Hard to find a SAUM or WSM stainless short action M700 donor locally... I found one (the one I have on hand to use as a pattern to cut these rails) but hadn't seen another go by... Bud's sells Remington M700 short actions without a bolt for, if memory serves, $229. A PT&G magnum boltface bolt is $225-ish. So it works on the cost level. I wouldn't slum a modern Remington trigger anyway nor did I want to use ANY of the parts (bottom metal, stock, mag sheetmetal, etc) from a donor for this build so this way was much cleaner in that regard as well.
That leaves modifying the feed rails. At the end of the day that's a metal cutting operation and that's what I do for a living. Modifying them per se appears straightforward but I'm very much still hoping for any pearls the pros care to drop.
Having the one on hand to use as a pattern is a big comfort, I admit. I am contemplating converting my '06 to RUM specs for the next build after this one, and I don't have a factory RUM action to copy. Gonna see how this short action goes before I make the final call on that plan.
