Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Winchester M70 Classic action era/quality/features?

I'm in the process of picking up several Winchester Classic M70 actions for future custom bulds. I'm seeing more of these for sale than I have in recent years so I figure it's a good time to stock upon them. I've had several people tell me that there are quality differences between the various generations of the Classics and, perhaps, also between stainless and chrome-moly Classics.

-What are the serial numbercut offs between "good" and "bad" actions? At what serial number range should I start "passing" on rifles?

-What features, other than serial number, determine this (bolt shroud screw, single pin, dual pin, flat shroud?

-Are there quality differences between the stainless and chrome-moly actions/barrels? I've heard that some of the later chrome-moly actions were over polished and that this could create dimensional differences.

Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks.

David, I have never seen any published information on what you are asking.

For custom builds, you usually want the action trued and on a Winchester that can be a tall order because many gunsmiths do not have the jig fixture to be able to do this.

On Winchesters it is important have the threads in the center of the action "centered" so that the barrel actually is not cocked or is off center line of the bolt. I have owned Winchesters that could not be squared up because the hole in the action was bored way off center prior to being threaded(.032 and .028 on two different actions). Winchesters are threaded from the rear, while Remingtons and Rugers are threaded from the front.

It would be prudent for you to contact a gunsmith that has done a lot of winchesters over the years and get his opinions on the pro's and con's. From my own personal experience, I know that some of the rifles made just prior to 1964 and from 1965-1967 were way out of spec.

Always get your gunsmith to tell you just how far out of square the threads were in your action. If he can't tell you that, you are dealing with the wrong gunsmith, tell him in advance you want to know this information to possibly cull the action from a custom gun project. If the action is too far out of spec, he can just screw the barrel back on.

Evidence of the barrel (possibly) being off center of the action is when you see your primer strike being way off center of the primer on a fired round. There are other causes of this also, such as an over size chamber with the extractor pushing the case out of alignment. When this is the case, the bullet is actually getting started crooked in the barrel. Custom chambers should have minimum SAAMI specs and should eliminate this condition if you specify to the gunsmith that you want to have a minimum SAAMI spec reamer used. You may need to order your own "minimum SAAMI spec) reamer from Pacific Presision, which is a great investment.

When ever you see the primer strike way off center on the primer, it should be "fixed" on the custom re-build. Off center primer strikes can be tollerated on factory rifles as long as accuracy is acceptable, but should never be tollerated when an action is customized for a custom build. I mention this because it is fairly common on Winchesters, while rare on Remingtons and Rugers.

It would be prudent to get the cost on "trueing" up a winchester action, cost may put you in the price range of a cusom action.

Richard's Custom rifles can do a great job on your Winchesters and is a world class guy to deal with, along with being a very experienced shooter himself. Richard had rather help you than screw you, and what ever advise he give you, take it to heart.

Richards Custom Rifles
10431 Stewartsville Rd.
Vinton, Va. 24179

PH. 540-890-8649

Good luck on your future projects. When you get through dealing with action issues, then you can start on barrels, and stock issues. Isn't his fun!

Thanks Keith. That's actually not horribly far from me.

in having looked at many, it seems that the ones with a serial number below G300,000 are very well made. Most of them that came with a Boss barrel were built on the serial numbers under 300,000 and those are the ones I look for to stash away for possible use for custom rifles.

Well, that's one I haven't heard of before.. So, to verify, I called Winchester.. They said that's incorrect..

BTW, I've had Rem 700 actions with the barrel off-center also.. Not that difficult to correct... When there's an action that's sloppy, bolt-wise and/or off center, it's usually sleeved to correct it.. To date, I've not had a M70 that's been more than a couple of thousandths off.. Yet...

It would make sense to me that the earlier ones would be better quality. They had to be made on new tooling, etc. right? I have one with the BOSS made around '95 and it shoots lights out, and the action is very smooth.

I own several ranging from mid90's boss guns up through last year production. I wouldn't worry about any model 70s with a 6 digit serial number IE G 000,000.

In the old days, the tooling was different, set up was different. I had one pre-64 that was .032 off center, had to screw the factory back on. Had another that was .028 off center, pre-64, talking about breaking your heart.

keith,
Just curious...Did you shoot those rifles and if so how did they shoot?

Its not real hard to bore the receiver out and re thread to Remington 700 dimensions.