A few questions for the guys who own these.
3) Are the stocks on the rifles built to handle the recoil impulse generated by the round?
Thanks
I had posted the following on another post about 6 months ago:
My observations of a Zastava 458 Win Mag - bought new in 2014. As received from factory, there was clearance between the recoil lug and the stock cross bolt. I glass bedded that with Devcon Steel. I was surprised that there was only the action recoil lug - no recoil lug on the barrel, which I expected to see. (See Phil Shoemaker's discussion on the campfire site regarding his building of his "ole Ugly" - and how he installed a barrel recoil lug because of his concern that the 458 "is known" to break stocks.)
The stock's bulkhead at the rear of the mag well was very thin - about 1/8" or less, with about 3/16" clearance between rear of mag box and the bulkhead. There was a cavernous excavation in the stock to accommodate their trigger assembly, and then some. There was no rear cross bolt. Not surprisingly, within a couple years of sitting in the gun cabinet, there was a crack through that bulkhead, so nothing holding the stock together from front of mag well to rear tang. I built up about .030" thickness of masking tape on rear of magazine box and filled the gap with Devcon to reinforce the bulkhead. I like the two stage mauser triggers, when set up for nice clean two step trigger pull, so carved a block in the shape of the space needed for a military trigger to function, attached it to the action, and filled the trigger cavity with Devcon - that took three separate pours and well over a fluid ounce to get it filled. Laid a U-shaped metal strap in there a-la-Weatherby internal cross "bolt".
I had mounted an old time Redfield flip up aperture sight to the rear of the rear scope base. Removed the rear sight from the barrel - 2 - M3x0.5 screws and some red "loctite" holding it on - never did find slotted filler screws, so installed some allen head set screws, until I make some slotted ones.
Attempted to change out front sight to a fiber optic bead. Through my own klutziness, I discovered that the front sight is mounted with a shallow dovetail cut into the barrel, a "top hat" style insert that the front sight screw attaches to, and more "loctite" holding the ramp to the barrel. To boot, it is not a standard 3/8" dovetail on the sight ramp.
I do like the blued finish, but did not really fancy the longish skinny (to my eye) bolt handle, so swapped it out with a polished one from a Parker Hale magnum - it headspaces perfectly and at least 80%+ bearing on the recoil lugs. Mounted a Leupold M8-2.5x and I think it is ready to go. Next mod, for sure, will be a front sight that I can be sure will not go flying off into the bush when I really need it, probably a banded ramp that can be soldered in place.
