Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors You just bought a Pre 64 FWT?

From good to excellent shape. What are your 100yard expectations for accuracy? Don't need to see your "best" group or when you "do your part" unless it is 5-10 shots and more than one example. Original stock or bedded and with plastic makes no difference. What are your expectations or what have you come to expect?

Me? I've found with a 3x,4x or 6x scope I can expect 5 shots to stay around 1.25 to 1.5in for the most part. Sometimes better, but day in day out 1.5in would cover 20x5 shot groups for an average.

I've had a handful of pre-64 featherweights, and all of mine would consistently do 3/4" or so for three shots with loads they liked.

I should have been more specific: 5 shot groups and more than one.

I'd say both battue and DMD are right.....drop them in a good synthetic,properly bedded,float the tube,and I have seen them get better than me.

I wish I could give better specifics, but I haven't used mine in several years. The best it would do with handloaded Hornady 150g IB is ~ 2" for a five shot groups.

Need to get it out and try something different one these days.

About 5-6 years ago now, I had a pair of FW pre 64 30/06's that gave me fits,and would do no better than 1 3/4-2",and many of those groups were 3 shots.Both were factory original.

I pulled them both apart.checked inletting on the barrel channel,sealed them,and touched them up,and glass bedded them both.

More importantly, I checked my handloads for runnout and bought the Redding Competiton dies.Ammo got segragated into +- .005 runnout,and used the "good stuff" for group shooting.

The differences got dramatic in a hurry,and enough clustered three shot groups showed up that it was not unusual to have a ragged hole in the target.They also did better rapid fired at 300 yards;more consistent and stable.In addition to the handloads of 59 gr-H4350-165 Sierra,the Federal Fusion shot extremely well.

Pre 64's aren't exempt from the rules about barrels and bedding and the barrels are generally good.Some need some tuning,and straight ammo always helps.

In factory trim, using 3 shot groups, I seem to recall 1.25-1.5 averages. I have bedded factory stocks, but, dislike this as it lowers resale value and you still have that clunky Winny handle.

I have all my P-64s, 12 at present, in highend synthetics and the Fwts shoot sub-moa consistently. My nicest pair of Alaskan .338s, hardly fired in Rimrock stocks, will usually run .6"@100M for 3 250 NPs over 76-RE-22. Note: This is a "warm" load" and while safe in MY six current .338s, as is 77 grs. in my Dakota 76, I DO NOT suggest using it without a careful workup.

That said, this load has been published in "Rifle" in an article written by that big guy in Montana, who always wears a big cowboy hat.

He may be wondering about a bone stock (unmodified/collector grade) fwt. Both of mine were just like that and I decided to glass bed them and the groups shrank. For a bone stock fwt where the barrel may not be freefloated, I'd expect around 1.5" + groups out of them from personal experience....

kutenay: SIX 338's? LOL! That is a pile load of mediums!

Congrats!


bsa yes I agree with the bone stock rifles.....I will say that my impression is that the FW 270's seems to be just a hair easier to get to shoot.....more meat in the barrel I think.

I am a severely addicted gunaholic and have four original Alakskans, the Dakota, a customized sts Classic and wish I could find a Parker-Hale Hussar in .308Norma, to salvage the action, a Brno ZG-47 sold to PH and then I would have Martini's build my "dream" .338WM......all told, I have owned 13 .338WM rifles since 1968....what can I say!?

Of course, I also have four 9.3x62, one 9.3x74R and two .375H&H rifles and am talking with Ralf about a 9.3x64B on the fine ZG action I have stashed.....I also really NEED a .358Norma......

I know that YOU "understand" as did our late and badly missed friend, Allen Day.....some guys are, well.......just NUTS!!!!

I'd say, I'm more worried about meat in the freezer than meat in the barrel...

I"ve got two, ,a .308 that's been bedded, and it consistently shoots sub 1 inch for five at 100 yds. if I space my shots out. This is withthe 165 speer or partition at about 2600. It will frequently cloverleaf the first three. I have a .30-06 that is not bedded, and it is pretty consistent at 1.25-1.3 for five if I space my shots out. This is with the 180 Hornady at 2750.

The only pre-64 I have is a 30-06 Fwt. After getting at it, I shot it, got 2-2-1/2 " groups. Looked it over, had the barrel recrowned, and it will shoot three different brands factory ammo into 1-1/8". My original 4350 handloads, 1 inch even, for 150's, 165's, 180's.
Latest handloads with RL-17 and Big Game, 1 inch.

It's more consistent than me, never changes.

I have fired a number of groups that were in the 1 1/2" range, but just enough sub-1" groups from my P64 FWT. .30-06 to know that my shooting skills, not the rifle, are to blame. Rifle shoots well with the 165 Partition and H4350 powder.

I have a collector grade 1955 .30/06 featherweight. It shoots ~2" @ 100 yards. Riflesmithsmith said he could improve it a lot, but then it wouldn't be a collector grade rifle anymore. He recommended I leave it alone and I have done just that.

3 Fwts that I'm familiar with--270, 308, and 30-06--will each shoot 5 shot groups of 1.25" to 1.75" with good factory ammo. Not much better, not much worser. All in original and unmodified wood.
However, 20 groups of 5 shots each? Them odds can only increase the average.

Guys, my buddies shoots great. Here's 2 groups he shot (2 different charge weights we were working with). His tighter group was one where he said he was going to "really try to make them touch"...He did and I was impressed with the old girl (the rifle, not my friend ).:



His old fwt isn't much to look at but it has so much character with its sweated off front sight and war wounds in the stock, shiny aluminum floor plate and a trigger guard that has been dented in and straightened a few times ....It's been glass bedded and freefloated and he never takes it out of the stock. The nice thing about his rifle is it makes mine look like a million dollars...He's out elk hunting with it right now (well this weekend anyway)....His new 300 wsm Extreme Weather isn't shooting right so he may have to send it back to winchester (boy he's pissed about that)....

308, 243 and 30-06... from 3/4 inch to 1.5 inch... depending on the gun.. all are stock - no changes...

I've owned 5 pre-64 FWT's, all would do 1.25" at 100 out of the box. For those that I could bed without destroying the collector value, it got better.

I've had 6 fwts in 3006. All would do 1 1/2 inches with good handloads but none less than 1 inch without modifications.

They all shot best using 180 or 200 grain Partitions at near max.

Wayne

This is an honest representation of how my 30-06 fwt shot before bedding it. This was also shot with my other pre 64 model 70's pet load. I've got too many damn rifles since I haven't had a chance to develop a specific load for this particular rifle . I think it has potential though and should shoot better now that it is bedded:



Don't ask why I shot 8 times. If I remember right it was the last 8 shots I had in the box and it was grouping well so I figured what the hell....

Here's how my 308 fwt shot on its last outing. I've since bedded it also (didn't want to screw up the collector value but what the hey!!!! Did it anyway). I'm sure it will shoot much better now. I was just messing around with the scenars since I've heard a lot of good about them. Not too impressive but nonetheless, group was shot before I bedded it. We'll see how she does next time:

I traded for my first pre 64 featherweight back in the summer and now own three (one 270 Win and two 30-06's), and I would agree that 1.5" accuracy is about average with mine too. I own a few upper end guns and tend to get hung up on "one hole" accuracy, but in truth, a gun that will do 1.5-2" at 100 yards is more than adequate for hunting.

So Bob, after your tweaked the rifle and the ammo, were you able to determine which one proved to make the difference?
With so many variables, what caused the rifle to shoot to your expectations?

bigwhoop I think it was the cumulative affect.What made me suspicious of the ammo was that both rifles were doing the same things....random flyers at 300 yards.

But I knew they both had factory bedding,which is generally adequate,but not the best.I knew that before I could draw conclusions about the ammo, the rifles had to be "right",so I bedded them and cleaned up the barrel channels.i have found that a lot of load tweaking we do in an affort to get rifles to shoot is really wasted effort....if the rifle is not "right",some loads may shoot but its' like building a house on a crooked foundation.pretty much a waste of time if the rifle is not tuned properly.

Meantime, I checked the ammo,started watching case runnout at every step of the loading process,new cases or fired cases...it was surprising how much I had been lousing up good brass with sloppy sizing techniques.

pre 64 M70 FW in 30/06 have pretty light tubes,but are good barrels.I knew they would shoot but can be fussy with some stuff,so stuck with 150's and 165's,segragated into .005 and under...the flyers disappeared.Much better.

Poorly assembled rifles will not shoot....crooked ammo will not shoot.

I won't have a problem getting my fwt's to shoot moa, now that they are bedded and after I work up a load for them....

Thanks Bob. I especially like your "heads up" on the runout issue. Something I should monitor more closely too.

about 1-1/4 adv is what my unmolested 308 does.. my sons 30-06 about 1-1/2