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The .460 S&W Magnum Bolt Action Rifle Project: Part 12: Iron Sights

Welcome back! I was able to test fire Thumper and I didn’t blow anything up. I even fired it standing up sling supported and it was nothing more than a big push that I was able to mitigate by bending backwards a bit. However, I noticed quite a few rounds failed to eject. They extracted, but laid on top of the magazine as empties. When I found the time to dig into it and do some testing with inactive dummy rounds I found that the ejector was pushing the round just under and around the extractor claw, losing the rim from the extractor and not creating the leverage that the ejector needs to throw the cartridge out of the rifle with the backward action of the bolt.

If you’ll recall I already have installed the Sharp Shooter Supply improved extractor/ejection kit so trying to find an extractor to fix this problem wasn’t in the cards. I decided to check with PTG to see if they could machine a bolt head custom for me with the extractor spring and detent hole slightly closer to the center by a few thousandths. Upon further inspection of their website I found they already did just that…they now make a bolt face specifically for 460 S&W! I must not be the only yahoo doing this. I ordered it and installed it when it arrived. I did headspace the rifle to do that, and it wasn’t too far off. Somehow in the process of installing the new bolt face I managed to hork my ejector retaining pin, so I had to order a new one from Numrich and wait for that to arrive to function test.

I can now assert that rounds eject and extract perfectly. If you’re building a 460 Savage like this, I highly recommend just buying this $80.25 bolt face instead of having an existing one machined out, unless you have easy access and skill with machine work. My next update will be the last one, and I’ll contain a summary of the tips and lessons learned I encountered and a handy-dandy table that summarizes the minimal costs required to do this for yourself.

Onward to the Iron Sights! Because I headspaced the rifle since the last time I fired it because of the new bolt face I’d like to recheck functionality at the range before having the irons installed on the top of the barrel. Because I used the same headspace process and attention to detail that I did the first go-around I’m confident that it will work (and probably won’t be as amazed as I was last time when it doesn’t blow up), but as with all things that explode so close to my face I want to make absolutely sure before I do any damage to this pretty stainless barrel before I mark it up drilling and tapping screws for the irons.

So, what irons did I chose? The same ones on my Savage HOGHUNTER .308 Winchester. The HOGHUNTER comes stock with simple iron sights. A brass front bead and buckhorn style rear sight. I had a lot of problems with the irons on that HOGHUNTER so I became very familiar with them. They are Williams sight bases. When I first got it the rifle was shooting 4-6” high, even with the rear sight adjusted as far down as possible. I researched the issue and found the shorter Williams rear sights I needed to correct the issue. While I was doing that, I accidentally broke the front sight off the barrel (don’t ask) so I replaced it with a FireSight front sight. I fell in love with the visibility of that, but still didn’t like the buckhorn rear sight, so I picked up a [William Fire Sight WGRS Ghost Ring] Aperature(http://www.midwayusa.com/product/956780/williams-fire-sight-wgrs-ghost-ring-aperature-aluminum-black). Put the front red dot in the middle of the ghost ring, between the 2 green dots!

I’m putting the same thing on Thumper because I am accustom to them and I really like them. The McGowen barrel is a slightly different profile of barrel, so I had to measure everything up and run it through an Iron Sight Height Calculator to determine which front sight base height I needed to order…but.in all their glory they are boxed up and waiting to be installed once I test fire the new headspacing and bolt again.

For those of you playing the home game, here’s what I’ve spent so far:

Big Bore Savage PartsPrice EstimateReal Cost
Savage Base Rifle$500.00 newTraded a Basic M4Forgery with TN Arms Lower ~$500 for a used 10P
Bolt Face$150.00$78.25
Slotted Barrel Nut$15.00$-
Bolt Body and Screw Fuck Up$-$40.40
Whole new Bolt because I'm a Complete fuckup$-$104.98
Sharp Shooter Supply Extractor Kit$-$24
.223 Remington magazine and follower$-$39.95
460 S&W McGowen Barrel$450.00$460.81
Old Barrel Removal$-$107.00
GO/NoGO Gauges$95.00$83.32
Barrel Wrench, Rosin, Misc$75.00$50.38
PTG 460 S&W Bolt head$-$80.25
New Ejector Retaining Pins (Qty 3)$-$19.40
Iron Sights$-$96.17
Total$ 1285$1184.91 and an AR15 I had built from leftover parts.

In the final chapter, look for a table of what your costs will be, given I’ve already made the mistakes the first time and learned the lessons for you.

Part 1: The Beginning

Part 2: Proving the concept and making the parts list

Part 3: Rifle Acquisition

Part 4: Modify Magazine for rimmed cartridges

Part 5: Ordering the custom 460 S&W Chambered barrel

Part 6: New Bolt Face

Part 7: More Fuckups and a Completed Bolt

Part 8: Fine tuning

Part 9: New Magazine

Part 10: Barrel Installation

Part 11: Test Fire

Part 12: Iron Sights

Part 13: The Conclusion and Lessons Learned

Posted Jun 15, 2017, 3:14 PM UTC · edited

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