Originally Posted by BobinNH
Pretty much perfection by my standards in a BG rifle. A M70 Classic with all the bad stuff taken away by Gene Simillion. Shoots great and functions perfectly.

To get it to work like a pre 64 M70 all he had to do was toss the extractor for a "real one" , replace box and follower with items form Darcy Echols shop and do the machining "trick moves"... install a Krieger barrel, etc etc. Stock is Echols Legend.

In any event it has never needed a thing ever since it was delivered a few years ago. But Simillion is one of those smiths who knows how to make a rifle function perfectly and that's what you pay for.

I will mention....in passing again...that pre 64 M70's generally have never needed that kind of attention IME.

Some folks have opined they've had years to weed out the good and bad pre 64's. I can't agree,having owned dozens. I've found the quality of function and accuracy pretty consistent and far above that of any M70's that followed . And better than most any factory rifle I can think of.(Please, no lectures about how the new ones are "better". The Classic certainly never was, and the FN rifles have not been around long enough to prove a thing. Talk to me in 50 years..... whistle


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Something Old School that works. Len Brownell custom on a pre 64 M70 action. 7 RM.It will go bang every time you ask it to.


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I have never handled one of their guns but I suspect as you point out about Simillion that someone like Echols or Simillion would build a rifle with few bugs. I just have so far avoided spending that kind of money on a single rifle, though.

I too believe the pre-64s were the best of the M70s, but to my point, those rifles, which are really nice, have been worked on to get them where they're at in those pictures. New barrels and stocks and if your gunsmiths are like the ones I have used, you then work the bugs out of the upgrades, which is what I have tired of doing.

In theory, the M70 trigger is better, but I have not had any problems with enclosed triggers but I keep my rifles clean and have not hunted a lot in freezing rain. The last time I did hunt in those conditions, though, I was carrying a Mauser with a Timney with no issues.