
Thanks

If it were me I would leave well enought alone, but you asked. If you want to turn the barrel get a new one, it would be a small price and you could probably sell the old one complete for enough to cover the expense of a new barrel and install. If you are inclined to not turn the barrel just put a filler in the dovetail and before you install your new butt pad, hog out a small hole and put the old sight in it so it doen't get seperated from the gun when I buy it in 20 years I will know where to find it so I can put it back

I too vote for selling th ebarrel on ebay and just starting with a new tube. If the original .300 H&H barrel is in decent shape, then it will comand a premium on ebay, giving you a nice chunk of change for a new barrel.

If you would like to keep the barrel fo rpersonal reasons (100% OK thing to do, that's for sure!) then I would just leave the rear sight boss on and leave the rear blade in. When folded down it is not much higher than a blank. If you want to ditch the rear sight for whatever reason, then I would put in a steel blank and call it done.

Definitely lose the barrel tie-down screw on th erestock job.

As for floating, I recently re-did an old M70 fo r aclient and I am thinking I free floated everything in front of the reciever. I cut the tie-down screw off and glued it in the excustchen fo it lookd good from the bottom, but would not touch the bearrel. That rifle had been through hell and back over the past 50+years, but after fixing it up she shoots incredibly well. I would think it would be worse if the barrel were screwed to the fore arm

If it shoots, why now leave the iron sights on it, may come in handy some day if your a hunter. I have had scopes go bad, I would not want a rifle without iron sights for backup, otherwise rebarrel it and use the front action screw not the barrel screw if thats what your suggesting, that would leave a lot of spring between the two IMO....free float the barrel if you wish, but I would see how it shot bedded tight, free floated, and with 3 point bedding before I had a custom stock built for it, then have the buider bed it accordingly.

My oldest bolt rifle is an all original pre 64, 300 H&H in a custom stock I built many years ago, the barrel shot like a house a fire, so saw no need to mess with it, just stocked it. Today it looks like stainless steel (no blue) and a driftwood looking stock, its been a lot of places and still shoots fantastic.

Thanks for the advice... I have been toying with the idea of rebarreling and selling the original but have not made up my mind as this rifle project is still evolving.. In that I am considering a barrel band and a new floor plate this project is getting far removed from the original mod 70 ...But then again it is still evolveing and I may just put new wood on and leave it at that.....There is also a .375 mod 70 that is being done together with the .300....as far as the iron sights I currently have Talley scope mounts and am thinking of putting on a Brockman Talley rear mount with the popup rear peep as the current mounts will not let me look through the original iron sights thansk for the ideas all the best Bob

Go one or two ways, either stock the M-70 as is and use the wonderful 300 H&H, still the best of the 30 calibers and will shoot heavy bullets within a hair fo the the 300 Wby, the others will not because of bullet seating depth. Well maybe the newer big 30s will, don't know about them.

The other option is use the bolt and bolt body and build a full blown custom with all the bells and whistles so that you can always get your investment back.

My opine.