404 Jeffery Hodgdon H 4350 loads feedback?

[Ontario Hunter]

Building a 404 on standard Mauser does not require opening up the action to the rear. I didn't need to. Open up the magazine box and loading ramp forward. The inside of the rear action ring does need to be trimmed a bit on the ejection side to allow the fatter cartridges to kick out. But not too much or the extractor will escape its track in the receiver and the action will jam. I just measured the clearance this morning: a cartridge with bullet seated to spec 3.53" OAL has about 0.07" clearance from locking ring at the point when ejector is contacted. Opening the action up to the rear would require modifying the ejector and bolt stop as well as removing substantially more metal from the rear ring. Not necessary. There's no point in increasing the potential for something to go wrong.

Edit: I'm  assuming I didn't open the action to the rear. I ordered 416 Rem bottom metal and fit it into the action. The end plate of the magazine box is flush to the bolt face when bolt is fully retracted. There is almost exactly 3" between rear action screw to back end of box. I presume the original 8mm bottom metal had the same spread because the ejector has not been modified. I gave that bottom metal away so can't compare. This image also shows how the middle of the rear ring has been thinned on the inside to allow thicker 404 shells to clear the action when ejected.