Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Let's see your winchester model 70 rifles

From before I was:





and

Yes it is a super express,but this one is the "push feed" action. Think it was made in the late 70'or early 80's.

That CZ is the 3rd one that I've owned,the first was a .308,then a .416 Rigby,now the 7x57.

One of my coyote rifles Winchester M 70 Super Shadow .243 win.

Do you guys find your Model 70's like fore end pressure? So far everyone I have had strings horizontal even after I free float it. I have to bed the tip with a touch of pressure to tighten it up. Only talking a couple guns here. But I know others who have had the same experience. Drives me nuts I tell you.

Are your rifles bedded and if so, how?

The M70 I am shooting now is my 1957 Varmint model that was a 243. They came with a heavy 26" SS barrel.

I wore it out and got an original Winchester SS barrel in 220 Swift. This is a standard weight 26" SS barrel.

Thus it's 'free floating' and then some in that stock.

I checked it's zero the other day and it hit right on at 200 yards.

That's the most important thing to me in a hunting rifle. Hitting right on with the first shot.

BSA,
The first M70 I had, and still have, Would not shoot until it was glass bedded with fore end pressure. Just free floating it would not help. My .243 with the heavy Barrel is not bedded but it is not giving me the horizontal stringing. My 30-06 I just bedded the fore end tonight. I have see others at the range with the same trouble. Guns looked like Winchester left wood in the fore end for pressure but the barrel would move from side to side. I have not had this happen with Remington's. Just wondered if it is a Winchester thing.

Not that I'm aware of. Most of mine are freefloated and shoot great. However, they are "properly" bedded as well, which gets back to my original question: How are yours bedded?

On occasion I have run into this issue with the FW barrel; of my current Featherweights my 1953 M70FW in .308 WIN has the standard factory bedding, shoots great, on the other hand my 1963 M70FW in .270 WIN (Douglas barrel) needs about 10 lbs. of upward pressure glassed into the fore-end, shoots great now (that way only).

BSA,
My first one is totally glassed. The Varmint model is factory and the 30-06 I am working on is factory. The wear marks on the bluing indicate movement on the fore end of the barrel. I know this is a bedding issue but I do not believe it is a receiver bedding issue. That is why I asked if others have experienced this. Last night I bedded the fore end with slight pressure to simulate what the shim did. I will see if that solves the issue. I know a complete glass job will but I believe it may not be necessary. Winchesters are the only rifles that have been fussy like this for me.

WSM shooter, I have a hard time trusting factory bedding (especially the NH hot glue type):


For obvious reasons I bed my own ...

Now let me pick apart what you wrote in your post: "The wear marks on the bluing indicate movement on the fore end of the barrel". That right there tells me you need to freefloat it more and bed the recoil lug and tang of your receiver. Kind of like this:




I'm not going to show pictures of groups (again), but let me reassure you my winchesters shoot better than any remington I've ever had..Your rifle sounds like it it loose in the stock and the barrel slapping against the forend of the stock will undoubtedly cause flyers, horizontal and probably more than anything vertical stringing....Furthermore, by bedding the forend with upward pressure you are just puting a bandaid on it and not fixing the problem. There are a lot of tricks you can do with bedding and winchesters react to different types of bedding procedures just like any rifle does. If you need further assistance, please feel free to pm me and I can share more details on what works and what doesn't work with them ...By the way, I have one sitting in bedding compound right now and it is freefloated all the way out and I know it will be a good shooter when I'm done.

I think I like my first bansner :

BSA,
Thanks for the tips. I have already done the fore end bedding and will test it hopefully tomorrow. The wear marks were from before I free floated. My rifle is from 1975 and is steel to wood, no glue in bedding. Not saying glass won't help and I will do it if I must but I hate bedding. I am a pig when it comes to epoxy. I can tape the whole stock and I will still get it someplace I don't want it. If it ends up needing a full bedding job I will have my smith do it once I am back to work. We all must know our limitations.

I like that!

Eric

Thanks buddy. Hey, since you're here maybe you can explain to some of these guys how a "properly" bedded winchester model 70 shoots

BSA, you got it!

'51 30-06 Standard Grade, bedded by BSA.

Eric

WOW!

Thanks Eric. That's the rifle that started this thread.I pillar bedded it, bedded 3/4" under the chamber area and floated the rest of the barrel (despite it having the barrel boss for rear sight and screw) and accraglassed the barrel channel. It's a consistent sub moa shooter. My 1956 30-06 fwt shoots almost as well so I decided to sell this std wt to Eric and I'm glad he's taking good care of it and even takes it hunting

This one is being pillar bedded,bedding the recoil lug and free-floating the barrel.

elkhunternm, how does it shoot now?

Just sent it off last week and it'll be awhile before I get it back.