Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles winchester M70 Extreme Weather

Anyone have one? Opinions?

Thanks,

Which version? There are at least three and the newest ones aren't actually stainless under the cerakote, which seems totally besides the point of an extreme weather 😵.

My wife and I have a pair in 300WSM, and my son has a 300WM. Good guns. I have 3 loads for the 300WSM rifles from 150 to 180gr. They are our go anywhere-do anything rifles.

Must be one of Browning's better ideas? As for the Extreme weather version. I believe they are all stainless steel. You may be thinking of the new pos "Extreme VSX MB"??? If not, please post a link of the new Extreme Weather that is not stainless steel. Thanks!

Also, if you do a google search, someone compiled a list of about 30 different threads on this particular rifle. Since there were so many asking questions about them. I'm not going to post a link, unless you guys have a hard time finding it.

As for the OP's question of anyone having one. I've had some and friends have had them. We have all came to the consensus that the stocks suck. They are too slick, for one, and handle like a 2x4. Or at least the early ones did. The newer B&C's are not nearly as bad, as the first gen B&C stocks they used on these rifles. They always got replaced with Mcmillans. My buddy still has one in 300wsm that he fought tooth and nail to get it to shoot right. He still complains about the slick stock too, but yet still uses it on occasion. The EW was always a "meh" for me. I'd just a soon have an older Classic stainless with the old school proven trigger. To each their own though.

I could be wrong... in fact, I HOPE I'm wrong! But I could've sworn the new EW Tungstens are not SS under the coating? Do those not count as EWs? Looked like the exact same rifle as the standard EW minus the SS/coating.

https://www.winchesterguns.com/products/rifles/model-70/model-70-extreme-tungsten.html

Here’s the thread bsa referenced.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...de-of-winchester-extreme-weather-threads

I’m not convinced there is all that much change in the newer versions of the stock. I have all versions and I honestly don’t think there is much difference. There was always a difference between the long action and short action feel of the wrist.

I’ve got the bass pro/cabelas exclusive in 6.8 western with the tan/black B&C stock, I like it, shoots better than my X bolt 6.8 and personally I like the stock.

My son has a 300 win mag Extreme Weather and it is a very accurate rifle, around an inch five shot groups with a couple of different factory ammo he has tried. It is the original early version South Carolina made sometime late 2000's. The trigger would not adjust to less than 5# initially and he returned it to Winchester/Browning and they repaired it.

I've got a couple of the Portuguese-assembled Extreme Weathers. Both are all stainless steel and no Cerakote. The fit and finish on each one is excellent. I've only shot the one in .264WM, so far. I had it skim bedded and installed a Timney trigger. It shoots good with my handloads.

Shinbone, how do you like the Zeiss Conquest scope?

I owned one of the south Carolina fn versions in 308win. Excellent rifle in every respect. Killed several whitetails and 2 elk. I wanted to go back to walnut stocks, so gave the ew to a son. He too likes the rifle. Gotta love those crf model 70s. I'm sitting in a deer stand as I type this, with a model 70 SG next to me. Ymmv.

A hunting buddy of mine has one in .308 that the really likes. He should, as it is an outstanding shooter.

Got one of the SC made models with the "AMP" prefix in 270 that shoots really well. As others have said the stock is bulky feeling.

2019 6.5cm. I sold the B&C, and put it in a McM hunters edge. The Portugal M70 is the smoothest and best feeding/ejecting M70 I own.

Back around 2010-2011 Winchester made a sportsmans warehouse exclusive extreme sporter it was a blued version of the extreme weather. They were chambered in 270 WSM and 300 WSM. These would all be considered gen 1 stocks and are South Carolina made rifles.

Sexy as hell!

🦫

I have the Model 70 Extreme-Weather SS, chambered in 270 Win. Runs smooth, very accurate and trigger is flawless.

I've had three, two .30-06s and a .308. Accurate with some loads, but very picky. Load development was a lot of work with each gun.

For sure, I was thinking the same!

It is a V6 3-18x50, and like it a lot! It is one of the few high quality, second focal plane, non-taticool, scopes available to us simple hunters, and it fits the role very well. It is dialable, durable, has a versatile zoom range, has a simple reticle with windage marks, and has excellent optics. I like them so much, I own about 4 of them. Unfortunately, prices have drifted upwards due to their popularity. The Conquest V4s are also a good option at a lower price point.

I know, right? His grass is incredible. Almost like it’s not real.

😂🦫

I've had a few. They shot well. But they're tanks.

When properly lightened up, they are not bad:



This one was 7 3/4 pounds (as shown), which is not bad for a model 70. That stock totally transformed that rifle, into a much better platform. It balanced well and carried nicely. Most of the EW's I've had were great shooters. However, my buddy has one chambered in 300wsm (made in 2012), that was a copper fouling sob when he got it. He had to really break it in before it shot decent. I'm talking 3-5" groups at first. I re-did the glass bedding and added an erniethegunsmith spring, got the pull weight down to a nice 2.5 pounds and then the rifle finally started shooting well. He still prefers his pre 64 model 70 308w, that I restocked in a Mcmillan though.. The 300WSM sits in the safe these days..

I always thought the pre-brake Extreme Weathers were sharp looking. Never handled one, though. (Almost had a DIY one... was going to put a stainless FWT 6.5cm barreled action in a McM stock. Ended up getting out of 6.5cm.)

The action is wonderfully smooth and stout. But light is not in the vocabulary. I have no doubt a different stock would help a ton.

I have a Win m70 BACO FN-South Carolina Extreme Weather in 30-06 (3x Leupold). Really like it. Smooth as silk operation, accurate (0.60 - 0.75 moa). The only thing I don't like about it is the fluted barrel. I just don't like flutes.

I must be the odd man out about its weight. I wish it had more weight on the barrel. I prefer a rifle that is a bit muzzle heavy. Just hangs better in offhand shooting.

I have thinned the herd regarding my firearms over the past 10+ years. Of the few that are left (the herd is pretty much thinned down), this Extreme Weather m70 is my favorite hunting rifle.

You are correct the Tungsten models are definitely not stainless. I bought a new one and it had a rusty chamber to my surprise. Talked to Browning and they confirmed they were not stainless.

My .308 EW w/MB weighs 7 3/4lbs with an Accupoint 3-9, a lot less than stuff I used to carry, more than I prefer now. Very nicely finished. The stainless barreled M70s have, or had, Bergara button-rifled barrels. CM barrels are hammer-forged, or were. Nothing stays the same long these days.

Retail price on these has really jumped, $1799. Real world prices seem to be about $1400.

BSA: I'm still curious if you consider the Tungsten an EW?

I have a 243 EW out of South Carolina (BACO) that is 6 lb 12 oz…. with a Leupold 2x7 scope weighs 7 lb 7 oz… shoots 100 Hornady IL in little tiny holes…. love the stock on mine. Smooth as any Model 70 I have ever handled.

I thought the m70 EW barrels were made at the FN South Carolina plant.

It's not an Extreme Weather. If it were, it would be called that. The EW has the stainless action and stainless fluted barrel. Did you post a link where it said it was called Extreme Weather?

The stocks are "smooth". The reason I pull them off and replace with an appropriate stock. When my buddy and I first started looking at them (back in 2009), we handled a few and we both said the stock is too slick, it would have to go. Then when I bought my first one (a 2008 model), I had a used Mcmillan headed my way and received it before I had the rifle. Used Micky (shown in my last post) cost me $350, but worth it's weight in gold.

Last I heard, you were wanting to trade your EW 243 off and get a 6.5 creedmoor. How's that working out? I would not rebarrel that rifle, like you were also wanting to do. Especially since it's shooting so well. If you don't want it, there are guys I know that would take it off your hands.

I have a USA made Morgan Utah EW in 25/06 with a 22” barrel. It’s quite accurate and has a nicely adjusted trigger. The stock is thick comparatively but a bigger person wouldn’t find it offensive imo.

Winchester/BACO M70 EW/SS chambered in .270 Win. - topped w/ a Leupold VX-3i 2.5-8x36mm in Talley LW mounts.

~ 8.5 lbs. all up w/ sling.

Outstanding rifle in every way.



No complaints.




GR

I'd posted this link the other day. (Preface: I was asking, not telling. Synthetics are far from my area of expertise.) They call it an Extreme vs. Extreme Weather, but to my eye, it appears to be the exact same rifle minus the cerakote for stainless swap? (It has the stock, the action, the fluting, the brake, etc.)

https://www.winchesterguns.com/products/rifles/model-70/model-70-extreme-tungsten.html

Added: how Winchester describes it: "It is Model 70 for extreme conditions and for serious, tough hunts, where you need a rifle that can take the elements and maintain top performance."

I have an extreme hunter model, 308, took it moose hunting in AK this year. Not stainless but has cerakote. Put an edge on it, feels and shoots great. I do like the old stainless extreme weather models too.

BSA, I decided to keep it and the 6.5 creed itch has stopped itching. The 243 with the right bullet will do anything a 6.5 will do up to 300 yards for deer, so what do I need a creed for. The 243 has very few negatives and I know down the road I would regret it if I sold it.

Great decision!

SB, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I've been eyeing those recently, they seem like a solid choice.

I had a fist year production EW in 308. It was a mediocre shooter.
I had a 2nd year production EW in 300 WSM. It was an outstanding shooter, so I sold it to Bwalker.
I currently have a 2019 production Portuguese EW in 6.5 CM. Haven't shot it yet. I have a Bansner stock I plan on putting it in.

They don’t call them Extreme Weather models on their website, but they have Extreme Weather stamped right on the barrel of the Tungsten and Strata models that are not stainless.

Brad, that rifle is a drill. I stupidly sold it to my brother in my never ending quest for the perfect elk rifle. He's been killing stuff with it left and right ever since. I did stipulate that if he decides to get another rifle I will buy it back. Problem is he is a one rifle guy and will probably never sell!

I love both the V4 and the V6. All my new scopes going forward will be V4's. Prior to that Zeiss scopes never really surpassed the old Conquests of which ai have a half dozen.

I bet it rocks. I have several V4’s, including a couple 4-16x50’s… optically brilliant and they dial extremely well for me. I have one on my 6.5 SAUM, which is a build I spared no expense on… I have zero desire to change that scope to anything else. It rocks. I shoot it out to 1k yards a lot and the scope dials and repeats like, dare I say it, my two NF’s. Same factory. The demo units at RHR are a great bargain for what you are getting, or at least they were when I got mine.

I’ve only played with EW’s in the gun shops, starting with the first ones what, 15+ years ago? My recollection is, it felt great in my big mitts, fit and finish were excellent, and the safety was LOUD. One in 300 WSM seemed about perfect to me at the time, but I didn’t do it, got a Kimber MT WSM instead.

Interesting! So it *is* an EW. I'll not even pretend to know why the marketing people do what they do.

Worse than that.

Winchester advertises their Model 70 Extreme Sporter MB.

... and Cabela's/BPS advertises it as their Model 70 Extreme Weather MB

For an actual "Extreme Weather" M70?

Stainless Steel, or go home.






GR

I'm usually a walnut/blued only fan. But agree in this case. If you're going to bill it as "extreme" weather, it's gotta be stainless.

I have one. It's a Morgan, Utah gun {assembled in Portugal???}. I think it says "Imported by BACO". Bought it new a few years ago from Greentop in Virginia. It's a 270 Winchester and it is a great shooter. I swapped the stock for a McMillan Edge and bedded it. Adjusted the trigger and with 140 grain Nosler Partitions in my hand-loads it puts 'em all touching at 100 yards. I am happy and will never sell it. I can't really say it's any smoother feeling or better feeding than my pre-64 70's or my Mark V Weatherby's, but it's smooth enough and has never failed to feed. About the same as the others really. I scoped the bore, and it has typical factory rifle tooling marks. About what you would see in any 700 or pre-64 70. I figured on lead lapping it the way it looked, but after shooting the damn thing I am scared to touch it. It shot so good I left it alone. It does not, and never has fouled either, like I said...I am very happy and will never sell it. If I found another one for sale, I would definitely buy it. M

I got that info from Winchester, on their site IIRC. The manual says only that SS barrels are button rifled, CM hammer-forged. Does FN even make button-rifled barrels?

Just now I found a FAQ that said they outsource some of their barrels, but wasn’t specific. The sources are likely subject to change for various reasons. At any rate, I wouldn’t bet the farm on what they put on their website, or what they tell you on the phone.

The cerakote Extreme Hunter Strata MB I bought was one of the early release ones. To make it worse it was stamped “Extreme Weather SS” on the CM barrel. Their website wasn’t clear at the time and it appeared it was a stainless cerakote model. Winchester swapped me out for a true Extreme Weather MB model which was stainless. It now looks like they have dropped the SS off of the stampings of the cerakote models.

I have one in 30-06 that I bought back in 2016. I’ve shot a pile of caribou, a few nice moose and a mountain goat with.

It’s a great rifle, I have a great load using 180g partitions for it. I don’t take it out much these days but it’s earned its place in my stable.

Other than the Dog Schit scope,mounts,chambering and projectiles. Hint.

147's here. Hint.



Just sayin'................

Shot it at the range few weeks ago. It really really likes federal fusion 150’s. 0.7 MOA from soft point bonded boat tail hunting ammo, can’t complain about that at all.

The extreme sporter i purchased in 2010 as a sportsman whse exclusive cost $650 and came with a $50 gift card for Winchester ammunition. Did not feature a muzzle brake but the rest of the specs are close to the same......stock on mine was a textured black which i have since painted a camo pattern.

Stick, is that the lighting, soot, or ss-black oxide that makes your barrel appear darkened... maybe something else? I am interested in trying the black oxide so am curious if that's what the result will look like.

Rifle is as issued/NIB. Hint.

Only thing I did,was adjust trigger and swap out mag box/ejector,for more COAL and to land 147 Smooches in nether regions. Hint.









Just saying..................

Nice. Mine doesn't have that step in the mag box... one less thing to do in pre-flight.

Goys, bump! I completed trial of the Presto-black ssb and I like it, will post pictures once I get the scope leveled! The patina agent worked well, though some may critique my workmanship. Overall, it was a success!! BTW, I have way too much patina agent now... a little goes a long, long way!

I had one of the early FN made EW's in 270 Win. Adjusted the trigger weight down and dropped it in a bedded McMillan stock with a Swaro scope. It was one of the easiest and most accurate rifles I've owned, and I've owned plenty.

1st load consisting of a 140 Berger VLD over H4831 produced a 3 shot group of 3/8". I sold it to a buddy before moving out of state and have regretted it since!

I had one in .325 WSM. Nice rifle. A bit heavy .. but that offset recoil. Very smooth feeding. Trigger was a bit heavy .. an "ernie the gunsmith" spring set got it .. not great but much better. Call it serviceable but not brilliant. Accuracy was not very good, 1.75 MOA as I recall. (If it were important I could go check my load notes.) There is a lot to like about the rifle and if the accuracy and trigger had been better I don't imagine I'd have sold it. I'd consider another try but I haven't seen one on a store shelf in several years.

I wouldn’t mind keeping my eye out for finding one in 7-08 or 6.5 CM.

My lack of knowledge, understanding which Model 70 is considered a better rifle due to its origin and date of mfg, sorta stalls me from going hard, looking for one.

There's USRAC, Bosco, FN, I think? I have no idea how to decipher a serial number for good Mod70’s vs not as good M70’s. I have always like this rifle.

In the late 90’s early 2000 I bought a new Win. Mod70 SS with a post, pre64 jeweled bolt, iirc, in 300 Wby. It had a 26” barrel and black Tupperware stock. That rifle was incredibly accurate. I took a lot of game animals with that rifle.

11 years ago, I sold it on a whim after I switched to a 30-378. I grieve over that decision still today.

🦫

Get a current one made in Portugal. They're better than anything ever made in the USA.

This.

I'd get along with that statement.

I love the P64's and some Classics, but the FN made rifles are solid and all I've needed to date is a trigger spring to make them about perfect.

I have 2 of the Portugal Extreme Weather rifles. Both purchased here off the classifieds a number of years ago. One in .308 the other 7mm-08. They are excellent shooters with zero mods.

TOM I got the same thing and have the same remarks... though I haven't bothered with the trigger. Mine must have been one of the very last "new" rifles in the country.
Glad I did do the blackening... found some sort of plastic flash / sheet in the shape of a "D" in the chamber! That thing was over an inch wide at the secant and over half an inch to the top of the round!

That's good to know.

I really like my .270 Win, RenoH414 and I worked out a deal for this one. It shoots better than I'm usually capable of. I also hated the B&C stock and bought a used McMillan FWT Edge fill from the classifieds from TDN IIRC.

That looks great.
What's it weigh as shown?

7.5 lbs or there about, it has been a while since I weighed it. It gets close to 8 lbs with 5+1 150 grain cartridges and the 1918 sling it usually wears.

Finally got around to taking some pics of the presto-black SSB results. Did it earlier but on further review thought the first set had too much PID.
I used Boeshield T9 for the sealant thinking a paraffin would work well. Seems to but there probably much better sealants such as (new to me) polysilazane. The finish is very thin and will scratch off, but it's also easy to reapply.

[img]https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/19021240#lg=19021240&slide=0[/img]

[img]https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/19021240#lg=19021240&slide=1[/img]

It seems the images won't embed here. If you know how to get it to work from the CF gallery please let me know how (I won't do hosing on another site).

I have not handled a new(est) version, but at $1,500, Christensen Mesa's, Bergara Premier 2.0, & Kimber Ascent's look really good to me.

taylorc1, that's a nice rifle.

MM

Have an FN/BACO SS .270 Winchester:



Fine field rifle.

No complaints.




GR

I replaced my extreme weather with a Bergara mountain rifle.. No regrets here.. All win win.

The OEM Bell&Carlson stock on the FN/BACO EW/SS is nice if you shoot w/ a sling.




GR

Desert Dog (youtuber) just so happened to post a video about accurizing one of these second-hand. Pretty good content in my opinion...
I am impressed that he was thorough enough to review what he did as well as how much impact he thought it made.

i have 2 Winchester rifles in the M70 s.s. New Haven 30-06 & 338 Win.mag. both with the claw type bolt ,but i have Brown Precision stocks on both of these rifles ,the 30-06 has Steel Picatinny mnts. with a 5.5.-22 x56 Nightforce scope.

Had my .308 on consignment locally for a couple months in a vain effort to pare down. Finally decided to pull it out the other day. Would’ve been happy if it sold, but am happy to have it back too. Have a pile of good hunting ammo loaded to suit it, so I expect it’ll go back to work next season.

Probably a bad time of year to be selling anyway, Christmas bills and tax time looming, and as always, the Biden Prosperity….