Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles If Jack O'Connor was rifle shopping today...

The question was what would JOC choose? I believe that would be a new FN Model 70 in .270 Winchester which is a much better rifle than anything Winchester ever produced in the past. The new Remington 700s are still the most accurate production rifles in the world. That is unlikely to change.

+1

but in 338WM

I think I couldn't give a [bleep] less what Jack O would use. Didn't care then either.

Probably the latest wiz bang magnum wrapped in some sort if god-awful plastic.

Seems that's what it takes anymore to kill deer, elk, and the like.

Long gone are the days of animals without Kevlar

But back to the original posters question, I think Jack would be mighty pleased with a m700 cdl.

I saw a non kevlar whitetail dropped last week to a single round from a 30-06. Really! No kidding! Well I didn't actually see the shot, but there was only one shot heard and he only had one rifle so I am really pretty positive. I know it is hard to believe but it still happens from time to time.

I was thinking the same thing.

Ya, and it was a g..a..s..p! Tikka M65, and it wasn't wearing a Leupold scope, either. Musta just got lucky, I guess, except for the Barnes TSX part.

No kidding? Wow

Exactly!!!! He for sure wouldn't even think of a POS (Kimber to you guys in Rio Lobo, or whereever).
Bear in Fairbanks

You mean, busier than all the others back then? Doubtful... Show me any rifle manufacturer without a service dept...

Maybe because he wanted a custom - like many other rifle owners of today? The rifle was built to HUNT with, used as tool to obtain game, and they did so with aplomb.. Not meant (excluding custom shop stuff) to be all show and no go like some others..

I'm thinkin' you would know - first hand.. Personally, I hate the stuff..

Don't know, don't care. Whatever, it wouldn't affect my buying decisions one whit.

Sad, but more than likely true.

Indeed they are!

It's always fun to second guess this stuff with the hindsight of 50 years post fact,and the advancements in technology....I don't recall anyone saying the stocks were works of art, but they were functional and durable for the time,even if not ideal for scopes....but it helps to know how we got where we are from where we were.

(BTW some of the Kool Aid drinkers included guys like Ralph Young, Wally Johnson,Pinnell and Talifson,Finn Aaggard,and others who depended on factory issue 375H&H M70's to keep brown bear,lions,and Cape Buffalo out of clients laps.They musta worked pretty good.All those guys died natural deaths.... )

But when the rifle was introduced,most people shot iron sights,good scopes not being exactly abundant....the stock,while not ideal,served the purpose pretty well.

But guys like O'Connor and others modified the rifles to make them lighter and more suitable for scope mounting.Guys like Bob Owens,Hoffman,Pachmyar,Shelhammer,Biesen,and a host of others catered to astute rifleman of the day who(like today)wanted a better stock of lighter weight,and better design,more suitable for scope mounting....much the same way guys today will take a Rem 700,Ruger,or present M70, and replace the stock for something "better". Mausers and Springfields and Remingtons got equal treatment....the M70 was not alone.

This all evolved into the introduction of the M70 FW in the early 50's,likely the first real mountain rifle from a factory;the precursor in design to much of what we have today,and a take-off on what JOC and others like him insisted upon.Things like the Ruger, Rem Mountain Rifle,Kimber 84L, etc., did not just "happen".....they are the evolutionary by product of the work of a lot of highly skilled stock and rifle makers who influenced factory design years ago;and the notions of guys like JOC who wanted something "better"than the factories produced.This goes on today....

Today,computer aided technicians press buttons from remote locations to get the metal and wood chips flying and make the rifles faster and more efficiently,and with tighter tolerances to boot (even though we know no one actually shot the damn thing,other than proof load,and tested function.......in contrast to the guys with dirty hands, greasy aprons, and files who actually assembled and shot the rifles before they left the factories.....for similar treatment today from the likes of Dakota, Darcy Echols,Gene Simillion, Jim Anderson,Chick Worthing,Jerry Fisher, and other talented makers,a guy will spend thousands....no doubt their work is a LOT better,but they are more expensive as well..

I hardly consider any of this as an indictment of the old rifles.

That even today,the old rifles will equal and sometimes outperform the newer stuff (to the consternation of many) in the field,is curious,and sometimes funny......

I don't see many threads on here entitled..."Problems With My Pre 64 M70".

M98, VX3 2.5-8x36 & Talley QD steel mounts.

In 30-06

Touche Mr.BobinNH Touche!

BobinNH--Good post!

Of all the hunting camps you've been in, Bob, how many guys still hunt with those things. Honestly, I've never seen one in Canada, or Maine and Ive been in a ton of them

All of the purely NOSTALGIC pre 64 drivel is pretty funny considering the LAST custom rifle O'Connor commissioned before his death was a .280 RUGER m77.

So much for the superiority of the pre-64 Winchester- even in Mr O'Connor's eyes..

RD: Well, there's at least one in every camp I hunt in...

Seriously you raise a good point; times change of course and a lot of the users age, stop hunting,etc...plus many have fallen into the hands of collectors who treat them like a Ming vase..

I mean, they only made 500,000 of them.....not enough to go around.

In Wyoming last year,there were 2 that I recall,in addition to mine.I see them more out west than I do in the east, and Canada.I used to see a fair number of them up in Aroostook County, Maine, which surprised me.

But I do not see them as much as I used to.....the younger guys have moved onto other rifles, which is fine. Every generation should have their own rifles.....my son wants mine....I told him yeah, when I'm dead

Till then he gets to slum a Classic.