Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Alright, I had to buy a pushfeed model 70

That's saaawwwweeeetttt! Even though it's not a Pre '64.

Thanks buddy. I finally got a chance to shoot it yesterday right along side the pre 64 270 fwt. The XTR functions very well and shot almost as good as the pre 64. I'm still working on developing loads for the XTR, but it seemed to like the pre 64's 150gr. nosler partition load well enough. I wish I would have brought more along to try in the rifle . I thought I'd try some H4831 in it, but the IMR did better. Strangly enough, the pre likes the IMR 4350 better too.....Strange, I know. But what do you do?? :

This isn't great grouping from the XTR, but looks promising:


Wind was picking up, so the load development wasn't as good as I had hoped for. Here's one group shot with the H4831sc:


Working with new Winchester brass too. Next time out, I'll run the same loadings and see what happens. I'll also try some once fired brass thru this rifle now. Keep in mind the barrel is still in it's "break in" phase too. Also, first 3 shots in every group measured less than 1" (closer to 3/4": Used the orange dot as a reference). 5 shot groups are fired 1 right after the other and most times between wind gusts (if and when possible)...

BSA,what's the speed on the 54.5 gr H-4831 load?

Don't know: Don't care. Max is 55gr. in the Nosler load manual. My 53.5gr. IMR 4350 load runs 2,800 fps in the pre 64 fwt. I'll chrono the best grouping load when I get there...

In my FN Mauser I'm using 56.0 grs with the same powder and bullet,different primer,it's a CCI 250 and it's getting almost 2900 fps with a 22" barrel.

Every load I shoot is over a chronograph. For instance,the .338 RUM I have,I wanted 3000 fps with a 250 gr bullet. So,I start with H-1000 and 250 gr Sierra GK's. Looking in the Sierra manual I start with this load 97.0,98.0 and finally the book max 99.0. Used Rem 9 1/2 Mag primers. The very first 3 shots averaged 3001 fps,the max is 3000 fps. So,what I did is go home and pulled the others,because the next loads were going to be over the max in pressure.

BSA,the chrono is your best friend,it'll tell you if you can add powder or if you have too much.

What, you don't use an Oehler 43 strain gauge system or piezoelectric transducer for checking chamber pressures? Probably don't believe in crushing copper either. I don't blame you. ...

Kinda hard to pack those up and set them up outside. Besides I've already shot two chrono's and doing my best not to make it three.

Now that is funny. I can kind of relate. Mine is an ooooooooold pro chrono that you have to shoot thru the small hole in the cardboard. It distracts my group shooting, especially when I can see the holes in the cardboard and the glance mark from a bullet that skimmed the case from its previous owner. Then there's the erratic readings it gets sometimes that [bleep] up my train of thought. My buddy has a nice new one that tells you the velocity, standard deviation, extreme spread and all the other horse chit associated. Mine just gives the velocity and occasional "err" reading. My friend shot some of my 300 wsm loads thru his the other day and got a standard deviation of 9.14. He said he was just curious as to how consistent my load was because he had never shot a 3/4" 3 shot group from the sitting position before. Like always, I try not to sweat the small stuff

BSA,I've owned a chrono since IIRC Spring/Summer 1995. The first one I shot was IIRC a Pro Chrono,the second was a PACT,shot the screens but still have the display unit.

BSA, Dibs on the XTR when you get ready to sell it.

I'll make a mental note buddy. It sure is a sweet heart of a rifle. The action is buttery smooth: Feeding and extraction is perfect. Hard not to like these XTR's. Now I know what Ingwe was talking about.

I shot the .257 twin to that rifle today so it is no longer NIB either.

Rollin ...You know the thought did cross my mind...Hell, they were made to be used!!!