I have an easy starter question. Can anyone tell me the exact length of the steel action screw sleeve (connecting the bottom metal to the receiver) for a 1966 2A1?

The reason I'm asking is that after a few years of distractions, I'm finally getting around to accurizing the rifle that my brother gave our 13 year old when he showed an interest in hunting. The rifle was sporterized about 25 years ago, which I realize some see as blasphemy and probably degraded the accuracy in the process.... That's not going to stop us from shooting and enjoying the thing though. 

Anyway, when my brother tossed the original furniture in the trash, he must have tossed the spacer with it and now I need to find or create a new one. So exact length would be helpful to know.

I'm also having feeding issues, which I understand could be related to the bottom metal spacing, but I'm not discounting bent guides on the top of the mag yet either. Any guidance on feeding issues would be helpful.

Thanks!

No!

Not to be mean or nasty but its not a fixed dimension I'm afraid.

The idea is it's just shorter than the actual gap between the receiver & bottom metal setting up a limited & controlled crush force in the wood. All this on your own, unique set of parts.

I guess you could hand assemble the receiver to the wood fairly forcefully & use a depth measurement from a caliper. Then do the reverse from the other end & work out the math that way? You need to have it slightly shorter than that mathematical answer.

Magazines need to be hand-fitted to individual actions. That's probably the source of your feeding troubles.

These  a thread on here where we were able to help a new member with a similar problem. If I can find it, I'll post a link to it as it has lots of information & discussion which ended up fixing his problem so you can gain the benefit of that experience.

And it's a synthetic stock by the way so compression is going to be different than the original wood unit. I already know that's going to throw a wrench in the works but my brother did this all in his early 20s and didn't put any effort into fitment (didn't know any better). So the way I see it  just finishing the job he started a long time ago .

I'll be interested in that magazine fitting thread. I've already done some good, but when loaded with 5 rds (I have the mag blocked to 5 for hunting reg compliance) it consistently pops the second round out of the mag at an extreme angle (first round of I load 4) that either jambs against the back of the barrel or stovepipes out of the ejection port. The short term fix for this season was to hunt with three in the mag but I know I can fix the issue. The round that's jumping is coming off the left side of the stack I believe and I'm suspicious that the mag jot dropped on it's top and bent or had something similar happen way back in the day... 

If you do try a collar, it would probably have to be fitted as Shamu described. They typically have to be filed down, a little at a time until the trigger guard compresses the forend slightly as it contacts the collar.

For the mag, put two rounds in and slowly push the bolt forward watching the bullet, if it jumps out of the mag before the tip contacts the feed ramp you have to tweak the front left feed lip. 

Might as well add my next burning question... The mid band (now at the forend of the Sporter stock has around a .015" gap to the barrel.I realize there's a whole art to tuning and bedding stocks and forend pressure is a thing that I won't have. So that raises the question of how to treat the mid band and the forend of the stock? I could shim it, remove it, add a pressure pad or bed the whole length of the barrel... Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated though!

Thanks!