Update:
Proved a few things that were obvious and some things that weren't:
The action fit beautifully in to the new stock:
Unfortunately as many of you probably predicted like I did, it is quite a bit heavier now. I can't tell you how much it weighs, but I can say that it is now exactly two lbs. heavier. I weighed it with the old scope and the sling re-attached so I know the difference is purely the stock. Apart from the fact one is tupperware and the other is laminate, there is a lot more "meat" to the laminate:
The next dissapointment was the barrel contouring. The 12VLP stock was built around a varmint profile barrel. I reckoned a magnum profiled .300wsm couldn't be all that skinnier. I was wrong:
I have it rolled to one side in the picture but that gap is on both sides of the barrel, approximately 3/16" each side. I figured the weight gain could be offset with some selective butt drilling (yeah i said that) and inletting, but with the barrel channel being so wide I'm going to give up on it. I certainly don't want a heavier profile barrel adding more weight. I'm going to see whats out there for tupperware with DBM.
The high point of the exercise was the magazines. The box in the blind stock came out easy enough. There is quite a visible difference in the feed lips of the standard vs. the magnum boxes.
The followers were also slightly off and even though they look very close, they were not interchangeable.
I swapped the magnum box and follower onto the standard base in about 10 seconds, it fit perfectly. The project is going to wait while I decide how to proceed with my stock, as I said 10lbs just isn't going to cut it. I will have an update towards the end of next week though. My brother is coming for a visit and will load a couple dummy rounds in 6.5PRC. I'm hoping I can verify feeding from the mag, even though it is still wearing the WSM barrel. If it looks like the feed lips only need minor tweaking I'm going to purchase the barrel. Planning a 24" Shilen prefit in heavy sporter or magnum profile.
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