Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Question about Winchester M70 bottom metal

I have a question about Winchester M70 bottom metal on a Classic series M70 (mid to late 90's production). Will the mag floor plate from a multi-piece bottom metal set, fit when going to a one piece bottom metal? Thanks, RJ

Dependfs on whose you get, ptg stuff usually fits right in with only minimal fitting.

Jkob, I wasn't talking about fitment of the bottom metal to the stock. I meant will the floor plate, by itself, from a set of metal with a separate trigger guard, fit and work properly on a one piece magazine well/trigger guard unit?

Hmmm, a very good question.. I'm taking you to mean you have the hinged anchor plate - you just want to install the floor plate itself to the hinge?

I think the width at the attaching pin is the same, but you might end up with a gap between the pin and the screw head.. The other issue is the narrower width of the plate from the two-piece - 1.185" vs. 1.225" - which will leave a gap at the frame..

What happened to the original floor plate?

Man, I just can't seem to explain very well what I am asking. I have ordered a one piece light weight aluminum bottom metal from PT&G for my M70 short action to replace the 2 piece stainless metal on it now. I have ordered a new McMillan Edge stock, inletted for one piece bottom metal. I have heard that some folks have been waiting a long time for their bottom metal from PT&G. If they don't come through for me, I can order a one piece aluminum bottom metal from Winchester. The simple question I am asking is: will the floor plate from my existing 2 piece bottom metal work with the one piece bottom metal that I order from Winchester?

Sorry, but my question is "why?". Do you have an engraved floorplale you want to keep using?

Dick, No. The floor plate is not engraved. I am trying to go light weight here. Winchester does not sell an aluminum floor plate. Why should I buy a new steel one from Winchester, if the one I have will fit? So that's what I am asking. Once again, and I am trying to make this as simple as possible, Will a floorplate from a 2 piece bottom metal fit a one piece bottom metal? I appreciate everyones comments, but I do not see why no one can understand what I am asking.

Deleted as I misunderstood the question

rj, Well to answer your question yes they will fit. I just went out in the shop and pushed a couple of pins out and put the flooplate (properly called the Hatch Cover) from a stainless short action two piece unit into the cast aluminum frame of the Winchester 1-piece unit and it fit just fine.
By the way if you do get your PT&G aluminum one in we will need it send over for programming. We have the PT&G units for Remingtons but have never had one of their Winchester units in for fitting.

P.S. Total weight savings for all this is 1.5 oz. The two piece steel unit weighs 6 ounces and the aluminum frame with the stainless hatch cover is 4.5 oz.

P.P.S. The PT&G all aluminum short Remington unit weight just a line width over 2 ounces.

Deleted this part as I misunderstood the question.

The PT&G is "almost" the same as the factory 1pc as far as fit to the stock. I have one, and it did fit in the Supergrade Edge stock that I ordered through Rick last year. The only difference was the piece at the front action screw was ever so slightly more narrow than the factory 1pc. It fits absolutely fine, but with just a hair of a gap at that location - everywhere is spot on.

I also weighed the current 1pc unit (from an Extreme Weather 300WSM) and the aluminum PT&G unit - only 1.3oz difference.

Short answer is no as there will be a gap if you use the standard 2-piece metal on a stock inletted for the 1-piece.

Dick D, so far you are the only one that understands the question that I asked. Thank you very much for taking the time to check to see if the floor plate fits. Are you with McMillan? The rep at PT&G told me that they make the bottom metal units for Winchester, so they fit the inletting of of the stock, perfectly. I just wanted to know if the floor magazine plate would fit as a back-up plan. My first choice is to use the PT&G unit because it weighs 2.5 ounces with the floor plate ( the piece they hinges open, Winchester calls it a FLOOR PLATE in their parts catalog. PT&G told me on Monday that my unit would be shipped on this past Monday when I called them on that day. Some how, I don't think so. This is Wednesday and my card has not been charged as of 5 minutes ago. I won't believe I can get that part until I actually have it in my hand. So, as a back-up I was going to buy the one piece trigger guard/mag well from Winchester and use my stainless steel floor plate on it, as long as it will fit, instead of wasting my money, buying another steel mag floor plate from Winchester for it. Using the steel floor plate with the Winchester aluminum one piece trigger guard/ mag well, I will only save about an ounce and a quarter over my all steel 2 piece that came from the factory on my rifle. With the one piece PT&G unit (also has aluminum floor plate) I could save 3.75 ounces. But, from the service I have received from PT&G so far, it looks like their product is vaporware and all I will be getting from them is lip service.

I just ordered a floorplate from PT&G a couple of months ago, for my Winchester. It came right away and worked fine. Didn't match the inlet on the Winlite McMillan stock I have, but the smith fitted it when bedding the stock and it looks good.

Tom, was the part you got for a short or long action rifle? And did you get their aluminum or steel unit?

I just got off the phone with PT&G. My order that "Would go out for sure today",(Monday) was not shipped. The lady told me, "we have them right there in stock". After holding on the line for a while today, the rep told me that it did not go out Monday and that there were not any in stock. She said that it would be "about 2 weeks" before they had them in stock again. I'm sorry, but after falsely being told that they had my part in stock and it would be shipped last Monday. I'll be damned if I believe that they will have them in stock in 2 weeks. I cancelled my order. I'm done with PT&G. They just caused the weight to go up several ounces on my project rifle. I just called Winchester and ordered the aluminum one piece trigger guard from them. Now I will have to use a steel floor plate with it because I do not know of any supplier that sells an aluminum short action floor plate (except PT&G's vapor ware parts) for M70's. And since DickD answered my question that the one from my original 2 piece unit will work on the one piece, I will use it.

Bummer. Sounds like not only are you going to lose a couple of ounces in weight savings but possibly several thousand dollars on a personal trainer, gym membership, protien powder, and some Richard Simmons Sweatin To The Oldies DVD's just to be able to aquire the muscle and stamina to bare the added weight.

Bottom metal... it can break a man.


All joking aside rj, I know that the devil is in the details. Take a breath man. If you really want a part that may well be available in 2 weeks, then don't let this bump in your build frustrate you into something you really are not happy with. Rash choices made in the heat of anger are seldom wise.

This part I AM NOT CONFUSED about -

I also weighed the current 1pc unit (from an Extreme Weather 300WSM) and the aluminum PT&G unit - only 1.3oz difference.

There is a difference in the "steel floor plate" between the old 2pc and he new 1pc I guess, as the difference between the current 1pc and the PT&G aluminum 1pc is only 1.3oz - weighed 'em both last night again to verify!

TXRam, thanks for weighing those pieces. There may not be that much difference between my original 2 piece steel metal, 6.25 ounces and the PTG aluminum metal, 2.5 ounces. that would be 3.75 ounces. That weight of 2.5 ounces is what PT&G advertises for the weight of their aluminum unit. From my dealings with PT&G so far, their advertised weight of 2.5 ounces could be a bunch of BS too.