Am building an '03 sporter in .358 Norma Mag to replace the one I foolishly sold in the early 1970s. Am using a Rock Island action because I LIKE it. Does anyone such as PTG make any moderately priced bottom metal to replace the military stuff?

The only moderately priced one I know of is this one:

http://www.gunpartscorp.com/ca...d=726640&catid=11901

Have not used/seen one so I can't comment on the quality of the piece

nearly every mauser bottom can be modified to work pretty easy

Sunny Hill just came out with one, straddle floorplate and all.

I have a Sunny hill, they say specifically made for the 03, but the trigger guard does not bend down at the rear. A better and less expensive option is getting one of Duanes and bending it (since you have to anyway).

I had a similar problem with some 1903A4 bottom metal I wanted to replace. Initially ordered new bottom metal through Numerich. But....I was wrapped in cosmoline and when I got the cosmoline cleaned off it was horribly corroded. Don't know how that happened but it had very deep rust pits. The pits were probably there before whoever packed it in cosmoline.

So I saw an ad in Shotgun News for new steel 1903 bottom metal. Paid for it and it was in the raw. Had it blued and then I fitted it. I can't remember who I order it from, but I want to alert you to the fact that you may get crap if you order MIL surplus through Numerich.

Barstooler

Thank you Barstooler. I agree with you. I stopped buying voluntarily from Numerich almost 30 years ago. Unless they are the only supplier of something I need dreadfully urgently, I won't go near them.

I found that when I used to buy multiple pieces of the same items from them, they'd send one relatively nice condition piece, and the other 4 or 5 would be hard-pressed to be good enough to qualify as worthless.

That may have changed for the better these days. I hope so. But I no longer buy there just because I don't have much money to gamble with these days. So I don't buy parts from them anymore. Don't want to pay "parts" prices for what all too often turned out to be scrap metal.

AC: Whose barrel will you use?

quote:

Originally posted by Richard I:
I have a Sunny hill, they say specifically made for the 03, but the trigger guard does not bend down at the rear. A better and less expensive option is getting one of Duanes and bending it (since you have to anyway).

Thank you! We'v e sold a few of these with the undersanding they need to be modified for the 03.

To really do the job right, the guard needs to be completely programmed with that slight curve at the top. All it takes is $$$$. Frankly, the demand just is not there (in my opinion)

Always willing to proceed with a minumum order of 30 units...Half down...the remainder now!

quote:

Half down...the remainder now!

Best line I've seen all week...Rofl

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
AC: Whose barrel will you use?

Bill - Because of the nice price you mentioned earlier, I don't see anything wrong with trying a Lothar Walther. (Oops, wrong thread. For the .358 Norma Mag, I will probably just have one of my existing used heavy .30 match barrels rebored. That's what I did last time and it worked just great. So much so that I used that rifle for an accuracy checker. If I was shooting worse than expected groups with some other gun, I'd shoot a couple of 5-shoters with the .358 Norma to see if was the other gun or just me that was not performing up to par.)

I'm gonna try to do the whole thing on the cheap, so I'm kinda up in the air about a stock right now. The only folks I know who have drop-ins on the shelf are McMillans. They are about 10-12 miles from my house, but they are a bit pricier (like double) what I hope to pay. If you have any ideas about an easy-to-modify composite stock for an MRC short action, I'd sure appreciate any suggestion from you.

I Like your .318 project too. Good luck with it my friend,

AC

Edited - - - Well, see I got my three threads mixed up here. As this one will be a Springfield action, not the MRC, I think I'll just use something like a RamLine strock until I can see if it really wants to shoot. Still need a composite handle for my MRC project, though, so would still appreciate any suggestions for stocking that action.