Aside, a Pre-64 M70 IS NOT today's M70 as should be obvious to anyone.
This is absolutely true and though comparisons will always be inevitable, it is a bit unreasonable sometimes to bring them into the mix....there are hardly enough of them to go around for a lot of people to have a broad range of experience with them,and compared to other rifles today they likely comprise a small number of those that go afield each year.