Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Afer market recoil lugs for Remington 700's?

I put a light coating of moly paste on both sides of the lug where it mates up. I haven't sheared a pin yet.

This is what I use
Molykote Gn

I've tried that a couple times - thinking it should work.. It did - a couple times...not always.. Besides, I'm not a fan of drilling a hole in the face of a M700.. Doesn't 'add' to the strength, IMHO..

Besides, if a 'smith can't figure out a way to get a lug aligned w/o a pin, he/she might wanna try a new profession.... (just a gentle poke - no flames intended)..

I have never drilled a 700, just used them on the actions that came already drilled and supplied with a matching lug. All mine are double pinned.

I only have one Kleinendorst tool and it fits standard 700 lugs. I guess you need a different one for each type of lug you use. I can remember putting a couple of barrels together in Danny Pedersen's shop in Prescott and he had about 12 different ones on his barrel vice table.

You would be surprised. -Al

Al, you are very correct!

Lee, I made my action wrench with an integral pocket to hold the recoil lug in position.

I’ve found on huntin rifles it doesn’t matter, I use the factory lug...

Even pinned lugs do not orient perfectly unless the barrel tenon fits the lug precisely. As long as there is some clearance on the sides of the lug (as there should be) minor misalignment can be accomodated. For many years, I honed factory lugs by hand to within .0001" when fitting barrels to match rifles. When replacement lugs became available, I started using them instead. If they were not parallel (and not all are), instead of honing them, I could just send them back. GD

Pinned correctly with grade 8 dowels and little anti-seize on the barrel shoulder bearing side of the lug you shouldn't be shearing anything at all. I usually torque to 75 ft lbs on standard rounds and 100 ft lbs on magnums (hunting rifles).

With the above being said, I don't recommend pinning unless you are going to be actually switching barrels yourself. The recoil lug locating tools work great.

Holland lugs are nice, but if you are building on a HS Precision stock with a bedding block, you will need to inlet some for the Holland lug. This inletting will require getting into the sides of the bedding block in the recoil lug area and removing some aluminum. This weakens the the forearm of the stock slightly in the flex/twist area.

Gre-Tan makes a .250" lug that keeps the factory profile but the bottom sides have a slight taper. These drop right in the stocks with bedding blocks without having to get into the block itself. I use them now instead of the Holland for this feature. Plus Greg is great to deal with

https://www.gretanrifles.com/product-page/250-bedding-block-lug-w-pins