Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Recoil lug, is it necessary?

I have a M70 Safari Express .375 Is the recoil lug necessary on this gun or could the contact hamper accuracy?

Thanks
Pete

Consider the fact that early .458 Winchester Model 70s split their stocks until Winchester added a second horizontal through-bolt to reinforce the stock � then draw your own conclusion.

Or you can grind the recoil lug off, fire the rifle, and count your remaining eye[s] when you regain consciousness.

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I assume you're talking about the barrel mounted recoil lug. If so, then it's probably not necessary with the 375, assuming that the action is properly bedded. I know several guys who have either removed or floated the barrel recoil lug with no ill effects.

The 458 is in another league entirely, and I would definitely keep it on if it were my rifle in that chambering.

It is the barrel mounted recoil lug and I have had the stock Pillar bedded.

You might not have to add a lug for a 375, but I darn sure wouldn't remove one off a 375 that had one. My M-70 416Rem mag with a barrel lug shoots better than my M-70 Stainless 375 that doesn't have a lug. Bed the barrel lug and enjoy a great classic caliber.........DJ

Why would you want to remove it?

Totally unecessary on the 375.

Winchesters system of welding them on does not hep the barrel.

I have aso previously owned 3 push feed M70 458s and shot them with the lug free floating.

For accuracy they are at the best if a scew is inserted into the lug, the action bedded and the barrel free floated either side of the lug.

If the barrel is free floated and the lug is bedded it can move up and down and not properly relocate. The factory overcomes this by the pressure bedding on the forend tip.

It is worth noting that the old Sakos with their tiny Mauser style recioil lug did not use a barrel lug although the action rested directly on the cross bolt so as to effectively increase the size of the tiny action lug.

H&H (unless they have changed) do not use a barrel lug on the 375 and they have the little piss poor Mauser recoil lug.

The very best system is to have the action recoil lug narrowed and a strap with a slot that is epoxied into the forearm and the action recoil lug is bedded into the steel strap.

The other good system is what Weatherby uses where the barrel lug is mounted on the barrel reinforce about an inch in front of the action.

The cross bolts on the M70 are designed to stop the stock from splitting when the magazine section of the stock "balloons" out under recoil. Lots of rifles have them but they are hidden, that is, the bolt does not extend outside the stock. Weatherbys use that system.

Remington does not use a barrel lug on any of their big bangers but of course they have a big action recoil lug and the most stock material behind the recoil lug of any rifle out there.
Mike