I am considering a new M70 EW, as I have a spare Zeiss Conquest that needs a rifle to call home. I love how the rifle feels in my hands but wanted to get opinions from other owners.

How accurate are these rifles and do they seem to be picky on ammo? Caliber will probably be 270 Winchester. I have a local dealer that has them for $909 plus tax and they have some stainless Featherweights for $899. Are these prices in line with what others are seeing?

Price is just about right, and accuracy on the FN Winchesters has been excellent across the board.....

Price in line, I have an EW in 30-06 and it is a go to rifle. Slick action, feeds cartridges like greasy sausages and shoots like a house on fire. What's not to like? Hehehehehehehehehe...

Please define "accuracy on the FN Winchesters has excellent across the board".

I've been considering buying a EW in 300 WSM but most of the range reports I've read on the EW have shown accuracy to be an 1"-1.5" on average. I realize this is plenty adaquate for hunting but I insist that bolt guns shoot better than that if I'm going to keep them.

There is an Extreme Weather 270 Improved on the classifieds for 725.00

Pretty accurate too...

Mine is in 308. 1"-1.5" sounds about right for factory ammo with groups closer to 1" than 1.5". At least with my rifle. With handloads I'm generally under 1". Mine is not a .5" gun. At least not consistently, but overall I'm happy with my rifle after replacing the B&C stock with an Edge.

Vahuntr,

Buy a 7-08 and tell me how it shoots!

Dat's the one I want.

I am not a total gun looney so I don't measure targets but I have been offered money a couple times at the range for my 308 and 270. I find them very accurate and so did several by standers.

I just recently picked up a very lightly used win 70 featherweight in 270. Rough sighted it with factory ammo. Couple days ago I loaded up some 130 grainers and headed to the range. First group out of it looked like this...


Second group with the same load after a minor and a little too much adjustment looked like this!


I wont even bother looking at any other load development,, this one is very adequate!
I had a fairly large cash offer on sight,, sorry but ill be keeping this one! Id buy another M70 of any model after seeing what this one will do!

Nice.

That's a pretty fair representation of what the 5 I have shot/owned would do.....3 270's and two 300 WSM's......and when I did my part, they were equally impressive at 300 yards as well.

The 270's liked either RL22 or H4831 with 130's;the 300 WSM's liked 66-H4350-165 Sierra's.

I shot my 270 WSM Extreme Weather M70 about two weeks ago,it shot a group about the size of a tennis ball.





















At 350 yards.

I can't wait until I get moved and settled in so I can go grab one.

Here is my single 300 yard group with 130gr BT's, four in about 2" and one in outer space...I can live with 4 out of 5

Did I mention it's for sale

My 300 WSM EW shoots better than I can. I've shot some 3 shot ragged 1-hole groups with it using Nosler Partitions. I may load up some form of target bullet just for S&G's.

1" is always my goal. Show me a rifle that consistently shoots less than 1" with a hunting bullet and I'll say they aren't overly common. Lotsa folks have sub-MOA rifles on this site - but I wouldn't consider most folks on here as avg Joe's. In fact, I've heard them called Rifle Looney's.........

Finally getting mine this friday or saturday. Been wanting one for over a year now and ran across the perfect one. I'll let you guys know how it shoots, whether it be bad or good. I'm thinking it will maybe shoot as good as karnis' EW

What, my 300 wsm (FN PBR XP) shoots pretty good too with hunting bullets:



10 shot group
Hoping my new Extreme Weather I'm getting from desertmuledeer shoots better than this though

Damn brother, you just had too much coffee that day

Very nice.

+1 I certainly would be happy with those groups. I'm convinced and am going to pick up a EW in 300 WSM this weekend.

Ghostman, let us know how it shoots for you. Thanks

OK, I'm about convinced to go ahead and lay down the $$$ and get one. How about some ideas for bases and rings? Scope is a 3-9x40 Zeiss Conquest.

The majority here use the talleys for light weight and strength. I haven't quite made up my mind yet either. Nsaqam had a really nice set on his most recent winchester model 70, can't remember what they were though.

+1 on the Talley LWs..

S&K, I believe.

Bingo that's it. Pretty spendy, but very well made. Where the hell is Nsaqam at. Maybe he could re-post a pic of them.

I generally use steel Warne weaver-style bases and steel Burris Zee or Signature rings, but on my FN M70 Featherweight I'm going to use Talley LW's. I've had them on Rem 700's before and they are quite nice and very light.

Here's what some of the guys gave me for suggestions the other day:


http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/5429651/2

If it shoots like mine your gonna love it. When I was "developing" loads (measure, pour, seat, no idea how far to the lands) I wanted to see what it was like without any fiddling, other than to bed in front of the recoil lug. In any event, when I went to the range the second or third time, I had three different loads. Hornady, Sierra and IIRC TSX, all 150's, seated to wherever they ended up (same seating die setting).

No incantations, incense or magic potions used. I decided to shoot one of each at a clean target to see what the POI shift would be. Well, there was none. The three different boolits went into 3/4". I've done it since with some boattails. Same thing. Dad didn't believe me, so when he came deer hunting last year I had him shoot different boolits. Same result.

Yeah, it's a decent rig.

Carlos...in my experience that same POI for a bunch of different loads is one mark of a good barrel...

I have my fingers crossed. I'm hoping it likes my other model 70's 30-06 pet load. I've got pretty high expectations though.

Karnis, I need some help. I'm thinking about going with something like your set-up but maybe matte black lows instead of extra lows. I like using the bc flip-ups and I'll be using a leupold 3.5-10x40. Do you think this set-up will work out allright??? Thanks for the help...

Your right, but I've rarely seen this happen. All the loads have different ogive lengths, etc. It really started to shoot when I got to 60 grs. of H4350.

You know I'm always fiddling with something on a rifle. I added an Edge and bedded it again. Same thing. For a SS, synthetic stocked rifle, there is nothing I would change. That's just boring.

Sure, I have a short neck.

Here are the extra lows, have a better pic somewhere, but damn if I can find it:

Is this the pic you're thinnking of?

[/quote]

That's it.

That scope is slammed! I'm liking that rig.

I have never felt the urge to jump on the Talley or McMillan bandwagon.

I have the Conquest 3x9 for my EW's and use Leupold dual dovetail bases (less blocky looking than Burris dd's) and Burris Signature rings and they look good to me. Initially I made a mistake and bought one set with an offset front mount that will be replaced when the 308 returns from Pacnor.

I will post a picture with the centered front dd mount later.

What height rings are you using?

I am using mediums, the lowest Burris make in DD. Leupold has lows and super lows that would get the scope down to the barrel.

I am leaving the office at lunch today to go play. I have loads worked up for the 300WSM using H4350 and 155gr Sierra HPBT's. I bought the 155's for my 308 but after the box was open I realized I did not get the Palma's but they should provide a good baseline with the 300.

I hope the 300 shoots as good as my 270

Edit: I made it to the range about 1:00 this afternoon with the temperature somewhere between 95-98 degrees, wind was gusty from 10 o'clock. I froze my loads today and kept them on ice at the range and cooled the barrel between shots 2 and 3 and shot the Cooper 22 between three shot groups. These are the first six groups I have shot with this rifle.

Target 1 - Sierra 155gr MK's over H4350, Group 1 and 2.

First group, shots one and two almost touching, I most definitely pulled shot three because I saw white between my vertical crosshair and the vertical bar on my target when the round fired. Second group shots one and two almost touching again and third to the right.




Target 2 - Sierra 155gr MK's over H4350, Group 3.

I moved the POI down 2" and fired the first shot off the paper and realized I moved the POI up 2", so I moved the POI back down 2" and shot the next two (shot one was up 1.5" and right .5" from these two).

Nosler 168gr J4 over H4350, Group 1.

Moved the POI down 2" and fired the next three, shots 1 and 2 touching but 2" horizontal.




Target 3 - Nosler 168gr J4 over H4350, Groups 2 and 3.

The J4's and H4350 did not group well in my opinion and truthfully, I have had better luck with Sierra MK's than J4's but I had a few leftover so I tried them. Next up will be some 168gr Ballistic Tips that I have on hand and fine tuning the 155gr MK loads that were a full .5gr apart.

With the ambient temp being around 95-98, which can be a killer on 3rd shots with most magnums IME, combined with 10 mph wind gusts, I'm surprised you could make heads or tails out of it.

It's always fun to shoot though!

JM

My 70 Extreme Weather 7mm-08. First with Talley lows. I didn't like them, second is with Nightforce base and low, light weight rings. Scope is Nightforce 2.5-10X32. First targets, still working loads. I shoot 5 shot groups, should probably shoot three for a hunting rifle.

I agree, the wind was choppy and I did not remember to take my flags; I plan on going back tomorrow morning to have some more fun.



Nice looking rig!

I agree on the five shot groups, I am shooting three shot to narrow down the charge weight since the range near my town only has 100 and 200 yard berms. Our club in Alvin has a 300 yard berm and a ladder test would probably save a lot of powder.

RDW, Let us know how she does.

Hey Buzzsaw,

What height are those rings? High, Med's?

Thanks. I like the mounts in the 2nd pic.

JM

Hmmm..........Picking mine up tomorrow. I've got the scope narrowed down (I think) and I'll give a full account of how it shoots, good bad or indifferent. I'm taking a rain check on this one now but I'll be back.

JohnMoses, They are low's, if you go with the Night Force base, be sure to get the one for a Winchester M70 short action, WSM. I love the Nightforce stuff. I have the same set up on my heavy 7mmWSM. They are great, expensive but great.

I may try some 120 BT's, just not real sure about them on deer. I have read, great things about them....and bad.

1-10 twist may like the 120. I only have 45 rounds down it so I hope the groups shrink as it "breaks in". I really can't afford a new barrel.

Keep shooting and trying loads, it will come together.

I gave up on BT's years ago because of some issues, but Mule Deer says they are a much improved bullet since the early ones and he has no reservations about using them on game.

He has good things to say about the 120 in particular.

I'd trust what he says, give 'em a try-might be the load that makes that rifle shine! I am gonna run some this year as well.

Gonna Hog test them.

Let us know how it works out.

JM