Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Copper Still

kitch, please keep us informed. I want to see how that stuff works. It gets rave reviews around here and sounds like phenomenal stuff. If it works out good for you, I'll probably end up buying some of the stuff. Good luck!!!!

If it ever gets warmer and stops raining I'm heading back out with 15-20 rounds to check her out. I'll tell you this, I just got a Hawkeye bore scope with the 45 degree attachment and after looking at that bore I'm surprised it gets the groups that it does. Tool marks and some lands looked sharp on one side but rounded on the other. I compared that to my Sako 461 Vixen .222 and it was day and night. The Sako looked more like what videos I've seen of a Lilja barrel compared to the M70. I wish I could take a picture of the inside of both of them but the camera is another $1400!! Most disappointing but the jury's still out nevertheless till next range visit.

Kitch, Im not positive but I think your M 70 was a hammer forged barrel. Hammers bang the steel around a mandrel to impart the grooves and lands. very best winpoor

winpoor, those portuguese bastids might use a different process . I know they can't spell for chit...Who was that that had the rifle case with the wrong spelling on it? I think it was for one of these custom tributes coming from Portugal....

Thankfully, this is not one of them Portugal Winchesters. Cold as a frog's belly today so, no range today.

The JOC Model 70's were not from Portugal. The mis-spelling of Lewiston on the gun case that was available for those rifles was an embroidery mis-spelling.

Yep, they spelled it Lewision. I have one with that spelling as well.

Shooters Choice has been left behind. Try some Montana X-Treme. It works quite well, and it's safe to let soak in the bore.

I don't like the name, everything extreme this and extreme that these days, but the stuff works.

Yeah, I have a mis-spelled case, then bought another JOC I liked...pretty wood suckered me in again. Low and behold, another mis-spelled case. Was hoping to have one correct one to go with the other....lol.

Have to say I have several of the new FN Model 70's and they are all extremely nice, however for some reason the JOC's just feel special in hand.

Thanks mathman. I'll give that a try one of these day. S choice has been working great for me for years...

This is another one I won't sell. Great groups from the get-go. A super nice 7x57 that shoots better with old style(70's) 140 gr Nosler Partitions than anything else.



That's three holes in the top group.



I was going to take the 270 out today but got put off due to garage door problem...can't get the car out!

Nice shooting 7x57. Ingwe would be proud. So the garage door was smart enough to not open, but it sounds like the closet door swung wide open...

At least I was able to knock out about 100 of those big 530 gr bullets for the 45-70 yesterday. I did make it to the range today and took the 45-70 and the 270.

When I got back I cleaned as normal and then checked for copper. It was there but not as bad. I took the Hawkeye and looked inside the bore and most of the copper was from the muzzle onward for about 5-6 inches. Further up it was barely noticeable. It didn't take long to get it out but the jury's still out on the Dyna Coat. The instructions said something to the effect(they're not in front of me)about it getting better after the first time. We'll see.

Groups weren't any better than before and when I got home looking at them targets I recalled something I read decades ago in one of Jack O'Connor's books about a rifle he had that wasn't shooting satisfactory so he put the thickness of a piece of target just back of the for end to give a bit of pressure and she tightened up. So,I took the action out of the stock, took two pieces of a target since one piece wouldn't give any pressure with the barrel free floating, and torqued her back down. We'll see if that makes any difference next range visit. He did say that in most all cases a lightweight barrel, such as this FW, would benefit by a little pressure close to the fore end whereas a heavy barrel was better to free float. Who can argue with his experience...not me.

Kitch,

Shoot it and then shoot it some more and then shoot it some more. Try a hundred rounds or so and see we're the accuracy goes. The copper will still come out and the accuracy just may surprise you. Sometimes you have to lay enough copper down to have more consistency for each shot.

If following in O'Connors footsteps means all that much, then I doubt he obsessed over copper as much as you seem to. The man shot his rifles more than a little and didn't have the excellent solvents we have today. Think about it.

And then shoot it some more........ . I will say this, most of my fwt's shoot very well. 5 and 10 shot groups too, if so inclined. I don't buy into this ideology that kitch thinks about the fwt barrels throwing patterns. For one thing the fwt contour is pretty beefy as compared to a mountain rifle barrel or #0 contour. I've shot plenty of sub moa groups with my fwt's to know that the barrels are more than sufficient to shoot 1 moa 5 shot groups. These new fwt's are freefloated and bedded for a reason. Because they shoot very well that way. If groups are opening up very much, I'd be looking more at the bedding and sufficient freefloat before adding any pressure at the forend tip..

It's sort of strange I've read of a few others who claim their Tribute rifles give .5-1" groups. I've yet to get that. I'm no novice to the rifle. I've been shooting them since Uncle Sam placed an M14 in my hands back in 1966.

Maybe I am a bit anal about copper but I don't want it to build and build. Sooner or later accuracy will go to hell in a hurry. If getting the proverbial 1" group may require a little upward pressure at the fore end then that's what I'll do. It sure hasn't been a tack driver to date with that free floating barrel. Experimentation is in order, me thinks. If it gets worse I'll remove the paper and look elsewhere. Who knows, do you think it could really be me? I doubt it. I'm about as good as it gets.

Yesterday I took my 45-70 out to the range and got a four shot group that measure a hair over .5"...that's at 100 yards and iron sights using a 530 gr bullet and black powder. Tell me what's wrong with the 270.

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