What can you tell me about a Winchester Model 70 with Lightweight on the barrel. I was told it's the same as the Featherweight, with cheaper wood. It's a .243, at a local shop.
They want $600.00 for it with a Nikon scope.
Thanks.

AFAIK, the barreled actions of the 70 Fwt and 70 Lwt are the same, but the stock styles are different. The 70 Fwt stocks have a schnabled forend and the 70 Lwt stocks have a more common rounded forend.

I have a couple of Winchester/USRA 70 Lightweight Carbines in 250-3000 that I've installed in short action 70 Fwt stocks without having to do any inletting.

Jeff

I have a M70 Lightweight in .270 and its the most accurate gun I own.

Neil

I have one in .308. It's a decent rifle in a plain stock. IMHO $600 is a little rich for one.

Jeff,

I recall the barrel countour on the M-70 lightweight rifle a little thinner. Can you verify.

Doc

Correct, also it's most likely a blind mag model.. If the scope's worth $400, fine.. The rifle itself won't bring more than $300-350; maybe $395 if 98% condition or better..

I've had a couple of lightweights over the years They are the same as the featherweight, but with a slimmer stock. No grip caps. Wood was still walnut and they did have floorplates. I currently have one of the carbines, which is identical to the lightweight except with a 20" barrel. All of them would drop right into my featherweight stock.

I've one in Short Action Carbine 243. Works great, shoots great, and I like the stock for actual shooting better than the Featherweight.

$400 for the rifle would be alright, less would be better

I wonder if some had floorplates and others did not?? I've had only one in the shop recently and it was a blind mag..

I don't know why they designated them as 'lightweight', since they still have walnut stocks and (some) with floorplates.. They can't weigh more than a couple ounces less than a FWT..

Winnie had some weird ideas at times..

My experience is the same as these other guys...The lightweight is the same as a Featherweight with a less fancy stock...good rifle, good shooter, good value...

Ingwe

The lightweight that I had had a FP and a stock similar to a Model 7 (at the forend tip). Same barrel contour as a Model 70 FWT. How do I know? Because I sold the first, looked for another and was only able to find a stock, Model 70 FWT fit right in except for the depth of the floorplate. IIRC I had to "shave" off .125 and all was well. Here is a pic. Caliber is 308 and Dad has it now wonder how that happened?:

Thanks for the help guys.
I bought the rifle, adjusted the trigger, and loaded 5 different loads with 90 grain ballistic tips. If weather stays nice, I'll get out this weekend a shoot her.

I have the Model 70 Lightweight in .308 and I love it. Beautiful wood on it also. I would not take for it.

Hello, maybe you guys can help me out a bit here. My Dad bought me a Model 70 in .270 back in the spring of 1987. It is the Lightweight version. Mine looks like the Sporter version of today as opposed to the Featherweight one.

Here's the kicker: mine has a brown laminated stock. We bought it new, just like that, from the gun shop. I know Winchester has put out a laminated stock at times, but haven't found anything indicating that they did this in 1986 or 1987. (I'm waiting to hear back from Winchester on this)

What I'm wondering is if the stock is factory Winchester, or if the man who owned the shop had the stock put on. (which seems a bit odd to me considering it was "new")

Anyway, I've still got it and it's my primary deer gun. The stock has held up wonderfully, a few minor dings, but it really is in outstanding shape. Shoots dead on as well, as I rarely have to adjust it.

Thanks for the help!

Back in the early nineties I had a M-70 Lightweight Carbine in .30-06, and it is one of the ones I regret letting go of. It had a very nice piece of walnut on it, and shot anything I tried in it under an inch. The thing that stands out in my mind with it, I recall jumping a group of deer at close range, sorting through the blurr of aholes and elbows, and dropping a nice 7 point with a Texas heart shot. After it was all over, I couldn't even recall bringing the rifle to my shoulder. That rifle pointed like a magic wand.

I have one in .223. I consider them good rifles.

They show up from time to time in stores around here for $400 or so, and that's in good shape.

Unless it just feels right to you, I'd pass.

Yes, they put laminated stocks on them. Called them Win-Tuff if brown, and Win-Cam if green/brown mixed.

The stocks looked pretty much like a standard sporter, no schnable.

Same here beautiful walnut with nice figure , floor plate, 20" barrel in 270. Had to wear plugs and muffs still louder than hell, but shot good too. Paid $350 sold it 15 months later for $420 ,now that is a used gun any would like. Magnum Man

Had a few of the "Lightweight" as well. Most had a Schnabel a couple were rounded but none were blind.

Claw extractor and Controlled feed?????

All of the "Lightweights" I've seen were 1980's or 1990's vintage XTR's and were pushfeed. The ones stamped "Carbine" were the same rifle with 20" barrels.

I think FN is offering a current model with a shorter barrel and CRF. Unless mistaken it is called the Compact. Very similar to the current Featherweight but with a 20" barrel. The stock dimensions MAY be reduced as well but I'm not certain.

Have a 243 & 223 now, had another 223 years ago. Featherweight barreled action in a slimmer stock. Mine had really nice figured walnut. 243 sits in a camo McMillan fwt stock.

BDL style bottom metal all 3. Never seen a blind mag lightweight.

It is that exactly. A 'push feed' era gun, highly underrated rifle IMHO.

I have a Model 70 Lightweight in 7X57, and it came with iron sights. Bought it new, I believe from Grice back in the early 90's. It was advertised as having been made for the European market, which is why it may have had the iron sights. In addition, it had the ugliest stock I'd ever seen on a Winchester, so I replaced it with a synthetic one. Nice shooting rifle, I need to take it out more than I do.

Yes, the Winchester/USRA 70 Lightweight barreled actions are duplicates of the 70 Featherweight, except that the Lightweights were also offer in a 20" barrel carbine version in some calibers.

In 1986, Winchester/USRA cataloged a one year run of 70 Lightweight Carbines in 250 Savage, but for some reason, they cut the barrels with the original 1-14" ROT and that limited the length/weight of the bullets that you could use in it. I have two of them, one with open sights that I bought from Mule Deer in 2005 and one without open sights that I bought via the old GUNLIST in 1991. I have installed both in 70 Featherweight stocks and think that they are much more attractive and that they look sort of like a modern version of the Savage 1920.

My 250/3000 carbine there on the right....it shoots the 100gr silvertip factory loads pretty well...

100 grain Winchester/Olin STs .257" bullets are rather short and blunt compared to many other 100 grain .257" bullets, perhaps they were specifically designed that way so that they would work through 1-14" ROT barrels.

Savage changed the standard ROT from 1-14" to 1-10" in 1960 and Remington cut their 250-3000 barrels with a 1-10" ROT in the 1984 700 Classics, so I was surprised that Winchester/USRA chose to cut their 250-3000 70 Lightweight Carbine barrels with a 1-14" ROT.

I shoot, mostly, 75 grain and 87 grain bullets in my 1-14" ROT 250-3000s. At 75 grains, I like the VMax and the original Barnes X. At 87 grains, I like the Speer TNT and HotCore.

BTW, you 70 LWTC has some nice figure in it, but if was mine, I'd still swap it into a 70 FWT stock 'cause I like the look of their schnabled forearm tips. Winchester got the schnabled forearm look "right" when they designed the 70 FWT stocks, while, in stark contrast, Remington's plus-size schnabled forearm design for the Remington Seven was an epic fail.