Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Did Winchester ever make a Mod 70 Featherweight in 260 Rem?

Hi all-
I had a quick question. Did Winchester ever make a model 70 featherweight in .260 Rem? I am asking because I want to replace a win mod 70 feather weight classic that I sold a few years back. That one was a 30-06 and I really liked it, but had to sell it. I have since become a huge fan of the 6.5mm�s and in particular, the 260 rem.

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

No. If they'd had, I'd own one.

Kaiser Norton

Nope, but they did chamber the Featherweight Classic SA in 6.5x55 Swede. Similar ballistics, way higher on "cool factor". Good luck finding one on the used market, and if you do, be prepared to pay about $100 more than standard chamberings are bringing.

Why dont you buy one in .243,7-08 or .308 and re-barrel it? You can find those used ones for around $400-500 (atleast around here). That way you can have a "custom"

Tim

Even if they didn't, you can...


Push feed Winchester, 23" Pac-Nor featherweight in .260 Rem, McMillan stock in the HCR pattern, Leupold 6x42.

I had one of the featherweights in 6.5x55. It shot extremely well but actually weighed more than my Ruger M77MkII in the same caliber. It also had the nasty characteristic of cartridges rattling in the magazine. This is not conducive to stealth in the game fields. The guy I traded it to sold it online at a handsome profit. It sold on GB for $1053 IIRC. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that someone who posts here bought it. The wood was special too, but covered-up with a horrible plastic finish. It's yet another one I wish I still had, but the M77 is a worthy substitute in all respects.

-

I don't believe that Winchester/USRA ever cataloged a standard production 70 in 260, but I think that they were listed in at least 1 cataloge as being available on special order from the custom shop.

It would be pretty easy to have a 70 short action rebarreled or rebored from 243 to 260.

Winchester/USRA did make a variety of cataloged and non-cataloged 70 long actions in 6.5x55 starting in 1986, so a short action 70 in 260 as a limited run for a wholesaler would not have been out of the questions, as they did a run of 70 Fwts in 6mm Remington in the early 1990s.

I did see a Winchester/USRA 70 Fwt with a Win-Tuff laminated chambered in 6.5-243 at Cabela's in LaVista, NE, a few months ago. Since I'm a 260 guy, I would have bought it, except the stock had been shortened and the price was (as is common with Cabela's) too high for the poor quality of work that was done.

Jeff

If I recall correctly, the 260 was a wildcat until Remington adopted it in about 1997. Isn't that a bit too late to have been chambered in the competitor's model 70?

I don't understand your comment.

Winchester/USRA was making short action 70s until just a couple of years ago, so I can't see any reason why they couldn't have chambered the SAAMI specs 260. Since Winchester/USRA and Winchester/Olin are seperate companies, I don't think that there was a requirement that Winchester/Olin make ammo for all of the cartridges that Winchester/USRA chambered.

Jeff

Ask Lee?

Yep,no doubt he helped Winchester design that model

As far as I know, Winchester never made the 260 available, except perhaps through a custom shop request, which they'd chamber up about anything you wanted for the right coinage......

Kinda wished the 260 would get picked up by someone besides Remington and get the availability of off-the-shelf ammo better. To my knowledge, only Remington and Federal run ammo for them and it's a bit difficult to find most times. Handloaded it's great, but for anything else, I prefer the 7mm-08.

I think that the majority of people who like the 260 are reloaders, since the variety of factory ammo doesn't really cover the full spectrum of the 260's usefulness. A factory varmint load with a 95 grain VMax might have added to its marketing appeal, but what do I know. I liked the Speer Nitrex factory ammo pretty well, but the 120 grain BTs that Remington used to load worked pretty well too.

I think that the 2 worst things that Remington did to the 260 were:

1. Their failure to offer it in their more popular rifles, the 700 ADL and 700 BDL.
2. Their failure to offer it through high-volume retailers (Wal-Mart, etal) in the lower cost, entry level, 700 ADL matte synthetic.

Jeff

I think the M70 Compact(but not the Featherweight) was available in .260, for a year or two, according to the catalogs. The M70s weren't/aren't marketed here very well (Louisville area), so I've never seen one, and the one shop that DID stock Winchesters has since closed up.

Another factor might be that Winchester was busy getting ready to market, and introducing their short mags. Why help out a competitor. 260Rem, agree on Remington's failure. It amazes me just how many lessons Remington has gotten over the years, and they continue to do dumb marketing moves. Of course the 260 should have been offered in the BDL, etc. They may be getting it somewhat right now as several 260 rifles are available now from them, and there seems to be more ammo choices becoming available. With the lull at Winchester, Remington better make hay while the sun is shining. We dont need all of those 260 s with 18 - 20 inch barrels either. Some of us shoot for distance out west.

I was mesmerized by the custom shop mannlicher stocked model, a 19" carbine IIRC, BELIEVE the 260 was inc. w/243/708/308/358 though had a 9 or 10 twist it seems.

Re: Rem, I just gave up and started buying Sako/custom actions, etc. as I lost the remaining 5-10% respect I had after MANY serious QC problems w/MY rifles as they came NEW from the factory, and the final straw was their COMPLETE lack of respect for me and any comments I had to say that were factual re: QC and lack of sensible product offerings at the SHOT show, 2006.

I still believe that Remington could make a go of the .260 Rem. if they would chamber it in the SPS with the synthetic stock and 24" barrel. I know I would buy one. Ditto the other posters that said they should have chambered it from the get go in the 700 ADL and BDL and offered it thru the discount stores. If they sold enough of the rifles, even Winchester might consider making some ammo for them. (I mean sales are sales, right?)

ruger does the 260, although the # of chamberings is in decline

To add to what Matt posted the 7-08 is better for hunting than the 6.5-08. But the .308 is way better than either one.

I built a pair of 6.5 and 7 mm rifles about 25 years ago: 6.5-'06 for hunting and a .280 Rem (7mm Express in those days) for shooting metallic silhouette. I used a #3 Shilen on the 6.5 and a #4 Douglas on the 7mm -- both in the same McM. synthetic stocks. Based on results since, if doing the same kind of thing now I would use the 6.5 for target work and the 7 for hunting but I would make them both short actions and use the 51 mm case.

jim

I don't know how anyone could really say that.

I used the 708 on elk in 1990 and the 260 later on. I killed my first elk with a 308 in 1971.

They all kill the same.

I prefer the 260 as it's recoil is less
and I find more hunting bullets with higher BC's with it.

At distance the 308 is sucking wind compared to the 26 and 28.