Hi,
I'm looking to pick up a second stock to swap out my 116 trophy hunter to. I want a lightweight, so I'm looking at the Choate 110E option. It only weights about 1.5 pounds. The issues is that it is staggerfeed blind mag. I plan to have the action bedded. Can it be modified to work with a blind mag centerfeed set up?
Chris
Since it is a LA stock, the action screw spacing is the same between the LA staggerfeed and the LA centerfeed. So your 116 TH action will fit into a LA SF stock. The blind magazine well on SF stocks are usually oversized when compared to CF stocks. So what I use to do was tape the magazine box to the action with a business card between the mag lips and the bottom of the bolt. Put a small ball of plumbers epoxy putty in the 4 corners of the stock mag well. Attach the stock to the action pressing the metal corners of mag box (don't forget to apply release agent) into the plumbers epoxy putty. Wait about 10 minutes and remove action. Trim excess epoxy putty before it hardens completely. You now have a base in the mag well for the four corners of the magazine box to set on at the proper height for the bolt head to push feed cartridges, yet not contact the lips of the mag box. Put small wood screws in the groves on each side of the mag box and screw them into the bottom of the stock well to hold mag box firmly in place. If you don't, the spring loaded follower will push the mag box up into the bottom of the bolt and all over the well. This also allows you to do away with the "pita" L-Clip when you do the bedding job.
I epoxied hobby plywood in as shims in the front of the mag well, cut the slot for the L clip in the rear, used a Dremel to fit it all snug like a factory and was GTG. You can do it too.
Thanks for te input.