Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Winchester 70 featherweight pushfeed pre xtr?

I bought a Winchester 70 7x57 pushfeed that I assumed was an xtr, but it is not. It just has model 70 on one side and cursive "Featherweight" on the other side. Has red Winchester pad, made in New Haven. Otherwise looks just like an xtr. Anyone know what I have?

I had a red pad featherweight 270 that i bought in 1980 or thereabouts sounds like your . What is on the recoil pad? Not sure if mine had usrac or winchester but thinking it was USRAC

It has "Winchester" with a circle around it.

My guess is that it is an XTR. I don't know for sure that they actually stamped it on them.

All I have ever seen were stamped "xtr" if I am recalling correctly.

Does it have open sights on it ??? Mine from that era with the red pad does.

It does not have sights, just a clean barrel.

I've only seen a couple of others like mine with the factory open sights. I think it was a real limited run they did in the early 80's in 7x57 and 6.5 Swede.

Mine is the most accurate Featherweight I've ever owned!

My first Featherweight was an '81 in 7x57 with open sights which I removed. I shot mostly 140's in it but it preferred 175's.

ditto for the one I owned

Little history the model 70 featherweights that were produced in 1980 with open sights were made for Winchester reps to show gunshops etc. they made a total of 50 of them and they all had hand checkered stock etc. Then in late 1980 Olin Corporation said we are done making rifle then Sold the plant and leased the Winchester trademark to USRACo. USRACo then produced them with open sights for a couple of years. What's the SN on said rifle I bet its a late 79 or earl 80 made featherweight. If I remember right WRA production stop around G1525323. After that USRACo from what I read used what was left over from the WRA and assembled model 70 so the transition rifles still have WRA recoil pads on them. So as a rule of thumb anything after G1525323 is considered a USRACo made rifle. So the WRA made featherweight's with open sights are pretty darn rare.

This one is 2067373, has no sights, but does have the Winchester pad, no xtr on the barrel. I guess it may have been made with some leftover Winchester parts?

I have a 1985 m70 fwt. that is a favorite.It has always held its zero and has been trouble free.Its a 7x57 with a 1.5-4.5 B&L scope.The winchester spec. tag that came with it lists the twist as one in 8&1/4.

Pretty darned sure what the OP has is the first reintroduction of the Featherweight by Winchester, which had been out of production since 1964.

IIRC it came out about 1980,and was chambered for 7x57,257 Roberts,270,and maybe other cartridges as well.....but I remember those three because I had one of each.

At least that's what I recall. Was not too long after that when USRAC took over. Those early FW's had recoil pads designating "Winchester"; later ones marked USRAC.

Yours was made after 1992.

My m70 that I bought new in early 1986 has the red pad with Winchester on it and mod.70 XTR 7x57 on the barrel,but the paperwork that came with it says USRAC.

On the recoil they all say Winchester in the center but surrounding it will say "U.S. Repeating Arms Company" They say all WRA parts were used up by early 1982.

79s,my recoil pad says Winchester repeating arms not us repeating arms co.

Post XTR, not pre XTR. Made early-mid 90's

Did they make post xtr pushfeed featherweights? I have owned a classic featherweight from the early 90s and it was not pushfeed. I should have noted that the serial number listed above is preceded by a G