Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 450 G&A Short

RC,

My starting point is a Win M-70 Classic very similar to your top photo, except it’s a straight comb SG, which I prefer for both aesthetic and functional reasons. I don’t plan on a scope and plan on a 23” barrel - my personal idiosyncrasy on my rifles. So it looks like a Douglas #5 contour may well do the trick.

I have the RUM follower & 375 H&H Mag spring OTW now. The rear Mag block seems an easy removal and may just replace the bolt stop with a 375 H&H bolt stop - we’ll see when I get to that. I’ll need to look into the RUM windowed Mag box and the geometry of a factory RUM box in a current rifle, especially the feed rails. Haven’t tested the 404J in that rifle yet for feeding - next step.

I will probably add a second cross bolt to the stock and a Pachmayr Decelerator or Limbsaver pad. After the barrel is installed, I’ll look at the weight and balance and decide whether a bit of lead might be needed to achieve target weight. Placement will depend on the balance at that point.

Thanks for the details on the chambers and reamers. I’m now convinced that starting out with a chambered 458 Lott barrel is the most straight forward way to go, using just the Manson 460 G&A finishing reamer. I need to look at the feasibility of using some of the dies I currently have (404J, 450 Rigby) vs a 460 G&A custom body die. Will decide this once I have some fired cases from the new chamber.

This project is getting to be more interesting all the time. Hopefully will get a chance to try out the finished product in 2024. The conundrum will be whether to use the 460 G&A in the field as primary with the 450 Rigby as backup or the reverse. Testing will tell.