Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Winchester Model 70 Sharpshooter Series?

Does anyone have any information on the Sharpshooter rifles? I think there first was a Sharpshooter that didn't offer many options, then a Sharpshooter II that was more of a heavy sporter. I'm having trouble finding any reference of these, but I know they existed.

There was a sharpshooter and a sporting sharpshooter; two different beasts. Sounds like you are inquiring about the latter as the first is a true heavy barrel.
If you do a google search for Winchester sporting sharpshooter and Winchester classic sporting sharpshooter it will pull up a bunch of previous threads from here on them.

I know a little about these. The Winchester Sharpshooter was a factory Heavy Barrel rifle. I believe the intended purpose was a factory sniper rifle. It was initially made in the Winchester custom shop with a McMillan Baker stock and a Schnieder barrel in 308 and my memory wants to say 300WM. It was followed by what was termed the Sharpshooter II which was entirely built by HS Precision with their stock and their barrel. My friend has a SSII and says it's the most accurate 308 he has ever owned. He sold his 40XBBR because it didn't shoot as well as his Winchester SS.

The McMillan stocked rifles were beautiful...the HS rifles were pretty homely. But as they say...ugly is as ugly does.

I'm not familiar with the "Sporting Sharpshooter", but from what I'm seeing onlinr, they're hunting weight rifles built to the SS standard.

I have a 5 digit Custom shop Sharpshooter. The first ones had the McMillan A2 and Schneider barrel, but I didn't have enough cash at the time to get one. Then they changed them to the HS Precision stock...the stock that you have to learn to love. I still bought one in .308 Winchester and replaced the stock with a McMillan A5 and Williams bottom metal. The 24 inch barrel is an M24 contour measuring .900 inches at the muzzle. The barrel is an HS Precision stainless steel with black nitride finish and a test target. It's stamped Classic Sporting Sharpshooter. They are pretty accurate with decent ammo.

Jstor,
That sounds like the custom classic sharpshooter. Are you sure yours is stamped sporting? The sporting sharpshooter has the smaller profile barrel and sporter style stock.

Here’s another article on the sharpshooter.

https://www.snipercentral.com/winchester-classic-custom-sharpshooter/

I’m still not sure which variation the OP is asking about.

Classic Sharpshooter II

Classic sporting sharpshooter II

The Winchester catalog is a bit confusing. I have a 1995 Custom shop copy in front of me and they indeed name it Classic Custom Sharpshooter with the words in that order, and the .308 is listed as #23244 catalog item. I think that number is for the first edition with the McMillan A2 and Schneider barrel. Because included with the literature is a flier with "New Sharpshooters for 1995." On that sheet the .308 has become #23420, and the HS Precision components have appeared. The stainless steel ones had separate numbers.

My Sharpshooter is the HS Precision rendition, and it is stamped "Classic Sporting Sharpshooter" and I checked it again. HS Precision provided stocks to Winchester for standard production guns in the Heavy Varmint and the Laredo (Long Range Hunter), so it does make some sense that HS Precision took over some of the Custom shop work. They probably wanted to use one standard roll mark for the "Classic" actions. The same catalog has the "Custom Sharpshooter" heading for push feed actions....220 Swift. It lists that 7mm STW with the Classic Custom Sporting Sharpshooter II heading too. It's just different specifications for different rifles...at least that's what I think.

I lusted after a McMillan/Schneider Sharpshooter and was unsuccessful getting one before they farmed out the work to H-S. My knowledge is based on this lusting and a single in the wild M/S SS I saw and handled. The McMillan stock I handled was a Baker Special (not an A2). The action was a push feed. I'm pretty certain that the "Classic" designation was used to denote the CRF Claw extractor action that was used on the later H-S built rifles.
By the time I was able to order an SS, H-S had taken over production with their Stock and Barrels (IIRC Broached or cut). I saw the stock in the promo materials, and took a hard pass because it was ugly, not conducive to shooting out of position, and because I wasn't a fan of the H-S aluminum bedding block.

Both editions came with a 1/2 moa guarantee. My friend with a SSII still has the factory literature with a reproduction of the proof target. He bettered that factory target by far (he's saying regular 1/4" 5-shot groups, with 1's not uncommon). He offered to let me take it home and play with it a bit. I declined (still have my baggage). ...but if someone has a McMillan/Schneider SS they want to unload...I'd be very interested!!!

I’m in Canada and have a Classic Sporting Sharpshooter. It has the grey McMillan stock and Schneider barrel. I have seen a couple of push feed rifles that look identical to this one except for the Classic action. It’s a 7 STW and is in basically new condition. It is an absolute tackdriver! About the only complaint I have is with the scope mounts. The rear bridge is opened right up even more than 375 H&H factory Classics. Hard to get scope mounts that don’t hang way over the ejection port. Super gun though that seems to be a step up compared to other custom shop guns I have handled.

Great information. I saw a Classic Sharpshooter II in the heavy barrel for sale on GB some time ago in 30-06 and loosing that auction has haunted my dreams. I'm just looking to learn as much about them until I find another for sale.

JStor,
Thanks for taking the time to verify. All that I have ever seen have been marked as the one in this completed auction link is.
https://www.gunauction.com/buy/7844460

A couple of years ago I was searching pretty vigorously for a classic sporting sharpshooter II in 7STW. I was specifically looking for a full stainless model, which I’m not 100% sure actually exists. I know for certain that they do in 300 WinMag, but I never found one in full stainless in the STW.

I had an alarm set for this auction as a reminder and still managed to forget to bid. I would have gone a lot higher than what it sold for. Just one more rifle to kick myself over.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/924067046

Original sharpshooter that got listed yesterday.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/950825139

Buy it, buy it.. It has a buy it now, button is easy to hit. For those of you that "lusted" for one.. Is that even a Mcmillan stock though??

Not my cup of tea, or I would have.

That’s a custom shop gun.

Thats a period correct McMillan A2 stock that they came with. I'd be more concerned about the coating. The sharpshooter series was well before any ceracoat came about.

Thanks for the clarification. I found a couple references which said it was a Baker, but it’s far from my wheelhouse.

The seller stated the coating was birdsong; no idea when that first was being used.