Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Thinking about a Model 70 Stainless Featherweight........opinions please

I dont know why but recently i have been wanting a 30-06. I have custom wildcats, 300wsm, a couple 270s and smaller but i kind of want a "classic" caliber that i dont have. Doesnt hurt that it is reasonably cheap to just go out and plink with at rocks and whatever else. Through work i can proform items. This means that i can get one item a year from certain companies for half of retail. So basically i could get a Winchester 70 Featherweight Stainless for 50% of MSRP which is $1099. So $550 for a NIB Featherweight Stainless is a no brainer bargain wise but i have never been a big Winchester guy. All my rifles are Remington and Ruger. I guess i just dont have a NEED for a 30-06. Just a WANT. The nostalgia of the Winchester rifle in the classic 30-06 is getting me. Talk me into it guys. I guess i need to start saving my money just in case! One thing that is kind of holding me back is that i dont have easy access to reloading equipment. My dad has his own room in the garage he just built but its 2 1/2 hours away. If i dont reload i have to stick with factory ammo which doesnt bother me one bit but everyone and their dog shoots a 30-06 around here and i saw how impossible it was to find 06 ammo before and during hunting season. I dont think there was one box in all of Missoula to be bought.

Everybody NEEDS a .30-06, even if you don't shoot them . Counting military colectables, I have way more than even I need. Having at least one in "the rifleman's rifle," is even better.

Join a Civilian Marksmanship Program affiliated club and buy imported Greek surplus for plinking.

Getting a stainless Win M70 in featherweight on a proform might be a little tough...that model isnt listed by winchester...


Ingwe

Ingwe......I don't know but I have both the 30-06 and the 270 in model 70 Winchester feather weights and they are both stainless! Yes, I did not miss type either.

Some 2 months after I bought these rifles, a call was made for another client of the gunstore I do business with and the lady at Winchester said: "Sorry, Winchester Never made such a rifle" The clerk looked up the serial numbers of our rifles purchased prior and she then stated there must be some mistake in your logging of those rifles.

Deer-Tracker, just so you know (in case you don't) those stainless rifles will rust just as easy as a blued rifle. It starts out as very tiny pin-head black specks and they grow larger with time and pit.

I always paint my stainless rifles with Rustoleum flat black paint before a hunt. I take the stock off to do so and the rifle mounts for the scope too.

Yeah Tonk...I know they made them in New Haven...have passed a few Fwt. stainless through my hands,nice guns BTW
But they are not listed as current production in the Win. catalog or on line website, and the proform alluded to only kicked into being with the advent of the FN made rifles in South Carolina...

Wish they would make them again..I'm really likin the FN guns!!

ingwe

http://www.winchesterguns.com/products/catalog/detail.asp?family=001C&mid=535119
Your wish is their command�CP.

DOH!!!




Please accept my humbles apologies...
I gotta go wash a schitlload of egg off my face now......


Butttt...thanks for the post CP..Ive been to the website a number of times and missed THAT entirely..


Veddy Veddy cool they brought them back in wood instead of synthetic too!!


Ingwe

A friend has one in 30-06 a NH gun and it is very nice. He has the sporter version in 270 and I believe he prefers the handling of the featherweight. I have a featherweight stainless in 7mm Rem mag with a 24" barrel. It was known as a "All Terrain" and I have since put it in a McMillan Edge. Weight of said rifle is 6lbs 14 ounces .

I have some early New Haven's and early SC FNs. IMHO there is no comparison. SC wins hands down-barrel quality, bedding, crown, action,safety timing, accuracy. One more comment about the action. The three that I have cycle like the bolts are on greased bearings. What I wanted out of my commerial Mausers without spending hundreds to achieve.

Recently a Campfire "cronie" cycled the action on a SS LA action and then a SA chromemoly. I think he's converted from a "no way, no how" to "I need one".

NH guns especially the later years were very spotty. Early production I have found to have much better quality in about every area. Every one of the early guns that I have owned/own were shooters.

Yep we have a stainless/wood 30-06 and a stainless/wood 300WSM at work. I just love the stainless/wood combination. Everytime we didnt have a customer at the gun counter last night, i was holding the 30-06, taking scopes from the displays and comparing them to see how they would look on the gun, etc,etc. I just gotta have one. Only need to save up about $300 more. I used to hate the 30-06 and wanted more of the unconventional stuff but i guess im getting back to the simpler things in life. lol.

Few years ago my brother and I bought a Winchester Featherweight 7mm-08 Blue barrels,
We dropped lots of games, deer, black bear, elk, crows...
We reload and lots of our recipes are amazingly accurate, they are definitely tacks drivers
Here's an example of an average 3 shot group, not the best not the worst.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/854/bluebarrelwinchesterfwtr.jpg/
Last fall we went through a lot of inclement weather, fortunately it pay back.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/515/7mm08105275m15nov18.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/197/ours7mm085.jpg/
Even if I did a lot of maintenance on it, dry it out and oil it every night, got some rust pitting here and there:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/853/21nov2011rouillerust1.jpg/
I�ve then Ordered last December a new one, Stainless tough.
Well, just FYI I just send back today my new Winchester Featherweight STAINLESS 7mm-08: POOR accuracy .
148 rounds through it, reload, factory, redone the bedding, lapping compound; name it.
Average 1.8 inch 3 rounds.
Even switch scope to make sure.
Gunsmith from the service center told me it was not unusual with the Stainless barrel.
Some may think: you got what you pay for! Wrong call.......
Here�s an example with factory rounds

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/706/ssfwt7mm08factory.jpg/

I got the same rifle blued, sold it for inclement weather, shame on me.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/861/winchesterfwtstainless7.jpg/
The blued one was a tack driver, I rely on that when I�ve decided to move for the SS.
Here�s another example from the blue one:
First round was the fouling shot, there�s 4 rounds in the grouping.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/810/bluebarrelwinchesterfwt.jpg/
I really don�t know the next step, what they are going to do, hopefully the problem is the barrel, easy fix, but I do worry a lot fell some pressure and uncertain about her future.
Very disappointed, also have a Winchester 30-06 Ranger, and an XTR 7mm RM, so pleased with them.

What kind of prices are out there? I am thinking about a Super Grade in 30 06. Gander Mtn has them for $1059.00. Gander is not known for great pricing, but that is a few off the MSRP.

I have been thinking about picking up a FWT SS .308 lately. I really have no need for it, but need is not really part of the equation, is it? I have plenty of mid-caliber 'deer/elk' rounds, but no .308. I think I may have just talked myself into it.

That's a great choice, it's very hard to beat the ol 06 and in the "rifleman's" rifle to boot. Just a good combo all the way around. Almost as good as my pre 64 fwt 06

If I could get any M70 at half price, I'd likely get a Supergrade instead.

cazman - one can find supergrades for 900.00-1000.00 on the web. gunbroker would be a good place to start looking. i bought a new fn sg in 270 win a few months back for less than 850.00 as it was on sale in an area where model 70's aren't big sellers. they are out there, ya just have to keep looking. good luck in your search.

hotsoup - thanks for the info. Do you know why a super grade is listed as a 1 lb. heavier than a sporter. Same barrel length on a 30 06.

I see where Winchester currently lists the Stainless/wood featherweight in .270 WSM and .300 WSM, but I don't see where it's chambered in 30-06. Am I missing something?

I used to have one in .270 from New Haven, that I foolishly let go of. I believed and still believe that is the prettiest factory rife ever produced.