Confused about the Rem 700's Chambered in WSM cartridges

[pert near]

Personally, over the years I have gone to smaller & instead of bigger cartridges. So I have not spent much time studying Magnum cartridges. So please excuse me if my questions are too dumb.

A friend approached me with a take-off barrel from a Remington 700 SA chambered in .300 WSM. He has several Rem 700 SA (with std bolt faces) he’d like to put the barrel on. I was trying to help him by researching his options on the Internet. Here are the opinions I have found.

1) It’s an easy process & most any competent gunsmith could do the work.
2) It’s way too involved & you’d be much better off just buying a new rifle.​

It seems like the following is the minimum needed for the installation:

1) New magazine follower.
2) Bolt face would have to be opened up to Mag size & new extractor installed.​

Other possible modifications include:

1) Open-up the receiver feed rails. (Not sure exactly where or how much?)
2) Open-up the bottom of the receiver mag opening behind the recoil lug for longer bullets.
3) You must use a detachable magazine box for it to work(?)​

Now this has generated the following questions:

Does Remington make a special Model 700 short action designed for the WSM cartridges? If so, how & where are they different? Does this mean a WSM 700 could not be used for standard cartridges again assuming a bolt change?

BTW: One interesting thing I came across was a guy that did the conversion & instead of changing the bolt face he turned down the rims on all his cases to a std bolt face diameter. I just hope he is not DIY-ing rebated rims onto factory ammo! LOL

Thanks in advance for your comments & insights!

 

[LoonWulf]

Personally, over the years I have gone to smaller & instead of bigger cartridges. So I have not spent much time studying Magnum cartridges. So please excuse me if my questions are too dumb.

A friend approached me with a take-off barrel from a Remington 700 SA chambered in .300 WSM. He has several Rem 700 SA (with std bolt faces) he’d like to put the barrel on. I was trying to help him by researching his options on the Internet. Here are the opinions I have found.

1) It’s an easy process & most any competent gunsmith could do the work.
2) It’s way too involved & you’d be much better off just buying a new rifle.​

It seems like the following is the minimum needed for the installation:

1) New magazine follower.
2) Bolt face would have to be opened up to Mag size & new extractor installed.​

Other possible modifications include:

1) Open-up the receiver feed rails. (Not sure exactly where or how much?)
2) Open-up the bottom of the receiver mag opening behind the recoil lug for longer bullets.
3) You must use a detachable magazine box for it to work(?)​

Now this has generated the following questions:

Does Remington make a special Model 700 short action designed for the WSM cartridges? If so, how & where are they different? Does this mean a WSM 700 could not be used for standard cartridges again assuming a bolt change?

BTW: One interesting thing I came across was a guy that did the conversion & instead of changing the bolt face he turned down the rims on all his cases to a std bolt face diameter. I just hope he is not DIY-ing rebated rims onto factory ammo! LOL

Thanks in advance for your comments & insights!

good questions actually.

couple things to remember about the wsm and saums, they are larger than magnum sized in the body, .55 or so, and already rebated back down to .53/magnum bolt sized.
this means that going from a standard to a WSM would require, bolt work/new bolt, magazine/feed rail work, and barrel install.
The WSMs are also a little long for the model 7s sub 2.8" magazine, and limited in bullet weight in the regular 700s 2.83" mag.

easiest way to do this project on an in hand standard action, would be to buy a magnum bolt or have it opened, install a magpul hunter bottom metal or other aics patern dm system, and install the barrel.
for the barrel if its not a custom short chamber it will likely need to be set back to time the lettering and allow you to ream in the correct headspace.


honestly if you buddy wants to try WSM, id just buy one. If its the project thats the draw, this is a big one lol.

 

[troy fairweather]

yup loonwulf about covered it, i like the wsm's and the saum's. but for most people there way more then needed. the other thing is brass, it's rather hard/pricey to find and when you do have it the brass only lasts a few shots with full house loads. ammo is over $30 a box most times.

i just tried a 7wsm in my sa 308 won't even fit between the feed lips. looks like they need to be opened at least 50 thousandths. i would just buy a new rifle and us th sa for other builds.