A Riddle Wrapped in an Action

Lowlight

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Minuteman
  • Apr 12, 2001
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    Base of the Rockies
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    I got this image sent to me today,

    Screenshot 2023-01-03 at 12.34.43 PM.png


    That appears to be the rear sight holes they used to mount the action to the chassis externally

    Anybody every see this and was it a way to prevent the action from loosening up in the Chassis ?
     
    You can easily see in the other images how the threaded holes are there, they just don't have that funky block/thing.
    Imma guess it was a after thought kind of thing that some random gunsmith added for some perceived issue ???
    I can definitely see it adding some stiffness to the chassis mating....but....with bullet rotation torque at moment of firing the round ?????
    Could it be an inertia dampener for that rotation ?
     
    Being that it's a 700 action, the action screws are on the bottom of it. There's no view of the bottom of the rifle in question, so I'd assume the action screws are what's holding it into the chassis from the bottom. That strap on the side appears to be some sort of rigidity control to eliminate any type of flex in the action, or some type of SHTF setup to if the action screws worked loose, or maybe someone just made it and put it there to keep from having 3 open screw holes on the rifle? I would not assume that strap is the only thing mounting the action to the chassis.
     
    I’ve never seen anything like this either. The original purpose of the treaded holes (in the chassis not the action) was to secure remote switches, so I’d suspect this is probably a one off solution.

    Sometimes weird stuff gets fabricated in SOT shops in theater at the request of operators. It could help if we knew (at least roughly) who’s inquiring and where the rifle has be spending its vacation time.
     
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    Kinda looks like it was intended to control torque transfer to the chassis during recoil. Maybe bubba had an idea, or maybe bubba just doesn't like having threaded holes sitting empty on the side of his action/chassis.