Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Winchester's MOA Trigger

Have never owned anything Winchester. Once a long time ago, I did handle a consignment lever action 30-30 at the LGS, and when i worked the action, the cartridge lifting tray broke in half!!! That turned me off to anything Winchester.

Fast forward to today:

I am considering buying a new production M70 Super Grade, which comes with the MOA Trigger. So, what is the real deal on this trigger? Is it good to go, a dog, or something in between? Is it even possible for a smith to fit a new production rifle with the old school pre-64 M70 trigger?

thanks in advance.

I spent an afternoon shooting my son's M70 FWT the other day. It's the only MOA trigger I've ever tried.
It's a good, crisp trigger, and other than being about a pound heavier (about 3 1/2 lbs.) than what I'm used to I really liked it.

If you hate it a Timney will fit right in. I don’t like it as much as the older trigger but it’s plenty serviceable. The rifles are pretty danged good and I’m a P64 nut.

Went this route and the Timney trigger ever worse - it has a flat trigger shoe. None of my other Timney's (M77 MK-II & M700) have this objectionable trigger shoe.

I went back to the MOA.

YMMV

The old trigger doesn't fit the new rifles.

I've owned 2 rifles with the MOA trigger. They weren't horrible, better than Remington factory triggers IMHO, but not great. One got an Ernie the Gunsmith spring replacement. It was solidly in the "good" column afterwards. The other .. we'll see. I might do that, got a couple on hand already, but I might look at Trigger Tech. Not meaning to start a fight, but I just don't like Timney triggers very much. IMHO a lot of money for a marginal improvement. I'll happily spend more money, but I want a lot more improvement per dollar.

Tom

The MOA trigger is somewhere in between a dog and a decent trigger. I have a 2010 AMN(prefix) M70 Sporter and the trigger breaks at a crisp 3.5 lbs and is fairly consistent in pull weight. My buddies a have few later produced M70s and their triggers are inconsistent, much heavier pull weights, 4-5.5 lbs.

That said, I like mine but have an Ernie's spring here that I will install with the hopes of reducing my pull weight to 2.5 lbs. We'll see how it goes if I have some time over the weekend to get it installed and measured. I believe MCARBO makes a spring kit for the MOA trigger which also helps reduce pull weight.

SD

AFAIK, Trigger Tech has yet to release a model 70 trigger. There have been rumors of such, but nothing confirmed. The minute they do, every MOA Winchester I have, will wear one.

My experience with he MOA trigger has all been positive, at least as far as the pull goes. I have two Models 70s with them now, an O]Connor Commemorative Featherweight .270 (which I "won" at the annual fundraiser auction at the O'Connor Hunting Heritage Center in Lewiston, Idaho in 2014), and a Portuguese-assembled .300 WSM, purchased new at Capital Sports & Western Wear in 2016. Both have very crisp pulls, the .270's trigger breaking around 3-1/2 pounds and the .300's at 2-3/4 pounds.

My Model 70 Super Grade in 30-06 FN Made very Crisp but heavy. 5 3/4 pounds. The adjustment is a joke! Even with spring all the way out the trigger pull weight did not change. I think you guys in USA call this the Lawyer's trigger. Took it a gunsmith and he replaced the springs now breaks just on 3lb and very crisp. Just came across another Super Grade in 280 Rem - Made in Portugal. Trigger is much lighter out of the box but have not measured pull weight.

I installed a Timney in my Model 70 ,new one with moa , and love it....Set aT 2.5#s..Gave away moa ....Easy to install.

There's nothing wrong with the MOA. Guys that waste their money on the Timney or any other box trigger are making a total lateral move: Replacing one box trigger with another. All the MOA needs is the erniethegunsmith trigger spring put it it and that takes a few minutes to do. Of the 10 or so MOA's I've done this to, the pull weight has been nicely reduced to around 2.5 pounds (2 3/8-2 3/4). The main gripe about the MOA comes from die hard model 70 guys and that is understandable. Browning should have left the oldstyle trigger alone, but they felt they needed to have their own spin on things when it came to the new model 70. They touted this as the new and improved model 70 with a new designed trigger. Most of us were just glad they were bringing the model 70 back from the dead.

Had one with the MOA trigger and it was very good.

Just can’t understand why the dropped a simple easy to maintain trigger for a box of tricks!

What year did the M70 transition away from the old school pre-64 trigger? When New Haven closed?

Agree 100%. My only experience is on my SC FWT. The trigger was good but too heavy. Got the Ernie the Gunsmith springs and it is right where it should be for a hunting rifle (2 1/2). It is my LR hunting rig and I have consistently made shots on steel to 1000 yards.

I couldn't adjust my MOA trigger to a satisfactory level so I replaced it with a Timney.

Very happy with my 3 MOA triggers. IME they are better than the old M70 triggers out of the box. (Once the old ones are tuned by a good smith, they are wonderful.)

As for being more complex and susceptible to freezing up in cold weather. if the weather is that cold and nasty, I'll probably still be in bed, or, worse case: take one of my old M70s!

Correct; 2008. The BACOs can be readily identified by the 2 digit/ three letter start to the serial #, e.g. 35AMP (2008).

I agree with BSA. I've put Ernie's springs in three MOA triggers, and been pleased with the results. One of the best triggers in my gun safe is an MOA with an Ernie spring. The other two MOAs are not bad at all, just not as good as that particular one.

Overall I like the new Model 70 a lot. I can understand the preferences for the New Haven rifles, though. I don't care for the post-64 pushfeeds. It's just a YMMV or "to each his own" proposition in every way.