Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters winchester 70 issue

I just picked up a model 70 in 270wsm in like new condition although i called winchester and it was made in 2003. I also bought a box of federal blue box 130gr,while sighting in some rounds didn't want to chamber but if I drew the bolt back and rotated the round it would chamber like it should. Is this a ammo issue or the rifle. I bought the rifle from a LGS and he said the guy that bought it new only fired 3 rounds through it because of recoil. He hung onto it for when his grand kids grew up but they aren't interested in guns. The rifle looks as though it just came out of the box. Groups were just less than 1.5" at 100.
Will be reloading for it.

If you can repeatedly orient a cartridge so that it won't chamber, I'd guess the chamber is out of round...but I'd try some different ammo before standing on that conclusion. That IS a guess, though.

I only fired 9 and 3 I had to rotate.

Post this on the Gunsmithing forum. I think you may get more info there.

I would try another brand of ammo before I did anything.

..........................This!!!............ Agreed..........Start with simple possible solutions at first......If different ammo solves the problem, then your original box of Federal ammo was more than likely the culprit................If you have no further issues with other ammo brands then problem solved.

If it is a New Haven rifle, the chamber is probably not round. This was a very common problem. If the barrel is removed, the chamber will indicate round but when it is tightened into the receiver, it will be oval. GD

Don't they cut chambers after barrel installation, or is that not so?

It is a New Haven and I do plan on trying other ammo,hopefully I don't have to end up taking it to our only semi local smith he's usually high on everything.
Being only 3 of the 9 I'm thinking and hoping it's the ammo. I'll be loading some once my dies come.

The human eye is easily capable of discerning non-concentric circles down to .002". You should be able to remove the bolt and align your eye perfectly to the bore line and see an off center chamber cut. If that doesn't do it, wrap a couple of scotch tape "pilots" to fit your bore, on 1/4" STRAIGHT metal rod, insert it in the bore and again observe from the chamber end. Also a dummy round blacked with prussian blue, soot or magic marker, chambered gingerly, extracted, rotated 180 deg and chambered again and observed will tell the story.

Everything in the chamber looked good to me. First I ran across this but yesterday when I was having issues I was single feeding by just dropping them on top of the follower, Just now i loaded several into the drop magazine and they worked perfectly,these gave me problems while trying to single feed without the magazine,does this make sense?

I am by no stretch of the imagination, an authority on much of anything, let alone the "short fat cartridge family". Abrupt shoulder, no body taper. Had some customers, bring nearly new guns in for feeding problems, M-70 included. I was very reluctant to make modifications, and in almost every case, it required the round be fed from the magazine, briskly and firmly. Trying to quietly ease the cartridge into the chamber, resulted in either the round jumping the rails or hanging up at the shoulder /breech face junction. I advised them to adapt to the rifle's idiosyncrasies, rather than modify the rifle to work with the shooter. This won me no thank yous, and less money. So be it.
As an aside, I was not aware of severe manufacturing defects in M-70's, just hadn't heard of it until today. That said, I know nothing about modern manufacturing methods or automated machinery...but I think it would be almost impossible to end up with a chamber so mis-aligned as to cause difficulty in chambering. A barrel tenon, cut and threaded in two operations would HAVE to be concentric with the boreline. Tools would break, called a crash, and bells and whistles would sound. The third operation, rough reaming of the chamber, if not on center would likely break the tool. More bells and whistles. Finish reaming to depth would certainly break the reamer since it is piloted to the bore. More bells and whistles. Non axially aligned receiver threads, possible, Rem 700's are notorious for that, but not so far out as to cause difficulty in chambering. My advice, fwiw, load only from the magazine, operate the bolt briskly, see what happens.
I can't imagine modern ammo being at fault.

Were you working the bolt as a bolt action should be worked or easing it back and forth.? I have seen this issue many times that went away with proper working of the bolt.

ETA- beat by 4 seconds!

Greydog is, of course, correct. The concentricity, or lack thereof, was an issue for many of the earlier WSM chambers.

I was kinda just easing the bolt but works much better working it like it was my 3rd shot on a B&C buck that was about out of sight. It does make a lot of sense because of the blunt shoulder and without going in properly aligned is like trying to bend the round in,doesn't work good. Thanks all for the help and what to look for and expect from the short mags.

I had a 2002 Featherweight, 300 WSM, had the same issue. I didnt find out what the problem was until after I had traded it off. It went back twice, all they did was grind the feed ramp. They refused to have it returned for subsequent repairs. Factory rounds or reloads would do the same thing, all rounds took a bunch of force to chamber, some would not chamber at all. They were fine until about the last 1/8".

1/8" is about right. I was at my LGS and he just put this on the rack and it could easily pass for new but his tag read used and $500 so I thought what to heck and if I decide it's not for me I would be able to get it back. Nice solid laminate stock and 24" blued barrel. Recoil isn't much less than my 700 7mag
but a little more than my 700 and Abolt 270's

I see it mostly at the range with guys that go easy with the bolt so they don't have to chase brass. Hope you have better luck with it.

You must have researched out of round WSM chamber threads on the internet?

This is ridiculous. A good bolt action should be smooth as chidt at any rate of speed of manipulation. I suggest you buy better rifles and quit giving bad advice...