Sa mag bolt head confusion

**Wide Glide** · 05-20-2020, 08:06 AM

So while trying to make the decision between 300 WinMag and 300 WSM I run into the usual mag bolt head issue Which of course every thread I open on that gives me more questions about the options.

PTG is supposed to be the easiest but their website says that it will need to be fit by a gunsmith.With over 90% of my guns I do my own basic smithing have even built 80% 1911’s but I have never tried to fit a bald head and wouldn’t know where to start.Do they really require that much fitting or are they really dropping and that just a disclaimer for legal issues?

Then there is the method of cutting down a long action bolt head stem. I keep hearing this mentioned but no one ever goes into detail like how they are cutting it and how precise the cut needs to be. Like does it need to be cut at a precise Length Or just short enough to fit? How true does the cut surface have to be?

Then I hear talk about different size lugs. Do I need to make sure to get one with a certain size lug? Do different recent short actions require different lugs?

All of this really makes me want to just get the long action 300 WinMag and it would be a no brainer except for the lack of stocks.

**Robinhood** · 05-20-2020, 08:16 AM

The factory SA mag bolt head is an 1/8" longer than the standard bolt head. This makes the firing pin protrusion complicated by having to compress the spring an additional 1/8". So you would need to upgrade the firing pin to the sa magnum assembly that is designed for the longer bolt head. The long action magnum bolt head can be used bu you have to make the length of the material aft the cross pin the same length as the short action for the firing pin to fit.

PTG sells a bolt head that is already machined correctly for use with the factory standard firing pin. They also sell a more expensive custom unit that would require some more knowledge.