Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors M70 FW 25-06

I need to stop playing Tetris every time I open my safe, so something has got to give.

I have a 1989 Winchester Model 70 Featherweight.
The metal is all very clean with the exception of a tiny bluing loss at the muzzle and some faint freckling on the hinged floor plate.
SN: G1963445

There doesn't seem to be much info from Gunbroker on completed auctions, so I'm not sure how many of these were made in this PF / FW configuration. I see more 7x57 and .257bob than I do these. In fact I'm not sure I've seen one in the flesh.











[img]https://i.imgur.com/kyHYVxR.jpg?1[/img]


Would any of you more knowledgeable folks know how these stack up against other PF's from the era? I don't need to squeeze every penny out of it, but don't want to give'er away either.

Sorry I can't get that last photo link to appear cleanly

I appreciate your thoughts

Pretty cool. They didn't make many of those. Nice rifle..

She’s got to go somewhere, BSA. I’m down in Eugene every few weeks if you’d like to take a closer look.

I hardly ever see standard grade M70s in 25-06, let alone a FWT. Nice looking rifle

Was this Win’s way of giving the finger to more of a “fringe” Rem cartridge?

I have a classic sporter in a 25-06 very hard to find chambering by Winchester especially in the classics. I never seen a 25-06 in a pf featherweight. Until I saw this one.. Nice Rifle!

Nice rifle... PF action, but nothing wrong with that... If you really want to sell it for the best bux, take 10-15 GOOD pix and put it for sale on Gunbroker..

Pm sent
I’m interested

I would love to own that if you decide to sell it.

These turn up on Gunbroker every once in a while. I have a 270, 280, and a 308. I've always wanted a 25-06, but haven't put one in the safe yet. When they have come up over the years for one reason or another I just haven't been able to pull the trigger yet (pun intended).

If I lived in one of the western states and had the opportunity to hunt antleope every year, seems to me this would be the pefect rig.

As I recall the good ones I've seen in the past brought around 800ish. But that could all be different now....

She found a new home and I think both parties will be pleased.

I appreciate all of your insights.

Same here. My Classic 25-06 is a ripper. That PF FW is darned cool though.

I see Winchester still offers the M70 FWT classic in 25-06. Good to know

Thanks Jericho

Great rifle.
Love the scroll “featherweight” designation!

You mean BACO - not NH... I'd take the latter over the former by a factor of 100...

Lee: Does that opinion apply to late model NH guns? Thanks

I'll always take the NH version over the BACO any day, any time, anywhere... JMHO.. While the later M70s (about 2002-3 on) had some issues on some models, they were mostly minor in nature..

Which reminds me - about a week ago I had a customer send a BACO M70 to me for some work.. Upon inspection (this was a brand-new rifle right outta the box) I happened to notice what appeared to be a gap between barrel and receiver.. A .002 feeler gauge confirmed it; the tip penetrated that gap by about .020-.025 before it stopped.. I.e., either the receiver or the shank's shoulder was not machined correctly. ... WTH??? As to the BACOs, I'm totally underwhelmed...

What? Most here think the BACO is head and shoulders above any NH rifle. Give me a classic and I'll be happy..

Will the gap cause the rifle to have accuracy problems??

I'm not redneck, but have you ever heard of blueprinting a rifle? Generally you face the receiver to barrel mating surfaces. Redneck can answer more about this, but when you blueprint a receiver/true things up, it definitely helps with accuracy. I have one semi custom that fine detail like this went into it, along with proper glass bedding and match grade barrel. Even though it is a belted magnum, it shoots like this:


Day in and day out, this rifle shoots this way because it doesn't suffer from some of the anomolies Redneck found with that BACO.

Thanks BSA, hopefully Lee can shed some light on it. I'm very curious.

That's hard to say - it just really surprised me since these have been touted to be the best thing since sliced bread.. All I can say is that I always machine a new face on the receiver before the barrel's installed. I start the cutter at the inside and retract the cross slide towards the outside.. That leaves a perfectly perpendicular surface to the axis of the action.

The barrel's shoulder cut is done the same way to ensure those two surfaces squarely meet.


There's many ways to skin that cat, but that's how I've done it for more than two decades and to date it's worked well.

That receiver / barrel mismatch is not good at all and you wonder how many others are like that that have never been inspected.
Are the BACO gun parts manufactured in the USA & then assembled in Portugal? What is the chain of custody on the BACO manufacturing process?