Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Year of the Rifle

For me, this has been the "year of the rifle." Because of a work arrangement with a custom rifle maker, I've shot a wide variety of rifles, but I have also acquired several new rifles this year that are begging an opportunity to go hunting. During the year I picked up my third Model 94 in .356 Winchester, which I haven't even shot yet. I sold one and bought this one. I am planning on working up a 180 grain Speer FN load for it. Previously, my other two shot 3/4" groups with either 220 grain Speer FN or 250 grain Kodiak bullets.

I also picked up a Remington BDL chambered in 35 Whelan which shows promise. It is yielding 1 1/4" groups with several bullets and the Chrony shows that I am getting decent velocities.

Additionally, I secured a Remington 673 in 350 Remington Magnum which is giving me several 3/4 to 1 inch groups with a variety of bullets.

My Ruger Hawkeye in .358 Winchester was a prize for me. It shoots 200 grain TSX and 225 grain Nosler Partitions into 3/4" consistently. It is a sweet shooting little rifle. I doubt that it will go deer hunting with me this year as the season ends this coming Sunday and I don't have time to finalise my loads. However, it will accompany me on a black bear hunt on Vancouver Island this coming spring.

Today, I encountered one of the new Model 70 Winchesters in 30/06 which insisted on following me home. I haven't had this calibre for several years, so it means buying new dies. I set aside two boxes of Nosler brass and two bags of Remington brass so I can start loading shortly to get it ready for the spring season next year.

None of these rifles have been blooded yet, but I hope to work on remedying that deficit next year. Load development and working them out in the field should keep me busy next year.

I'm carrying an old familiar friend, my Model 70 .280 for a whitetail hunt tomorrow morning. I took a fine mule deer buck earlier with my 7 mm WSM and an elk with my .325 WSM. It has been a fine season and I have meat to take to the annual game dinner hosted by our church.

I pray that all our friends at the fire have a great year, and for all that are celebrating Thanksgiving, may God give you grateful hearts for His many blessings.

Thank you very much, and the same wishes to you and yours. If I ever visit Canada again, may I meet only people like you.

how's the new model 70?

I'll let you know how it shoots in a few weeks. As far as fit and finish and trigger, it appears to be what the old Model 70 should have been. I have seven of the Featherweights in a variety of calibres. Each shoots quite well, but the last two (7 WSM and 325 WSM) were very rough. The serial number on the bolt looked as if it had been burned in with a blow torch and the bolt was rough on each of them. The barrel on the 325 WSM was exceptionally rough, but it has smoothed out with time. Before that, I had a push feed 280 which shot better than it should have shot. I traded it and bought another 280 in the CRF which had one of the roughest barrels I have ever encountered. After about 500 rounds, it is shooting very well and the barrel is acceptably smooth. The new Model 70 does not appear on visual inspection to be afflicted with the problems that plagued the previous iterations of the Featherweight. I'll give an update when I've had opportunity to break it in and work up some loads.

I have read all the reviews here and only complaint is the trigger and it's flesh. I would like to hear more reviews of how it actually performs. Most of the gunwriters was only shooting hot cooking barrels at the winchester/browning showcase and the weather has horrible. People complain alot but yet have not even handled one. And most of the reviews or the featherwieghts which had a thin barrel that caused some accusracy issues. I have handled a few here in my local shops, they seem well built and smooth. I have a classic supergrade that is FLAWLESS and shoots 1/2". Let us know how it performs, I am really looking into a stainless in 7-08.