Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Questions regarding the Howa Mini and Oregunsmithing bottom metal.

First, I'm not anything close to a gunsmith. I'm more of a handy and observant guy who will dabble a bit with his own guns.

Anyhoo, I recently bought a Howa Mini in 300BO and immediately found out that everyone is correct about the Howa magazine system, so I ordered the bottom metal from Oregunsmithing. I received it a few days ago and after some minor inletting on the bottom of the stock, I got it installed, but have a few questions for people who have experience with the Mini/Oregunsmithing combo-

-The actual magazine box is a formed strip of aluminum and is not welded/joined at the rear, meaning width of the box is controled by how the box sits inside the bottom of the action and the top of the BM, (bottom metal). I'm assuming that they're all built this way?

-The magazine box almost seems a touch tall. Common wisdom here has it that the box should be more or less floating between the action and BM so as not to apply accuracy-robbing torque on the action. Has anyone seen the need to shorten the height of the mag box with this setup?

-I'm having issues with the rear/head of the cartridges not being lifted high enough for the bolt to catch them when trying to chamber a round. When I spoke to Wayne York while placing the order for the BM, he mentioned that the 300BO sometimes takes some massaging for proper feeding with this setup. Has anyone else seen this? If so, what's the solution?

It almost makes sense to me that if the magazine box was a touch narrower, the cartridges would stack in a bit more vertical arrangement and bind less on the sides of the box, thus rising to position easier. Am I on the right track here?

-Last, it seems that the follower sits high when unloaded and stops the bolt from being able to be closed unless you push it down with a thumb while closing the bolt. It reminds me of a semiautomatic that holds the bolt open after the last round is fired. Seems odd to me. Maybe changing the leading angle of the follower would be the ticket, but I'm looking for input before I start modifying anything.