Quote Originally Posted by jedelman07 View Post
I'm a beginning student at the Colorado School of Trades, and for my project rifle I'm building a 338 Win Mag. I'm building off of a Remington 700 action I need to supply myself so I need to order online... so the question lies in do I order a regular long action receiver or do I order a LA magnum. I feel stupid for asking, but it would sure make a difference money-wise if I get a second opinion.
As a graduate, let me try to answer more realistically.
An aftermarket action will cost big money you probably don't have, and not teach you how to blueprint an action, which is the point of the project.
A Remington 700 long action can work, but you'll have to open the bolt face and modify the magazine box yourself.
A magnum action will have the correct mag box (which is the biggest pain in the ass to change), and have a magnum cut bolt face with installed extractor.
I agree with Bert that the Rem 700 extractor sucks, but buying a Sako or AR308 style extractor and milling the bolt for it after the fact is pretty cheap (while you're using the schools tools), and youd get another school credit for the work.
You wont need to turn the front ring so much as to compromise the receiver strength, and a thicker recoil lug is an easy upgrade to deal with it.
If a 700 long action is significantly cheaper, magpul long action magnum bottom metal and mags are pretty cheap, and possibly the better way to go.
Though I wont try to talk you out of the belted magnum in favor of a short action (you cant fake momentum when it comes to terminal ballistics), if you haven't bought your barrel yet (which I know you probably have), a .300wm is a lot more common for ammo, and bullet selection in .30cal.
That said, I've never been disappointed in my .338wm performance wise, but I do shoot my .300wm more due to projectile availability and cost.