Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Question about pre-64 Model 70's

In your opinion, how do they stack up against modern production rifles such as a Remington Model 700, etc.?

My late dad was a tool and die maker and in fact owned his own shop. As a small child I would be in there with him on Saturdays and maybe Sunday. My job was to sweep the wood floor of chips. He made precision tools, fixtures and dies. One of the products that he made for a while was a vise called the Versa Vise. It was a swiss watch of universal fixtures. I did a search and the Versa Vises were not what he made.

Later I learned to operate the Bridgeports and the South Bends. I still have one of the South Bends.

My point is that I appreciate fine machinery. The pre 64 M70's along with some other Winchesters of that era are fine machinery.

The M721-2 and 700 series rifles were the least expensive designs that they could come up with in the post war 40's. The bolt lug section is brazed to the bolt body, the bolt handle is just similarly tacked to the bolt body with no interlock. We used to call stuff made like that made by shoemakers.

Now my favorite match rifle is a Remington 40X both .22LR and CF but for the field the pre 64 M70 is the Valhalla, the ne plus ultra of USA>firearms.

Therefore there is no comparison.

After owning a few pre 64s, I believed all the hype. They are fantastic rifles and I could never see me wanting any type of 700 over an original pre 64 M70 in GC. Especially Fwts and Westerners. My gunsmith calls them the standard of what a quality made rifle is supposed to be. FWIW.

I loaded some ammo for my pre-64 .30-06 yesterday. I had it out of the safe to establish the COL for my new load. When I was done I cleaned it and looked it over - it exudes an ambiance that is missing from all the modern rifles (to include the Classic M70 re-introduced pre-64 style rifles). Those old rifles were made as standard grade rifles in an era where standard grade was good stuff - better than my Classic Super Grade.

you have to define "stack up". Most modern production rifles are more than accurate enough, and function reasonably well enough to take game

The pre-64 stock and custom rifles in my safe will be the last ones to go (if I am still alive)...

A Rem 700 isn't built the way they used to make the Pre-64 M70. If I was given a choice between the two, the Pre-64 wins.

My oh my... where to begin..... Sigh.....

1) Controlled round feeding VS Push feed, Model 70 wins
2) Fixed blade extractor VS smallish spring clip, model 70 wins
3) fixed blade ejector VS plunger type ejector, model 70 wins
4) flat bedding surface and machined steel action housing vs. a round steel tube, model 70 wins yet again.

Style, grace, ambiance, panache whatever you want to call it, My view is that the model 70 has it all over a Model 700. Preparing to don flame suit!

Model 700's are good enough for most people and much hunting, I prefer model 70's by a wide margin. I also like the later model 70 Classics quite a lot. Some modern rifles are quite good equipment including Sako,CZ, Cooper and Kimber. My .02 since it was asked of me.

GA270-I believe the pre-64 M70 is the best standard production hunting rifle ever made. I particularly like the featherweights, and as long as I am able to hunt, I won't use anything else. No disrespect for the other fine rifles out there.

I remember the Versa Vice. You should be proud of your Dad. Quality never goes out of style. Thanks...Bill.

They're excellent..

After having played with,shot,hunted with and loaded for so many different rifles of various brands over the last 30+ years that I can't begin to remember them all, pre64's(or customs built on the actions) are all I hunt with for the most part, anymore.

Remingtons are good,solid,safe,reliable rifles that generally do all that can be expected of a rifle.I've hunted with them and shot thousands of rounds through them.Would I take one on a hunt where I'm spending thousands of dollars; for dangerous animals;in wilderness country under tough conditions;or for ANY hunt that is important to me?.............uh, no.

You almost had me there for a second..

Being measured mostly by my desire to take each of them hunting, this is pretty much subjective, but here goes. My pre-64 Featherweight is at least the equal of my Sako 75, Sako 85, and Kimber 8400. My two Remington 700's and my last-year-of-New Haven-production M70 Classic Featherweight were nowhere close as they came from the factory. To reduce the apples to oranges factor, all of these are wood stocks.

If you walked up to a table with 8 or 10 rifles bolt action rifles of different brands and makes displayed, and one of those was a pre 64 M70, your eyes would automatically pick out the M70, ignoring all the others.

There is something about a plain M70, if there is such a thing as a plain M70, that just says "Class." Nothing else can compare, although if there were a few pre 64 M64s and M94s, along with a M71 and M86 displayed, your eyes might wonder a bit before going back to the M70.

No modern factory rifle approaches the pre 64 model 70, or the old Browning Safaris.

These guys are all right on the money in what thay say but I will add that you should avoid them like the plague because once you've used one a bit they will be all you want. I bought my first, a Westerner in 264 Win mag, a couple years ago and now I'm up to four as I slowly but surely replace everything else with more pre-64s. You've been warned.

I've gotta line up with the rest of you guys. The pre-64 is pure magic..it has an aura about it. Once you hold one in your hands you can feel it..pretty dramatic, but winchester guys know what I mean. Engineering excellence and craftsmanship make it the standard by witch all others are judged. My rifle is not a tool, but part of the hunting experience.

I live about 20 mi from the old winchester plant, and I will never forget a sign I saw. It said,"Through these doors have passed the finest craftsmen in the world"

art

To add to that, when you look at a rack of rifles at the gun store it becomes easy to pick out the pre64's even from a distance.

Redneck: I am trained by my profession to take both sides of an argument....at the same time!

Seriously, with millions in circulation and lots of happy users,no one can say Remington 700's, Ruger M77's, Sako's etc are not solid gear.But having used them all I just have come to appreciate the design features of a pre 64 and the way they were put together.IME they can be trusted to deliver;anything can break or fail to work, but as a general rule, a pre 64 is going to deliver the goods.

I bought a couple this year so far; two standard grade 30/06's,one has yet to be fired. The other has so-so wood,but good metal. I tightened the guard screws mounted a 2.5-8VXIII with B&C reticle,and fed it 58-H4350-165 Sierra SBT's, and watched it pile 8-10 shots into a big hole at 100.I then took it to 600 yards where it shot two groups of slightly below and slightly above MOA.

No bedding job, no fancy break in, no flyers, no failures to feed, extract, eject, no gunsmith magic....I have a safe full of them that all do the same thing.And over the years I can only remember a couple that were lemons. I have never had or seen a failure afield with them; something I cannot say about some other makes.

They are "money" rifles.