Gunsmithing What's my best course of action here? Howa bedding/DBM job.

[BrigandActual]

Hey all, I'm in a bit of a bind here.

I have a Howa 1500 purchased a long time ago, and it's been happily sitting in a Manners T2. Several years back, my wife bought me PTG DBM for it, but I never had it installed. I figured it was time to change that.

I took the rifle, stock, and DBM to a local 'smith to inlet the stock for the DBM, bed the action (which I had never done), and install the DBM- which I knew included some modification to the action itself. It's been several months, and I still don't have the rifle back for a lot of reasons- including the 'smith moving to a new city. One of the biggest reasons, though, is that there is a feeding problem and he doesn't want to give it back until he figures it out.

So here's the issue, he inlet the stock for the DBM to fit nice and flush against the bottom. But now when he inserts a magazine, the bolt runs into the back of the mag feed lips and will not pick up a round at all. If he backs it out so that the DBM since about 1/8" proud of the stock, it all feeds fine.

I've seen one other post around here that had a similar issue, but I'm wondering if you have any ideas to pass along. Have you seen this before with a Manners/PTG combination?

 

[iceng]

Trim the mag latch so the mag sits lower. Surprised he doesn't know that ?.

Atlasworkx provides 2 latches with their DBM trigger guard for this exact reason.

 

[BrigandActual]

Trim the mag latch so the mag sits lower. Surprised he doesn't know that ?.

Atlasworkx provides 2 latches with their DBM trigger guard for this exact reason.

Thanks, I'll poke around with that. TBH he might have thought of it, but I haven't talked to him in a while since he' been in the process of moving. I sent an email to PTG asking about suggestions/products for this as well.

 

[ShooterwithNoName]

Trim the mag latch so the mag sits lower. Surprised he doesn't know that ?.

Atlasworkx provides 2 latches with their DBM trigger guard for this exact reason.

This^^^

Should be able to to trim it down so the mag clears the bolt. If there's not enough meat on the latch to trim then possibly make a new latch. I've never used PTG bottom metal on a Howa so I can't really picture how much room there is to work there.

But I've done this on R700 bottom metal before. I did it with a file and it took a bit of time but I was able to get it perfect. Hopefully he will be able to get into it soon. It should be pretty straightforward.

 

[BrigandActual]

Following up. Talked to him yesterday, it turns out he figured this out two weeks ago and just hadn't told me. His shop is still down without power, so he never did my bolt knob modification. I'll figure out someone else to do that (can't use Short Action Customs because they only deal with their in-house knobs and not the Area 419 I want to use).

 

[flatland1]

When I make the mill cut on the projection at the back of the mag well on a Howa 1500, I leave enough of the projection to catch on the rear wall of the magazine & keep it from latching. Then I mill a small 'shelf' - for lack of a better word - on the bottom/forward edge of what's left of the projection. Go only far enough back & up to allow a magazine to latch. If magazines won't latch without causing the feed lips to rub on the bottom of the bolt with some upward pressure on the bottom of the mag, the latch needs shortened. I mention this only as a possibility - have never had it happen in more than a dozen DBM conversions on 1500s.

Done correctly, this allows the shooter to rest the mag on a bag, barricade, or whatever without interfering with the bolt running forward to pick up a round. If you go to far up with this 2nd cut, any pressure on the bottom of the magazine will push it up to the point where it either stops the bolt from going forward, or the feed lips rub on the bottom of the bolt.

I've kept using the PTG DBM because it's reasonably priced, it works, and in B&C, McMillan, and Manners stocks I've used on Howas, it takes very little work to modify the OEM hinged floorplate bottom metal inlet to work with the PTG units. I do most of it with a Dremel in about 5 min, but usually have to use a 5/8" endmill to enlarge the front & rear tang slots of a standard bottom inlet. I use the mill because it's fast & easy - but it could be done by hand with a Dremel if you take your time and are very careful to avoid unsightly gaps on the sides of the cuts.

 

[BAMAboy18]

I'm in the process of fitting my PTG bottom metal in my Axiom. It only took a few minutes with a file. I do have gaps, fore and aft of the action screws, so after I bed my action I will be bedding the bottom metal as well.
However I'm going to have to mill my receiver for the mags to seat. Just wondering if it wouldn't be easier to notch my mags?
Pros and cons??
I do have access to a mill, and I'm not scared to use it, however it is intimidating that this is a brand new rifle, lol
Any advice is greatly appreciated.