Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Customs vs. Factory

Teal I am not that old.....

In 1964 I was only 14.

I had no idea those Ive owned were anything special....they were bought from stores or private individuals. And mostly from here in New England. Just run of the mill rifles and the most I ever did to them (other than those that I bought for the actions which were mostly those discards you're referring to) was restock with a good synthetic.

They are remarkably durable although anything can break eventually. I am fussier about what I will buy now.

But what always impressed me about them was the feeding/function and how reliable they were. The barrels were always pretty good and even if they did not always produce 1/2" groups,they were still good shooters.

I would like to have someone start a thread entitled "Tell Us About Your pre 64 M70 Failures and Malfunctions".

I have never seen one. Of course it would have to be started by someone old enough to know.

Here's another that Ive owned a couple years and just got it scoped the other day and took to the range. First indications are it will be like all the others. It's a 30/06 FW...just another rifle.

I've mentioned this before but a now deceased match shooting friend had a pair of palma guns based on pre 64 M70 actions. he figured one of them had several barrels over t years and had fired just about 150,000 rounds in practice and competition without a bauble.

The other was "younger" and had under 100,000 rounds. This rifle broke an extractor after 40,000 rounds or so. All he ever did to those actions was replace firing pin springs every 30,000 rounds or so to get reliable ignition. I'd say thats way more use and abuse than any sporting hunter will ever give a rifle action which is the heart of the whole rifle deal anyway. Barrels and stocks are spare parts...replace at will.


Oops here it is!