Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Options for Remington 700 .223 Magazine Boxes - To Shoot Long Bullets

I'm having an 8 twist SAMMI .223 put together on a Remington BDL action and have been reading up on what is needed to do to be able to shoot longer, heavier bullets such as the 75 grain Hornady -Amax/ELD-M. From what I understand, I have two choices:

1) Modify the mag box spacer so it will accept cartridges up to ~2.60, or
2) Go to a detachable magazine bottom metal - e.g, something like the PT&G that accepts the AI mags.

Thoughts? What about the follower if I go the mag box modify route?
How many have and would recommend the DBM, which ones, and why?

Many thanks in advance.

I don`t think the mag spacer in the 700 would be much different than that in my Savage. I pulled mine to shoot longer bullets, easy to do, and no cost. Follower still works fine.
Make sure to check your SAAMI barrel for throat length tho, as you may want to do something for nothing. I made up a dummy with 80 grn HP bullets to check my lead length, found seating depth would work and went and pulled the spacer.

Mag box mod....Use same follower. Remove the factory spacer and either epoxy or screw a piece of aluminum bar stock to the rear of the box. I can send you the proper length of bar stock if you PM me and let me know ADL or BDL.

Bob,

I've done both. I hate hinged floor plates, so I'd go with a DBM personally. Modifying the mag box is easy to do however if you have any mechanical skill. Just a matter of knocking out the sheet metal and gluing, screwing or welding in a new spacer. The stock follower will still work fine.

As for DBM's I've only had a few PT&G Stealth's and I like them. MDT poly 10 rounders and Accurate Mag 5 rounders (with the fronts whittled on) feed great in them. I know some guys don't like the hangy down release lever and prefer the Obendorf style. I actually like the lever because I can release it and grab the mag at the same time with my left hand.

It's pretty damn cool (and somewhat foreign) having ten rounds in a bolt gun and the fact you can pop another 10 in is beyond handy. I didn't expect to get along with the whole set up as well as I do either.

Thanks guys, I think you answered my questions.

16Bore, PM inbound re: bar spacer.

Higbean, seriously contemplating the Pt&G setup as I might have seen that mentioned here or somewhere else <grin>. I also think putting a DBM set-up on this gun will tell me if I want it on my next build which will be a 6.5 SAUM.

One question on that set-up. I see they send pillars with the bottom metal: Does that in any way affect or interfere with the pillar bedding of the action?

THANKS AGAIN,

Not my pic but this is how I did mine, super easy and I still used the 223 factory follower, material is 1/4" aluminum!

The M5 inlet of the Stealth is not a drop in on a BDL. If you have a stock that is already pillar bedded, you will have to have it milled out to fit the dbm. Whoever does it will need to make sure the dbm sits flush and that the mags ride at the correct height. The included pillars make for a nice way to mock it up and measure as well as useable in a new bedding job.

Got it, thanks. On this build, I think I'll stick with the BDL floorpkate configuration. The smith that's doing the work is really good with the machine work, but I'm not so sure of his abilities with stocks. I think essentially he's a CNC guy. Since I picked up a used stock, I think his bedding is going to consist of filling in the voids and then re-bedding (cutting out) with the CNC. Not sure I want to mess with the DBM.

Don't know who did that, but it's nice looking work! Thanks for the picture.

If he's doing all that to the stock, it wouldn't be much of a deal to inlet for the dbm. For what it's worth.

CDI does some good bottom metal for aics mags. They installed mine and were able to grind down the pillars while doing it. Might be worth looking at them.

Thanks for the info. Nice to know what options are out there. I'm testing out this LGS, so I'm a little tentative to throw too much at him. My old gunsmith is retiring, well, trying to. I might get one more rifle out of him, but he's such a gentleman that I'm doing my best to respect his desires.

I had read about all the mods and gyrations regarding long 223 rounds in 700's and thought there's no way it can be that complicated. So I dug thru my parts boxes and found a 223 box missing the rear spacer. The spacer in my XCR box is welded in and I didn't want to remove it. I narrowed a 308 follower to fit the narrow 223 box and installed it with a 308 spring.

The 75 gr AMax touches the lands in my XCR Tactical at 2.495

I seated them at at 2.475 and it feeds like it was made for them.