300 blackout bolt action

[DutchV]

Recently bought a bare M7 Remington action at a local shop and ordered all the stuff to put together a rifle (AAC is blowing out the last of their 7/700 barrels for $150 each). I looked at PTG's options for bottom metal and ended up going with the mag well that takes AICS magazines. Not for the reason Dellet mentioned, but because their mag well for AR magazines requires machining the receiver, so it appears to be a one way conversion.

Turns out, the PTG bottom metal doesn't fit the magwell cutout in the Remington factory synthetic stock. Probably going to send it back to PTG.

Here is why expect their stuff to be wrong. http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f37/ptg-137373/

That was over two years ago. Hopefully they've completed the building expansion by now. I'd at least try to contact them about it.

[Netpackrat]

Recently bought a bare M7 Remington action at a local shop and ordered all the stuff to put together a rifle (AAC is blowing out the last of their 7/700 barrels for $150 each). I looked at PTG's options for bottom metal and ended up going with the mag well that takes AICS magazines. Not for the reason Dellet mentioned, but because their mag well for AR magazines requires machining the receiver, so it appears to be a one way conversion.

Turns out, the PTG bottom metal doesn't fit the magwell cutout in the Remington factory synthetic stock. Probably going to send it back to PTG.

Wednesday came and went, as did Thursday, and I did not call PTG. After having let it stew for a couple days, I finally decided nothing ventured, nothing gained....



The infamous Dremel... But like any other tool, it can be used for both good and evil. Besides which, it's not as though this is much of a stock; it's probably the cheapest part of the project, so far. If I screw it up and have to start over, so be it. I used a small sanding drum to do the bulk of the material removal, and finished with files.



Here is the mag well bottomed out against the molded in cutouts. There is still a bit of a gap between the stock and where the mag well steps out to overlap it, which turned out to be significant when I tried to put it all together. It's a bit of a tight fit in the stock, because as you will see in the next photo, I didn't want to remove any more material than absolutely necessary.



Yeah, I am going to need a bit of bedding compound in there. I was glad to be able to get it to fit without breaking into that void in front of the magwell.



Trial fit. I don't have my action screws yet, and the main one from my other Model 7 is too short (so the one I ordered probably will be too). Found that the mag well is too low (remember that gap?). If I push up on the bottom of the mag, it will amost feed. Looks like I am going to have to cut the inlets a little deeper, which is going to suck. Good thing I was going to pillar bed it anyway. I may need to polish the feed ramp some, also. The detachable AICS magwell may not even work out at all, in which case I'll end up going with the standard floorplate arrangement, and probably buying another stock to go with it.

I also ordered a different set of bases plus the stuff to counterbore them to take the stupid oversize 8-40 screws that the receiver is drilled and tapped for. If that doesn't work out it looks like I will have to spend way more money on a custom base.

[Netpackrat]

Cutting my losses on the AICS magazine setup. My bedding pillars and action screws showed up yesterday, so I mocked the action up with the bottom metal and mag outside of the stock. Starting with the mag too low for the bolt to pick up rounds, I gradually shortened the pillar length until the mag was as high up as it would go, the factory action screw kept the bolt from closing, and the bottom metal was up against the bottom of the trigger assembly. Tested for feeding at all points in between. I was able to get it working as basically a single shot, but when feeding the top round, the next one would take a nose dive in the mag and stick that way, so the round would have to be manually shoved back in the mag before it would feed. It did this about half of the time.

Mag well probably would have worked with .308 length cartridges and maybe even a different brand of AICS .223 mag, but I am not spending any more money on the setup. I'm going to get the factory floorplate and mag setup and another stock. Maybe not right away as I am kind of tired of spending money on it for now.

I did get a set of scope bases mounted successfully though. I was able to modify a set of Leupold's Redfield style bases to work with the stupid 8-40 screws that the action is drilled and tapped for.

[Netpackrat]

FINALLY had the opportunity to get to the range today and try the new rifle. Accuracy seems comparable to my 300blk AR SBR (which does about 1.25" with the same ammo), with a slight edge in terms of absolute accuracy going to the bolt gun, but the bolt action seems slightly more susceptible to heat effects, which makes sense given it has a relatively light profile 16" barrel compared to the 10" SBR. I had a couple groups that opened up a bit when I let the rifle get hot. I didn't save the sub targets, but the Model 7 seems to also be slightly more accurate with subsonic ammo than the AR.

Where I did notice a real difference, is the SBR prints Blacktip to roughly the same point of impact as the UMC 120 grain, maybe a quarter to a half a inch higher at most. Out of the Remington, blacktip easily prints an inch and a half higher. I will most likely keep this rifle zeroed for the 110 grain blacktip. All of these groups were fired with the Silencerco Saker attached. As with my SBR, it seems to shoot tighter with the can on.

Had a couple minor issues. First, I shot up the last couple boxes of the UMC 220 grain ammo that has been flawless out of my SBR, but in the bolt gun I experienced a handful of light strikes that all fired on the second try. Second, at least one of them did go supersonic out of the 16" barrel. I will note that nowhere does Remington claim this ammo as subsonic, but my experience so far is that you can generally expect it to be so out of a short barrel, but if you are shooting a full length gun, maybe choose a different load. The yellow and green box Remington subs were flawless, as usual.

The other issue I had was related to the Nikon M300BLK 1.5-6X variable scope... I have the same scope on the SBR and liked it enough to buy a second one for the bolt gun, but I had some trouble getting it to zero until I figured out that the clicks are 1/2MOA, despite the fact that the turret markings say they are 1/4MOA clicks. I don't remember having had that issue with the scope on my SBR, but I think it has been over a year since I messed with that rifle's zero. Anyway, despite that I continue to be fairly pleased with the Nikon scopes, although I probably wouldn't have bought them if I'd had to pay full price. I purchased both of these at significant discounts.

Anyway, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I still kind of wish I had gotten the PTG magwell to work, but the factory magazine is OK for the most part too.

[cwlongshot]

I like my Ruger.

Its been a shooter since day one and I have a very early gun.

ONLY miss fires have been with the first couple of boxes of FACTORY 220g Remmy ammo. Unsure of round count but its thousands for sure, 99% hand loads using CCI & Winny primers ZERO issues.

Shoots supers better than subs but with what it likes subs are no slouches.

Its shot so many touching shots at 100 its silly.

My single complaint about the rifle is no locking bolt. I have same complaint about ,y choice of scope... no locking turrets.





FIVE shots @ 100 150 Hornadys @ 4227 powder




FIVE 110 Barnes @ 100 W/ 296 Powder



TEN Varmingeddon 110g @ 100 W/ 296





Which ever you choose, your in for some FUN!

CW

[Netpackrat]

Back at the range with it yesterday. My main intention was to refine the zero with the black tip ammo, and see how much the zero shifts without the can. Ended up not getting the black tip to group real consistently. It started out OK but as the gun would heat up, it started throwing flyers. Doesn't seem to do that as much with the 120 UMC for some reason, and the rifle just loves subs. My SBR is doing well to produce fist size groups with subs, but the bolt gun appears to be averaging about 1.5 MOA with factory Remington 220 grain (green/yellow box) subs. Here is my best group of the day with them:



Now for the rest of the bad news... When the last shooter I was sharing the range with left, I took off my earpro, and realized that every round of the "subsonic" was going supersonic. Previously I had been able to detect that only with the UMC 220 but with my muffs removed it was pretty obvious even with the better grade of subs. So, once I can get my reloading equipment set up again, I am going to have to work up a load specific to the 16" gun.

Also going to try some other hunting loads for groups and hopefully find one that the rifle likes.

[gunenthusiast36]

I just bought a RARR at the beginning on the month and wish I would have used the money I've put towards a Boyds stock, bedding kit, and other miscellaneous items to get it set up (sand paper, tape, paste wax for release agent, extra applicators, etc.) to buy a higher end rifle. It functions perfectly but the stock was total garbage and the entire length of the left side of the fore end (if you are right handed and aiming down range) was in contact with the barrel. Guess well see if it helps once I have time to finish it up.

[BLdtylry]

Remington 700 AAC-SD 300 BLK with Pulsar Trail XQ38 Thermal and SilencerCo Hybrid silencer. Timney Calvin Elite 2-Stage in Magpul Hunter 700 SA Stock and DBM.

[tallburnedmidget]

Remington 700 AAC-SD 300 BLK with Pulsar Trail XQ38 Thermal and SilencerCo Hybrid silencer. Timney Calvin Elite 2-Stage in Magpul Hunter 700 SA Stock and DBM.

Man that looks slick!

[cwlongshot]

I do like that stock!

CW