I've been out of the game for a while. I have not purchased a model 70 since before the assembly plant was moved to Portugal. I see that the asking price for one ( Sporter model ) at most of the major vendors is around $850. I have seen them for as low as $750.
Is that a good value? Are Winchester Model 70s Vintage 2018 worth the asking price?
I am by no means a Win 70 expert but here is what I did and I’ve been happy with my route. I didn’t want a plastic hunting rifle and after many years shooting competitions with black rifles and chassis bolt guns, I wanted to go classic. I have pretty good luck watching Cabelas gun library and kept an eye on there pre64 M70s. Had one in a store 30 minutes away that sat on the rack for a year and half priced too high. One day, price drop of 900 plus a promo to get another 15% off. So I bagged a very lightly used 1953 Supergrade in 06 that was beautiful. Paid about 900 out the door. Bought a used stock off ebay for a hundred bucks so it can get dinged up. Rifle is a read shooter and groups anything I put in it. I had some old practice rounds of 168 AMax and varget that it bug holed. Loaded mild to hot loads using 4350 and 150 TTSX and it shoots them great only POA changes. Have some going just under 3,000fps but settled on a hunting load a bit slower. Thought about collector value as there is room between my cost and collector value, but this rifle will hunt the Carolinas like it was made to do.
I love the wood, the feel, and handling of the 1953 M70. You can buynew but if you look around and watch Cabelas used gun library, you can get some deals. Some of their buyers overpay and the rifles sit and then they slash privces to move them.
My hunting sticks are the pre64 mod70 in 06 and a Ruger M77 RSI in 308 and they make a nice pair. The Ruger goes up in a tree with me and Winchester hunts the tripods, ladders, and brush blinds.
I wanted hand made overv CNC made.
