Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters An Old Mod 70 Pre64 30/06...

That my dad left me. It’s a featherweight that still wears the Leupold 3-9 he put on the rifle when he bought it new...

I’ve killed a few deer with it...Missed a lot more. I moved away from it quickly as a teen, buying myself a 7mag and never looking back.

I want to resurrect this fine rifle that has always shot well printing 1 MOA on paper. Where should I start with shelf ammo and what bullet and weight?

The rifle is a nostalgia rig that if I can get it shooting well. I would carry it opening day of deer season in remembrance of my dad.

Suggestions from the 06 lovers is appreciated. Updated set and forget optic will happen, if I can find a load it likes.

Thanks,
Beaver 😎

Do you remember what your dad shot out of it?

If so, that's what I'd use... Even if it didn't give the best groups.

It doesnt take teeny tiny little groups to kill deer, so if he had a favorite load, that's what I'd look for.

-Jake

You could do a lot worse than a box of Remington 150 grain corelokts.

My .30-06 M/70 shoots 165gr. better than 150gr., I'd try both to see which your rifle shoots more accurately.

The rules require you to use Nosler partitions in pre-64 M70's......

Any bullet under 180 gr in a 30-06 is like a dog that weighs less than 40 lbs. It's basically a cat, and cats are pointless For serially, though, Federal Blue Box of your preferred weight works well on deer.

Try hornady whitetail

Nosler custom ammo. Preferably 165 grain Beav.

150 grain Federal Fusion shoots great in my .30-06. So does the regular Federal blue box stuff.

Always used 150 gr on deer in .30-06. They always provided a complete pass through. Core-Lokt was what I primarily used. If forced to shoot factory '06 today, it'd be Federal Blue Box or Fusion.

In my experience just about any inexpensive factory "deer ammo" shoots pretty well these days. Have had good luck with Federal blue box, Hornady American Whitetail, Remington Core-Lokt and Winchester Power Point.

The big problem may turn out not to be the ammo but the rifle's stock. Believe it or not, when the pre-'64 Featherweight was introduced in 1952, the forend was called "full floating," which meant free-floating. It lacked the forend screw that kept the barrel firmly connected to the stock, but also wasn't really free-floated (that happened with the post-'64 Model 70). As a result, the barrel often sort of rattled around in the forend, resulting in suck accuracy--what was common in the early reviews of pre-'64 Featherweights, which some reviewers attributed to the "too thin" barrel. The first Featherweights were all .308's, and some of the groups fired during a test by AMERICAN RIFLEMAN were over 4 inches, though some were around two. (Those were 5-shot groups, still the standard group-size for AR testing.) And since the pre-'64 stocks are made out of wood, they can warp slightly over time due to humidity.

There are ways to fix this if it occurs in your rifle. You can epoxy bed either the entire forend channel, or just the tip of the forend, providing a barrel-vibration damper like the "speed bump" still used in many factory stocks today,

Or you can place a plastic shim or two between the front of the action and the stock, just behind the recoil lug, really free-floating the barrel. This is what I did with an early .308 Featherweight purchased a couple years ago, whereupon it started shooting sub-inch groups. This technique has the advantage of not permanently altering an original rifle.

Mine shoots the 150 corLokts terribly. It shoots 165 and 180 Sierra Gamekings very well. Also shoots the 110 Sierra Varminter well too.

I would first make sure the scope is still holding a zero. You might want to put a scope on it that you know works (holds zero and tracks well) and take it to the range.

If it's going to be a "nostalgia rig....... in remembrance of my dad" use it as your dad set it up. "......always shot well printing 1 MOA", make sure it's clean and the screws are tight and it'll probably do the same now. What more do you need???

Funny, that the this 06 was always the bane of my existence. Dad had piled up the animals with it in his lifetime-akin to magic in his hands.

I use it the first time and kill a deer, then precede to whiff at several deer in the following seasons. Excuse? Distance I imagine.

Dad changed hunting areas from the East side of our State where close encounters with Mule Deer were common in the 60’s and 70’s to hunting Blacktail on the Coastal West side where shots were easily 300 yards or more.

Those Blacktails were hard for me to connect with using his 06.

Thanks for the help, All...

Beaver 😎

I’d probably buy a few boxes of Fusions or Hornady of either 150 or 165 grain persuasion. Stick a 2-7 Redfield on it in the lowest Talleys I could get my hands on and go shoot a deer.

I’ve got a 50’s FWT 30/06 a friend gave me as a birthday gift a few years back. It will pile up 168 TSXs over 4064 but that’s not necessary for deer. I did bed the recoil lug and the flat of the action just as insurance to keep the stock from cracking.

I bought mine in the summer of 1961. Didn't get a scope on it until the following summer. Shot mostly 150-grain Core-Lokts, and they went into 3 inches or so at 100 yards pretty consistently. When I went back to Austin for the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I dropped it off with an old gunsmith downtown who tweaked the bedding and the trigger for me. It has shot ammo it likes sub-moa, ever since.

I had it redone with a nice walnut blank and a new blue job several years ago, and it still goes deer and elk hunting with me at least once or twice each year.

150 Partitions be perfect for deer size game.

Hey Mule Deer

I like the shim method myself, something about taking wood away never sounds good to me.

JB's suggestion is excellent for a collector's piece. However, so many of the pre 64's have been tampered with, making them prime candidates for a good glass bedding job and full freefloat. The featherweight rifles can shoot surprisingly well, if this is done. Ill start a thread in the proper forums here soon, regarding proper glass bedding and freefloat of the pre 64 model 70. Pre 64 rifles had very good barrels, right out of the factory.