Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters winchester 70 issue

Yes he is. It was an issue when the WSM first came out in 2001. It was caused by over torquing the barrel to the receiver and the thin walls of the chamber because the case is so fat. I have a stainless classic 7WSM and it feeds buttery smooth. Those that have to run their bolts like they stole them, need to buy better guns. Even my sporterized m1917's feed like a hot knife through butter. Fast or slow, makes no difference. The ignorance level of some fuggers on this site never ceases to amaze me..

I get the feeling no one is actually reading the thread before replying.



I am not surprised you'd have difficulties of some kind when dropping cartridges on the follower and trying to chamber them. The rifle is Controlled Round Feed, and needs to strip the next cartridge out of the magazine so that the rim slips up onto the bolt face and under the extractor. You CAN make the extractor pop over the the rim of the case, but that's not the way the rifle is supposed to be used.

My thought as well.

Lots of CRFs will have you reaching for a cleaning rod if you do that; most Mausers and CZ 527s. My pre-64 would chamber, but it was tough; the trick was to press on the center, unsupported section of the extractor with your fingers while closing the bolt.

Don't know about the "push-feed crf" models; never saw one, or the Ed Brown 704.

This control round feed. Even with the correct angle ground on the extractor, single feeding is forceful the last part.. Single round feeding controlled round rifles, can also break the extractor! My 2 cents. That along with poor case design for feeding.

The chamber is not eccentric nor is it misaligned; it is oval. It is oval as a result of a combination of issues. Issue #1 is that the receiver threads are interupted. The locking lug raceways are cut through the threads so the barrel threads are unsupported at 3 and 9 oclock. Issue #2 is that the barrel threads are undersized which provides room for the tenon to distort. Issue #3 is the large diameter of the WSM case and the resultant thin chamber wall at the tenon. Issue #4 is over-tightening of the barrel into the receiver. Put all of this together and you have a situation where the chamber distorts when tightened into the receiver.
For this reason, I have always preferred to re-thread post-64 Model 70's regardless of chambering and will not do a WSM without re-threading to 1 1/16 diameter. I called Winchester about this sometime around 2002 and they initially denied knowledge of any problem. During a later conversation though, one of the engineers acknowledged the issue and said they were changing the barrel thread diameter in response (1 1/16x 28 tpi). Current Model 70's all use this thread.
By the way, Remington finish reamed their chambers in the receiver but Winchester did not at that time. I can't say what they do today. A quickie repair for Winchesters with this problem was to run a reamer in with the barrel installed on the action. This would not entirely cure the problem but would do enough to make it serviceable.
All Model 70's were designed to be able to be single loaded and the extractor snap over the rim; 98 Mausers were not. GD

Thanks for that tidbit. I would never have dreamed Winchester (or USRAC, or BACO, or whoever) would put them together like that.

That's interesting to understand the oval, and how it is created. Another reason read 24 hour campfire! Thanks Greydog for your explanation! Learning something new everyday!

Any idea when this change was implemented? You say you initially spoke to them about it in 2002.

The change was made concurrent with the introduction of the WSSM cartridges. All of these shorter actions were made with the larger, fine thread and this change was phased in on the rest of the Model 70's. I'm quite sure they had begun making this change before I spoke with them. GD

Thanks greydog. The OP says his M70 was made in 2003, so the barrel thread should be correct for his rifle.

Typical 24HCF

Just some thoughts


Where is the round hanging up - as it’s going in, or just before you close the bolt ?

It the chamber entrance isn’t chamfered the lip of the brass can hook on it.

On the chamber - mic your unfired and fired brass to make sure they are round - fired out of round = oval chamber.

Spot on spotshooter.

Yes, feed from the magazine only. Otherwise get it to a guy who knows how to properly face the extractor blade to single load and also ensure there is proper clearance as it snaps over the rim.

This doesnt need to be done with a model 70. The model 70 extractor was designed to snap over from the get go.

Hey hot butter knife, did you read the post? He was single feeding ie dropping a single round on the followers it's a crf rifle. He then stated when he fed them from the mag it fed fine. Even though some say winchester fixed this and you can single feed crf winchester. I never do it, still remember trying to single feed a 98 Mauser yrs ago. We all know what happens when you do that.

So they say, I have 9 crf Winchester's and everyone gets fed from the mag. I have had couple crf 270 wsm, my only problem is the lack of freebore. With a 270 wsm in a model 70 you cannot take advantage of the generous oal of the mag box.

The M70 extractor IS beveled for chambering without pushing a round down into the magazine, but it may not always be real easy going.

The rifle is all set,when feeding from the mag the bolt works smooth and locks up tight. Single feeding needed to be forced which I didn't like because it just felt wrong. This is my 1st winchester bolt gun so I wasn't aware of the way they operated. Having to place them in the mag isn't no big issue,just not what I normally do from the bench. Single feeding the bolt would stop about the thickness of the rim,just enough to stop the bolt bolt from being closed. If they were made this way then that is the way I'll work it instead of risking damage.

Welcome to the brotherhood of those, having asked for and received sound advice, follow it.

Alas, many don't.

Enjoy your nice rifle.