Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Wyatt's extended mag box for M700 SA

Who here has run one for the .308win family in a 700 BDL setup? I asked Wyatt's and they suggest the MBE-5, which is similar to the factory box except for the 2.995" inside dimension. He also says my factory follower and spring should be fine. The concept of milling the rear of the action and modifying the bolt stop makes sense to me, but I was wondering who is using this mag box with success. I could use a bit more wiggle room in a 308win and a 257bob.

Also, a gunsmith suggestion would be good, as Kevin is snowed at the moment on smith work. He charges $60 for the install, which isn't too bad.

Maybe I should have posted my query in another location.

$60 is cheap..


But I don't/won't use Wyatts boxes.. I've had a couple rifles come in with those in place and the complaint is 'feeding' issues.. Removing those boxes and installing the correct factory box and follower fixed the problem..

I've heard bad stuff on the M70 boxes, but hear very little otherwise. Negative press always sticks in the mind.

Thanks for the input.

I have one in a M700 SA. The action was originally a .308 and at the time I had the MBE-5 installed it was rebarreled to 284 win.

I had the box fitted by Dave at ITD. It uses the factory metal,spring and follower. Dave also checked feeding, but other than fitting no mods were nessesary for feeding. I think I paid Dave $60 for the fitting and feeding. BTW, it feeds just fine

The 284 being longer than the 308..I figured it was good insurance.

My experience is that seating depth has only a minor effect on velocity, but in some rifles getting close to the lands is important for accuracy..other rifles, distance to the lands seems not to matter.

If you have the rifle, you can single load and tell whether another .2" of COAL will be of any benefit in your case.

If your building the rifle(like I was) It cost me about $100 total, which was worth it not to have to send it in later to get the box fitted and then have the coating touched up where the action was milled. The $100 wasn't much considering the Barreling,stock, coating,scope dies etc.

Sounds good and I appreciate the info. I hear you on the throat length issue concerning accuracy more than velocity. I'd also like to be able to run the longer OAL in my .308 to allow for the VLD-type stuff.

Why not just cut and add to the front of the box? ction feed ramp will need to be profiled to match but it is no big deal; I have done it a number of times.

I would also echo the opinion of Redneck. I would never even consider a Wyatt's after my bad experiences with them.

Jim

You can't beat Kevin Wyatt... hell of a gunsmith and just an all around good guy...

anything he touches is top shelf...

That's what I did on my Sako, I made an aluminum block on the CNC mill that was the dimensions I wanted. I then cut the box and slid it over the block. I use a strip of sheet metal on each side and TIG welded it back together and then filed it nice and flat. I can now load out to 3.85" or so with that rifle. I have no experience with the Wyatt box.

I think SU35 did a couple of 6.5-284s with them however.

I've installed a couple of dozen Wyatt extended center feed boxes over the past few years and have never had a problem getting them working. They are not a simple drop in replacement and do require some fitting and adjusting of the feed lips, but once they are set, they feed just fine.

Karl, are you still working on rifles?