Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Tell Us About Your pre 64 M70 Failures and Malfunctions

Totally agree. This rifle is worth considerably more than a grand. If you can snag it for that, do it.

Sorry, gents. I missed the "pre" in the thread title.

I have only one PRE-64, a 1959 or '60 Westerner in .264 Win Mag. Its only shortcoming is the ugly stock that came with it---which someone here pointed out shortly after I posted pics of it...the buttstock had been recontoured.

Now, had no one said anything I would have never been the wiser, but it began to eat at me every time I looked at it. The poor ugly thing has had a facelift, though.



Before...






After...

Looks much better now riverrider..

Yes sir, it does if I say so myself. It bugged me that I didn't realize the stock had been buggered when I swapped for the rifle, and it bugged me that my ignorance was on full public display when it was pointed out to me. But now when I look at it, it was all worth it.

Anyone wanna buy a throwdown stock for a pre-64? You could use it to preserve your treasured all-original Super Grade stock while in the boonies. If you're hunting hundereds of miles from civilization, no one will even see it.

I have owned at least 70 pre 64 Win 70's, 59 in my book.
Most of these were well used and a few were put togethers.

I had one Sear break on a 257 Roberts.

I have had a few Firing Pins develop burrs hampering the Safety, which were an easy fix.

22 Hornet SG, none
270 FW, none
270 standard rifle, 'smith had to clean 3-pos safety area, all good now.
30-06 Standard, none
New to me 30GOVT06, none yet, waiting on stock
300 H&H SG, none
338-06 Rebore Standard rifle, none

Damn solid rifles

Bud was over the other day before we went shooting and I showed him the FWT I recently got from Yar. This guy knows metal and how to work it. He cycled the bolt and said this is one solid/tight rifle. I stray on occasion, because I like to fool around with different ones, but if I had to choose out of anything made past or present it would be a pre 64 70FWT. One can easily do worse.

I'm surprised you don't have a 375H&H there at the end of the list...

I NEED a 375 to round out the top!

I bet at least part of the problem Winchester had with the pre 64 is the amount of coddling they got by skilled hands. It must have been tough to replace those people as years went by.

Read Rule. It's apparent the rifle got a lot of hands on attention before they left the factory,not to make them"fancy" but to make the shoot and work as a unit.

Despite its virtues you simply do not get this with current manufactured rifles and even with the Classics and post 64's, and even if they did with the Classics,they still did not work at the same level as the pre 64.

I recall something I was told recently,that when the Classic in 416 Remington was being developed,Winchester had to hire two skilled smiths as outside consultants to get the rifles to feed(!!)

You heard it....Winchester workers could not get the rifles to feed and I recall most of tis work started in the Custom shop. I was astonished that there was not enough rifle savy within the 4 walls of Winchester to get a 416 Remington to feed from a M70 action.

But after years with enough Classics, looking back I understand why.

Contrast this to the old engineers and workers at Winchester who were able to get flawless feeding from one action length modified to feed everything from the 22 Hornet to the 375H&h and 458 Winchester, with at least a few odd ball cartridges along the way.

No wonder they work....it ain't nostalgia.

I'm not a collector, but I have had numerous Model 70s. I largely financed four degrees for three daughters through buying, selling, and trading Winchesters, Brownings, S&Ws, Sakos and and other nice firearms. I owned one particular Super Grade 30 Govt 06 three times and hunted it several times, taking my best desert mule deer with it.

I have tinkered with them, refinished some scruffy stocks, and otherwise tweaked them to bring top dollar, but I don't recall having to replace any metallic part other than replacing buggered screws. I used to have a source for replacement red Winchester marked pads and super grade swivels, which have both dried up.

As much as I never understood why, I never carried a .375 or a .458 (any brand on the latter) to a show that did not sell for good money. Two that passed through my hands that I wish I had kept are an early fifties .300 H&H and a .270 barreled action that appeared unfired that I found a period stock for.

My only M70 today is a prewar .270 with some history. A long deceased family friend bought it new, Cousin bought all his guns when he hung them up, loaned me the .270 for a couple of years (62-64) until I could afford my own, then was gifted to me some fifteen years ago when Cousin was killed in an accident. It is well used, but mechanically perfect. The original owner scoped and padded it, likely in the early fifties. I'm thinking that it goes to my grandson. I use it only as a Mule or stand gun. I'm getting old and they are heavy.

My other Winchesters are a mid forties US ordinance marked M12 and a minty 42 that I shoot opening day of dove season most years.

Best wishes,

Jack

I don't know if I would call this a failure or not more of a reloading issue. I have a 358 FWT that if I set the primer just a tad to deep the firing pin won't hit it hard enough to ignite the primer resulting in just a click and no boom:)

GSP that sounds exactly why they are rare. Not enough shoulder and the bolt resizing the case beyond limits.

I have a gunsmith friend who had contacts at the old gunsmith school in downtown Pittsburgh, PA. There used to be reps from Remington, Winchester, and the others down there at graduation day to get the cream for their factories. In those days most of the employees were gunsmiths. That ended 25 or 30 years ago; now they are hired off of the street with no special skills or training.

That is not the first time I heard that about 358's. It can happen with any of them and I think that's the reason they stopped making them.


We don't seem to have any checklists to go through, magazine boxes that bind, actions bedded on top of mag boxes that must be ground down( That one really cracks me up. Must be some sharp bulbs in those plants) screws too long, firing pin protrusions set by a set screw glued in place.......geezus.

Very little breaks very often.

Actually the only commonly available rifle I'm familiar with that seems as durable is a Ruger, which take a lot of abuse and never seem to break,even though they sometimes do not work as well,and sometimes need more tweaking to shoot. Still I trust the things pretty well.

Bob,
Then there is the MRC rifle. Cast receiver-like Ruger-but as close to a 70 as you will find. Have one, and while it hasn't passed the test of time, it shoots well, cleans up easy, with a great trigger after a tweak. A FWT barrel contour would be nice, but I cut around 1.5 inches off and it balances well.

battue you are probably right but I have never owned one,so have no experience.

Seems like when I have the ching to buy, I think about a lot of stuff but mostly grab a clean pre 64 M70. I figure it's always a safe bet.

I figured that would by your answer, purist that you are.

Best part of your bet, would be it is highly likely it will always be at minimum an even bet.

At my age I am not worried about outlasting a clean pre 64 M70.


This one has been sitting around for a couple of years and I finally got it scope mounted and may hunt it this year.

You know....it's one of those safe queens that bugs those hard charging Alaskans so much...LOL

Bsa1917hunter: I have been shooting and Hunting (both Varmints and Big Game) with my pre-64 Winchester Model 70's for 50 years now and have as yet to experience my first "failure" or "malfunction"!
When I was a young (dumb!) pre-64 Model 70 collector - I thought to myself they have now discontinued this Rifle and I better lay in a supply of firing pin assemblies for future needs.
I bought 7 of them over the next few years.
I still have 7 of them!
I have talked to gunsmiths, competitive shooters and Riflesmiths all across this country and I normally always quietly inquire if they have ever come across a pre-64 Model 70 that had a broken firing pin in it.
None have ever seen a pre-64 Model 70 with a broken firing pin!
I, have never seen a Model 70 with a broken firing pin.
I wish the same could be said for many other brands of Rifles I have owned!
If you want a strongly built, safe, valuable and reliable Rifle (let alone handsome!) then the Riflemans Rifle should be your choice.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy