Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The New M70 Experience

3/31/12- Buy new Winchester Model 70 Sporter in 30-06 from Warehouse Sports.

Early April- Order Vortex 6.5-20x44PA Varmint Reticle from CameralandNY- commence waiting for scope to be assembled and shipped to USA

This past Saturday- Scope arrives. Bought Leupy Dual Dovetail rings/bases and some cheap Butler Creek flippy caps

I got home and installed the bases and looked down what would be the line of sight: the bases were not level to the tune of 5-7 degrees of cant. Remove bases, flip them 180 degrees: same result in same direction of cant- obviously if it were the bases the direction of cant would be reversed... the problem is the receiver.

Today- Returned to Warehouse Sports with rifle. Tried a fresh set of bases on my rifle- same problem. Try my bases on their display rifle- they sit perfectly flat. Proceed to ship rifle off to wherever for "service" (it will need to be replaced as it was either not drilled/tapped right or was machined incorrectly.

So going on about two months now to get this rig up and running and it hasn't even fired a shot. I just wish they had swapped out the rifle for a new one. Oh well- time to play the waiting game again.

Anyone else ever have this problem with the new Winchesters? This sucks.

Nope, quality has seemed above par on all the new model 70's I've owned and handled. Sorry to heay you deffinitely got a bad apple. That would piss me off too.....Hope they really make it right with you....

I'm sure it will be fine in the long run... maybe they'll give me a new rifle with a trigger that doesn't have a 6lb pull and a super boring dark stock. We'll see.

I was planning to shoot it on Sunday but obviously that didn't happen. We'll have to see what comes back to me and I'll keep you up to date.

Sorry you had problems.Please keep us informed.

I have to ask your intended use of the 6.5-20 varmint scope for a 30-06.Just curious.

Thanks, that would be cool. Keep us posted. Hopefully when you get it back, it shoots so good that you'll forget all about the negative part......

No such problems here. I mounted Talley LW on both my BACO Winchesters and they turned out perfect in every respect. I'm sure Winchester will take care of you.

My M70 FWT '06 was just fine, and I haven't put a scope on my EW .300 WSM yet. Hope to get into a FW Bob and a .264 Sporter later this year.

All of the new FN factory M70's I have been around have been excellent but they all spit out a lemon every once and a while. It's how they take care of you that really interest me.

I own exactly one Mdl 70, a Clasic 25-06, which is the most accurate factory rifle I've ever seen. I've acquired, and disposed of, about 10 others. Never again...unless it's to re-sell.

Just because I can...

Actually the Varmint Reticle is a lot thicker than I thought so who knows but I have 2 other smaller and lighter -06's that would serve better in the feld. This was a "just 'cause" rifle to mostly be a safe queen. The FWT 30-06 is where it's at!

I've not toured the FN South Carolina facility, so I'm unsure the degree of input the machine operator has beyond placing the gun part in a holding fixture and hitting the "go" button. There must be some degree of control by the operator as the photos I've seen published by FN shows the parts being held by a fixture where it appears the operator must assure everything is squared up prior to the machining process at the particular station. I think it would be interesting to see them make a rifle start to finish.

I do have a cherry picked M70 from one of the last shipments out the NH facility. I had a heads up on the plant closing prior to it going public, so I had the luxury of looking over several Safari 416s for one I was using on a semi-custom build. Even though it was the best of that particular lot, it was the worst machined M70 I had ever owned. Just about everything was machined off line with the bore axis. I'm lucky that my close friend is a Guild smiths and he completely reworked that M70 for cost of parts with no charge for labor. Otherwise, I'd never been able to afford to correct all the issues with that rifle. It is now the best M70 I've ever owned, but only after a ton of man hours and a bunch of custom work.

I suspected that the factory QC flaws found in that particular NH rifle were moreso from poor workmanship than from worn equipment. I suspect that with the new ISO 9001 standards used at the FN plant, it would be easy for the assembly line to have a machine operator with limited training for a few simple operations at his particular station. It may be easy for a new person, or someone having a bad day to fumble a bit and let the part go down the line expecting any flaws to be caught by someone else. Some of these may slip through as everyone passes the buck down the line. Yours appears to be such a case.

I'm sure they'll get you squared away.

Best

This is one of the reasons by why I tread carefully when it comes to US made rifles, these days.
Trade it & buy Sako, Tikka, Sauer or Mauser & never look back.

PS- Kimber is the only US made rifle I would buy now! And even that can bite if an old one is had......

My new Tikka. Factory ammo. Buy Tikka or Sako & never look back

This is the first "bad" report I have read about a new FN Winchester. Melvin, have you ever heard of a Tikka or Sako rifle with a problem from the factory? I have.

They are rubbish. A friend of mine had big issues with his Extreme Weather in 308Win. I will see if he can chime in.

ATM that is. But I'm sure a few good ones slip through.......LOL

Give it a few years & Winchester will get it right every time, no doubt.

Melvin24, I gotta a group like that in my wallet too but I only got one, the rest are not quite as good.......just sayin

FWIW, I'm battling my Extreme Weather 7mm-08, can't get it shooting as it should. I have it at Hill Country Rifles. They have gotten .50 groups with it using factory loads. They did thier "Accurize" job on it. I will have it back in a few weeks, Hopefully I can duplicate.

So have I...

You can easily explode most any sporting rifle with factory ammo when it has an obstructed barrel. Enjoy 4,000 frames per second at someone else's expense.

Best

Man, I wish I were rich enough to have hill country work on my rifles....well maybe not....