The post 64's made through the 1970's were not that good as a rule. I think those were the rifles the gun writers despised. Winchester was actually bought out by investors and the name was changed to 'United States Repeating Arms Company" in 1979 or 1980 IIRC. They made an effort to improve things and went with the XTR line in the early 80's. Someone said 1981, that is probably about right. I've had a few of the 1980's era rifles and liked them all. In the early 1990's they bought back the CRF design and called them "Classics". The pushfeed rifles continued in production alongside the CRF rifles right up until they closed the doors in 2006. But after the Classics were introduced the PF versions were relegated to the budget line of rifles and I don't think they were as good as the 1980's XTR's.
I'd much rather have an XTR than any Remington 700 ever made. But given the option really prefer the Classics or current production rifles. I eventually sold all of my XTR's. Not that there was anything wrong with them, but I just liked the CRF rifles better.
