Gunsmithing Tempest - Manners mini-chassis no mags work!

[3rdfocal]

I've got a Tempest WSM action and a Manners "T" stock with the gen II mini chassis and I can't find a magazine that will work. Both AI and Accurate mags won't let the bolt close, the mags seem to sit up too high. I haven't messed with bending feed lips or trimming, it doesn't seem that I would be able to bend them enough to make em work. Has anyone else experienced this problem and if so what was the fix?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Eagle1899]

Is it the cutout for the extractor catching on the mag lips?

 

[LRI]

Some stuff I have run into from time to time particular to M700's. With all stocks, not just a Manners:

Occassionally the center portion at the rear end of the magazine mortise in the action causes an interference. Most likely culprit(s) are a couple things:

The mini chassis footprint is skewed slightly. What I mean specifically is the distance from the recoil lug in relation to the mag box feature in the chassis. Unlikely, but possible. Those parts are made next door to me by some sharp folks. They have new machines, know how to run them very well, and they are fitted with probing. Very unlikely they goofed.

Another reason and the most likely: Was your action trued or tuned up? If so and the smith got a little aggressive with the front ring facing, it'll certainly cause this. The cascading effect of having the entire action scoot forward and cause the interference is very, very possible.

The path of least resistance here (assuming I am on the right track) is removing a bit of material from the action where the two "Mickey Mouse" ears sit at the very back. The stub in the middle is what I'm referring to. You can easily verify this by assembling your rifle and sticking a finger up in the mag box. If you can see or feel the center feature invading the mag box of the stock it's wrong and needs to be resolved.

Hope this helps.

C.

 

[3rdfocal]

Thanks for the replies guys. The issue is the bottom 1/4" or so of the bolt makes contact with the rear of the feed lips. I spent some time last night and milled down the feed lips and bent them out further and now it feeds fairly well but there isn't much bolt-case contact when pushing the round out of the magazine: enough I suppose but I'm not real comfortable with it. I don't think it's a manufacturing problem with either the action or chassis and neither have been modified in any way yet. It seems that if the bolt were a smaller diameter, maybe a non-wsm bolt, it would function perfectly. I dont want to have to modify mags and make them only usable in this rifle.

 

[Terry Cross]

Paul,
If you had the rifle professionally built, have you contacted the builder?

If you built it yourself I would highly suggest stop mauling the magazines and contact GAP. They are very knowledgeable. . . . . . (cause like, you know, .....they designed the Tempest and build on more of them than anybody) and Ken or other GAP staff would likely be able to more effectively trouble shoot your issue and come up with a more elegant solution.

You have to also consider that they are down the street from Manners and have a close working relationship with them. If GAP can't get your issue resolved, then they will surely be able to steer you to Tom or similar expert at Manners for a fix.

I would say that 95% or better of the "fixes" you read about on these forums that involve bending/trimming/modifying magazines are trying to address errors in the geometry and fit of the DBM bottom metal versus the action.

Again, if you had the rifle built, this should be in their lap first.

Good luck with the issue and please update this thread later when you get a clear resolution so others having similar problems with similar components can forego the same pains.

T.

./

 

[hunter223]

Could you possibly take .020" or so off the mag catch to alleviate the issue?

 

[3rdfocal]

Terry -

I appreciate the help. Hasn't been to a gunsmith yet, I've got all the parts for the build, just waiting on a die to make a dummy round. I planned on just having my gunsmith do the barreled action and assumed it would drop in the stock with minimal fitting that I could do myself, barrel channel is right, removed a tiny bit of fill to clear the front of the action. I was checking fitment of the action/stock and realized the mag wasn't allowing the bolt to travel. Tried a different brand mag, same thing. Forgot to mention that I tried the action in another Manners with mini-chassis, exact same issue. Thought maybe there was a common trick or particular mag that worked with this combo that I hadn't read about yet.
Anyways, I'm certainly no gunsmith so they'll have the whole thing hopefully tomorrow and I'll let someone that knows what they're doing figure it out.

Hunter - I looked at trimming the mag catch and it looks like that may work but then if I was trying to run the bolt with any pressure on the bottom of the mag, the mag would be pushed upward and the problem would still be there.

I'll make sure to find out what fix the gunsmith comes up with and post back here once I do.

 

[ajwcotton]

There are several issues, the mini chassis will need milled to fit the trigger hanger, the latch may or may not need to be modified and the wsm tempest uses specially modified mags, the feed lips will need trimmed and adjusted to clear the bolt and feed.
Alpha mag sells modified mags to GAP.
The tempests are quite sensitive to pillar height (I know not the case here).
As an aside if supplying all the parts GA's lead time is pretty short right now.
PM me if you have any issues.

 

[3rdfocal]

There are several issues, the mini chassis will need milled to fit the trigger hanger, the latch may or may not need to be modified and the wsm tempest uses specially modified mags, the feed lips will need trimmed and adjusted to clear the bolt and feed.
Alpha mag sells modified mags to GAP.
The tempests are quite sensitive to pillar height (I know not the case here).
As an aside if supplying all the parts GA's lead time is pretty short right now.
PM me if you have any issues.

This is perfect, thank you. The mags seemed like the fix so thats what I worked on a few days ago. I think I took around .05" off the top of each feed lip and bent them a tad. It clears the bolt and is feeding pretty well now. There will just have to be specific mags for this gun, not a big deal I guess.

 

[3rdfocal]

Looks like with the large-body bolt on the tempest the solution is modified magazines which have feed lips opened up enough for the bolt to clear but still hold the rounds properly. Thanks for the info earlier ajwcotton.