Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Winchester 70 Jack O'Connor Tribute rifle....WOW what a shooter!

Howdy all. Many may know me from other forums and I eventually found my way over to 24hour. Hope you all enjoy my first post. This is a review I did of my Winchester Jack O'Connor Tribute rifle this summer. Since this original review I have had it hunting and it was a very well balanced rig. Have about 150 rounds through it and it has gone from smooth to silky smooth. I love this rifle.

I have owned and been around a lot of fine guns in my days. Every now and then there is one or two that puts me to my knees......I have found such a gun this year. For Winchesters 75th anniversary of the great Model 70, they teamed up with one of, if not THE biggest hunter and outdoor writer of the last century Jack O'Connor. For those who do not know, Jack O'Connor was one of Winchester's biggest supporters. Jack's love of the Winchester 270 caliber and love of the Model 70 made the gun and caliber legendary hunting all over the world with the gun/caliber combination. Winchester teamed up with the Jack O'Connor Foundation to bring out a limited edition Model 70 worthy of Jack's name. The foundation loaned Jacks famous #2 rifle to Winchester so it could be exactly reproduced. Everything from the stock to the checkering is a mirror image of Jack's #2 custom M70 rifle.



Winchester spared no expense in this rifle using only the finest grade French Walnut for the stock and the engraving is outstanding. The "Jack O'Connor" signature is in nickel across the finger guard. One of Jack's signature Ram trophy's is engraved on the floor plate in great detail. The motif is carried out on the pistol cap.

The action on this gun is all Winchester Custom shop. That is to say "perfect". Free floating barrel with custom match crown has the best tolerance I have ever seen on a rifle. Metal to stock tolerance is absolutely as tight as I have ever seen.



My Sako's and other high end guns are extremely good but this particular Winchester sets the standard in elegance and action. I actually plan on using this fine gun and not hunting with a "Jack O'Connor" gun just seems wrong....

Jack died in 1978 and left a legacy and wealth of knowledge on what makes a good hunting rifle/caliber.
For those that do not know who Jack was as a man, hunter, and outdoor writer, take some time to investigate his accomplishments.


(My pictures do not do this gun justice.)


Here is a few scans of some of the info that accompanied my rifle.




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Shooting and breaking in the Jack O'Connor rifle:

The conditions were less than ideal a pretty good cross wind at 73 degrees. My ammo choices for the day were Winchester 130 and 150 Power Points. Hornady 130 SST and 130 SP Interbond. I had the gun sighted in and was cleaning the barrel every shot to properly break in the barrel. I shot a total of 45 rounds. The tack driving round of the day was the Hornady 130 SP. These bullets stacked on top of them self at 100 yards. I dont think I could reload a more accurate round.





The Winchester wasnt bad at about 1" group but the wind was bad for about 2 of the three hours I shot. Its hard to tell if it was the wind or just a average grouping. Either way they were good enough for hunting big game. The Hornady SST were about the same as the Hornady 130 SP. I would get two round almost touching and then the third would fly a inch off. Its hard to tell if it was the wind or me but I was able to produced one hole groups and its 300yard groups were excellent. At 300 yards I shot two shots of SST and two of Fusion. You can see they grouped very well give the conditions.


3 shot group at 100 yards.
[img]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/...0OConnor%20Tribute%20Rifle/2ndrange1.jpg[/img]




45 rounds were a lot of big game rounds to shoot at one sitting. Between cleaning and letting the barrel cool, it was all I wanted to shoot. Recoil was nothing the first 15-20 rounds. I was use to a 300 Win Mag and I would put the recoil of the 270 about like a 30-06, perhaps a bit less. The M70 JOC gun was smooooth as butter. It picked up rounds out of the magazine better than any of my other M70 guns. The trigger was a clean 3lbs with no creep and seemed effortless to break a clean shot off. The gun seemed to be getting even smoother after each round. For a feather weight 22" barrel, its a tack driver.
Needless to say I am thrilled. It shoots as good as it looks.

[img]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/...0OConnor%20Tribute%20Rifle/Range2net.jpg[/img]


When my JOC rifle isn't afield, it is displayed in my office. A gun that looks this good would be a shame not to be able to admire it on a daily basis.

[img]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/...onnor%20Tribute%20Rifle/JOConwallnet.jpg[/img]