I found one of these a while ago, and finally decided to install it last weekend. You've all seen the M14/M1A magazine conversions for the Remington 700 Short Action rifles in .308, right? Here's an extended floorplate for the 700 SA that brings the magazine capacity up to 7 rounds of .308, or 9 rounds of .223. It's made by ArmsTech Ltd, the same folks who sell neat stuff to the DoD - like those remanufactured .300 Win Mag Interdiction Rifles based on the Browning BAR sporting rifle. The Mag-Xtender sells for $26.95, try www.floridagunworks.com as a source for the item.
I was a bit leery of buying and installing this thing, until I got a good close look at it. Although it's made of Zytel, it's fairly stout, and has a solid lockup into the floorplate release catch. Installation is a breeze, simply loosen the action screws and remove the trigger guard assembly. Press out the front floorplate hinge pin, remove the floorplate, swap the follower and follower spring into the new mag extender's spring retainer (very tight fit), then install the mag extender into the trigger guard using the old floorplate hinge pin. The floorplate goes back into the gun, tighten up the action screws to your favorite torque setting, and Voila'! If you have a .223 Remington 700, slide the steel cartridge stop plate into the dovetail provided inside the mag extender. Otherwise, that's all there is to it!
Truthfully, I was somewhat concerned that the extra depth of the new floorplate extension would weaken the follower spring and follower tension when just one or two rounds are loaded in the rifle. Not so - they feed and function just as well as they did with the original Remington floorplate, I've run about 80 rounds through it to date.
So it functions as advertised, but how's it look? Here it is on my Remington 700PSS, where it will probably remain for good:
Opened up:
Different angle:
I was a bit leery of buying and installing this thing, until I got a good close look at it. Although it's made of Zytel, it's fairly stout, and has a solid lockup into the floorplate release catch. Installation is a breeze, simply loosen the action screws and remove the trigger guard assembly. Press out the front floorplate hinge pin, remove the floorplate, swap the follower and follower spring into the new mag extender's spring retainer (very tight fit), then install the mag extender into the trigger guard using the old floorplate hinge pin. The floorplate goes back into the gun, tighten up the action screws to your favorite torque setting, and Voila'! If you have a .223 Remington 700, slide the steel cartridge stop plate into the dovetail provided inside the mag extender. Otherwise, that's all there is to it!
Truthfully, I was somewhat concerned that the extra depth of the new floorplate extension would weaken the follower spring and follower tension when just one or two rounds are loaded in the rifle. Not so - they feed and function just as well as they did with the original Remington floorplate, I've run about 80 rounds through it to date.
So it functions as advertised, but how's it look? Here it is on my Remington 700PSS, where it will probably remain for good:
Opened up:
Different angle:
