Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Winchester M70 XTR

I had three from that time frame, a Ranger in .223, a Heavy Varmint in .22/250, a FWT in 7x57. The .223 shot rather commonly, to be honest, the HV was a miracle of accuracy, simply magic, the 7 Mauser shot well, but the FWT stock doesn't fit me, and that made it a "no-go", I just couldn't adapt to it.

I DID like that Ranger .223, the hardwood stock fit me, and the magazine held seven down!, which meant I didn't have to carry extra ammo for groundhog hunting, it just didn't shoot all that well. Dammit.

The "XTR" ("title of the thread", as you so eloquently told another poster) actually came out in 1978. Just so you know. The earliest XTR fwt's were made in 1980 and made their debut in 1981...

According to winchester: It means, "Extra care in fitting, extra deep gleaming finish on the genuine american walnut stock, and extra polishing on exterior metal, for a rich perfectly uniform blue".....

So fighting the post '64 blues. Interesting. I guess that's that whole idea behind the "classic action" CRF.

In a way, you are correct. The early post 64's left a bad taste in the mouths of gunwriters of the time (JOC for example), due to the cheapening of the model 70. Of course, we all know that, but the XTR helped dig them out of a hole they dug for themselves.

Yep, the XTR series came out in '78 and was applied to many guns in the Winchester line. The 1300 pump and 1500 auto shotguns, the '94 lever guns, including the brand new big bore 94 and the model 70's all got the XTR treatment.

Also from what could gather on the good ol intranet, the debut of the model 70 xtr featherweight was held up due to the strike at the new haven plant. I read they wanted to introduce them in 79 but labor strife, chitty economy, super inflation Olin corporation decided there was no money to made in selling firearms, just in ammunition. They were going to shut the plant down in 81 anyhow. So the employees formed USRACo and bought the facility and the use of Winchester name from Olin. Then in 1988 they went bankrupt and that's when FN stepped in.

Pretty sure mine is a 1969 M70 "Deluxe" with the ebony forend tip on the stock. I'm assuming that anyway, based on an old Shooters Bible. It's far from deluxe now though. Always been quite a shooter. I figured it was built by a grumpy old dude at Winchester that had 5 years until retirement and was too stubborn to built a bad rifle. 😀

This thread prompted me to get out my M70 Featherweight XTR and a flood of memories came to my mind. The year was 1989 and I was going on my first elk hunt out west. To commemorate the exciting event, I had to get a new rifle chambered in .30'06 and in January I got a barreled action. Composit stocks were becoming the rage so, I put it into a Bell & Carlson. I worked up some loads that late spring utilizing Hercules Rx-21 and Nosler's 180 grain Solid Base at 2730 fps. Saturday, October 14, 1989 at 08:00 hours, I killed the biggest elk I've ever taken and Thursday, November 11, I killed the largest W/T buck using the above mentioned load. Numerous other animals has fallen to this rifle but, alas my supply of RX-21 is no more although I still have a box of bullets left. This rifle has been really good to me and I'm thinking it will get used in the coming season. Think I like XTRs?

Guys, I have GOOGLED Win 70 XTR and I haven't found ONE word FROM Win about the XTRs before 1981.

COULD y'all give a link or copy & paste something WINCHESTER printed about the XTRs before 1981 ?

Jerry

First off, Everything has to be developed and made BEFORE it can be sold/introduced.

I'm looking for evidence of XTRs from Win. before 1981..

Jerry

Man, look on page 319 of Rules book. Most winchester guys have that book.

BSA -

I like and use Win 70s but I'm NOT a Win FREAK. I don't have the book.
I didn't find any reference to it on Google.


Post a pic,,,,,, please.


Jerry

Your Google fu is weak Danielson. Standard model 70 xtr were as BSA said introduced in 1978. The xtr featherweights hit the scene in 1980. Ask me how I know, BSA sold me his xtr featherweight sn 148xxxx built in 1980.

My 82 model 70 XTR Featherweight 308 is a beauty & is the crown jewel of my commercial rifles.

It's weak for sure. Like you said, he shoots from the hip a lot. To be nice, I took a picture (actually a couple) and added it to my imgur, just for jerry. Just so he can rest easy at night now:

Page 319 (as I said earlier), from Roger Rule's "The Rifleman's Rifle" book. The most referenced book made for the true model 70 collector. If you love model 70's and collect them, you need this book. Especially if you are a pre 64 lover:


An advertisement from 1978 on the Winchester model 70 XTR's:


And lastly, the same 1981 winchester catalog that Jwall has, that I promised 79s. I'll ship it to you one of these days. Sorry buddy!!

This one is in collector condition though...

Thnka BSA

This is the FIRST I've seen of any XTR before 1981. I Googled Win. Arms/ Win 70 XTR etc. et.al. and NONE of this came up.

It should be NO surprise that I'm NOT a Pre 64 70 addict. Back in the 80-90s I was hitting a LOT of gun shows. I had been reading Pre 64, Pre 64, Pre 64.. I looked at a BUNCH and NONE of them impressed me-- Especially the 'so called' featherweights.

I have a collection of those Rifle 'Catalogs' from Win, Rem, Browning, Ruger.... but I don't have any Win catalog before 1981.

Thank you for the PIX. I've never seen that '78 Ad.


Jerry

Jerry: even the page you posted refers to theXTR M70's 5 distinct versions including the NEW Featherweight.... sounds pretty clear that there were XTRs before there were XTR Featherweights. No?

NO.

If you scroll the page up it says,....."and Winchester has made the Mod 70 XTR the rifle of "today" with exclusive refinements, performance......"

It also says, ...." the model 70 (not 70 XTR) is available in 15 calibers...."

Further down it says,..."Performance and Handling: The model 70 XTR has truly been designed for Trophy performance."


There is NO indication in this catalog that the XTR series had begun earlier.

Jerry

Ok, whatever. But the fact remains that there were XTR M70s before the FWT. (I'm old enough to remember them) And why else would they have put an emphasis on the NEW Featherweight?