Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Winchester 70 Jack O'Connor Tribute rifle....WOW what a shooter!

Howdy all. Many may know me from other forums and I eventually found my way over to 24hour. Hope you all enjoy my first post. This is a review I did of my Winchester Jack O'Connor Tribute rifle this summer. Since this original review I have had it hunting and it was a very well balanced rig. Have about 150 rounds through it and it has gone from smooth to silky smooth. I love this rifle.

I have owned and been around a lot of fine guns in my days. Every now and then there is one or two that puts me to my knees......I have found such a gun this year. For Winchesters 75th anniversary of the great Model 70, they teamed up with one of, if not THE biggest hunter and outdoor writer of the last century Jack O'Connor. For those who do not know, Jack O'Connor was one of Winchester's biggest supporters. Jack's love of the Winchester 270 caliber and love of the Model 70 made the gun and caliber legendary hunting all over the world with the gun/caliber combination. Winchester teamed up with the Jack O'Connor Foundation to bring out a limited edition Model 70 worthy of Jack's name. The foundation loaned Jacks famous #2 rifle to Winchester so it could be exactly reproduced. Everything from the stock to the checkering is a mirror image of Jack's #2 custom M70 rifle.



Winchester spared no expense in this rifle using only the finest grade French Walnut for the stock and the engraving is outstanding. The "Jack O'Connor" signature is in nickel across the finger guard. One of Jack's signature Ram trophy's is engraved on the floor plate in great detail. The motif is carried out on the pistol cap.

The action on this gun is all Winchester Custom shop. That is to say "perfect". Free floating barrel with custom match crown has the best tolerance I have ever seen on a rifle. Metal to stock tolerance is absolutely as tight as I have ever seen.



My Sako's and other high end guns are extremely good but this particular Winchester sets the standard in elegance and action. I actually plan on using this fine gun and not hunting with a "Jack O'Connor" gun just seems wrong....

Jack died in 1978 and left a legacy and wealth of knowledge on what makes a good hunting rifle/caliber.
For those that do not know who Jack was as a man, hunter, and outdoor writer, take some time to investigate his accomplishments.


(My pictures do not do this gun justice.)


Here is a few scans of some of the info that accompanied my rifle.




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Shooting and breaking in the Jack O'Connor rifle:

The conditions were less than ideal a pretty good cross wind at 73 degrees. My ammo choices for the day were Winchester 130 and 150 Power Points. Hornady 130 SST and 130 SP Interbond. I had the gun sighted in and was cleaning the barrel every shot to properly break in the barrel. I shot a total of 45 rounds. The tack driving round of the day was the Hornady 130 SP. These bullets stacked on top of them self at 100 yards. I dont think I could reload a more accurate round.





The Winchester wasnt bad at about 1" group but the wind was bad for about 2 of the three hours I shot. Its hard to tell if it was the wind or just a average grouping. Either way they were good enough for hunting big game. The Hornady SST were about the same as the Hornady 130 SP. I would get two round almost touching and then the third would fly a inch off. Its hard to tell if it was the wind or me but I was able to produced one hole groups and its 300yard groups were excellent. At 300 yards I shot two shots of SST and two of Fusion. You can see they grouped very well give the conditions.


3 shot group at 100 yards.
[img]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/...0OConnor%20Tribute%20Rifle/2ndrange1.jpg[/img]




45 rounds were a lot of big game rounds to shoot at one sitting. Between cleaning and letting the barrel cool, it was all I wanted to shoot. Recoil was nothing the first 15-20 rounds. I was use to a 300 Win Mag and I would put the recoil of the 270 about like a 30-06, perhaps a bit less. The M70 JOC gun was smooooth as butter. It picked up rounds out of the magazine better than any of my other M70 guns. The trigger was a clean 3lbs with no creep and seemed effortless to break a clean shot off. The gun seemed to be getting even smoother after each round. For a feather weight 22" barrel, its a tack driver.
Needless to say I am thrilled. It shoots as good as it looks.

[img]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/...0OConnor%20Tribute%20Rifle/Range2net.jpg[/img]


When my JOC rifle isn't afield, it is displayed in my office. A gun that looks this good would be a shame not to be able to admire it on a daily basis.

[img]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/...onnor%20Tribute%20Rifle/JOConwallnet.jpg[/img]

That all?

What did you hunt with it?

And that's a saaawwwwweeeeeettttt Winchester!

Glad you are happy with it. Was that one assembled in Portugal?

Carolina

Black Bear. It was nasty weather with sleet and snow. Rifle carried like a dream.

Purty rifle! Shoots straight, too.

Thanks mystro,have another question,what Leupold do you have on it?

Mystro, read Tenring's review on this forum when you get a chance.

Very nice, what do those run?

Can't know the accuracy, would prefer Talley LW mounts or Leu Dual Dovetail if mine, and a although JOC ran a Leo 4x, might throw on a 6x Leu.

Nice rifle, nice shooter! Enjoy.

Sorry, I forgot to add that I also upgraded my optics since the first review. As far as I know, I am the only one that has actually taken a JOC Rifle out hunting. Many owners have tracked me down and the majority of them are either not going to shoot theirs or only at the range. My JOC will be hunted with in decent weather.

Needed to upgrade the optics on my predator rifle so I moved my Docter scope to it and upgraded the JOC rifles optics..
The JOC rifle now wears Leupold's new top of the line VX6 series in 3x18 44mm with custom CDS and Firedot. Build quality and finish is top shelf all the way. Nothing plastic on the VX6, aluminum with rubber eyepiece. It certainly sets a new high end optic bar at Leupold being their halo scope. Clarity and eye relief is ridiculous. Field of view is wide and crisp from edge to edge on any power while retaining long eye relief. I chose the fine duplex Firedot. The illuminated Firedot is very clever. It is easily adjustable in brightness and doesn't create any residual reflection of light in the scope. The dot brightness can be dimmed to almost imperceptible low light use. It also has a motion sensor in it that turns off if the scope isnt moved for 5 minutes. It instantly comes back on with the slightest movement. You can even program the order the Firedot changes in brightness. Leupold will also make you a free CDS turret for the exact load and bullet you are using figuring many ballistic factors. They then custom laser engrave the turret for your scope. Turrets are easily interchangeable. It seems to be outstanding in about every thing you could ever want in a optic. My eyes give it a equal match with the Swarovski Z6 3x18 in optics but I preferred the Luepold's design and layout better. My gut thinks the Leupold will be a tougher scope. All things considered the Leupold VX6 sets a new high standard for Leupold optics, competing with and bettering scopes costing 2-3x in money.. IMO.





Specs:



Low power and High power
Actual Magnification Low3.00 x High 18.00 x
Linear Field of View (ft/100 yd) Low 38.00 ft High 7.00 ft
Linear Field of View (m/100 m) Low12.60 m High 2.30 m
Eye Relief (in) Low 3.70 in High 3.80 in
Eye Relief (mm)Low94.00 mm High 97.00 mm

Weight (oz) 21.80 oz
Weight (g) 618.00 g
Objective Clear Aperture (in) 1.70 in
Objective Clear Aperture (mm) 44.00 mm
Elevation Adjustment Range 75.00 moa
Windage Adjustment Range 75.00 moa


Quantum Optical System
Xtended Twilight Lens System
DiamondCoat 2
2nd Generation Argon/Krypton Waterproofing
Lead Free
6:1 Zoom Ratio
Generous Eyebox
FireDot Illumination
Pop-Up Rezero Adjustments
Blackened Lens Edges
Twin Bias Spring Erector System
Extreme Fast-Focus Eyepiece
CDS (Custom Dial System)
BAS (Ballistic Aiming System)
MST (Motion Sensor Technology)
1/4 MOA Finger Click
Extended Battery Life
30mm Maintube
Side Focus
Custom Shop serviceable
Tactile Power Selector
6061-T6 Aircraft Quality Aluminum
Leupold Scope Cover
24K Gold Ring and Medallion


This is my every day hardcore "fly weight" rig. It will see the bad weather where my JOC will not. A modern day mountain rig. You can tell I liked the Leupold VX6 enough to buy two.

It's not a 4x in Tildens. At lest I don't think it is .. Nice rifle though..

No,it's not,now that would be sweet.

Mystro,thank you for answering my questions. 'bout the only thing I disagree with is the scope,but it's yours and not mine.

Here's my Feathereight 7x57 with a Leupold 2.5x Ultralight and Talley Lightweights.







By the way,I'm strongly considering taking this Black Bear hunting this November in Arizona.

As it is in the pic it weighs 7lbs 12ozs.

That is a beautiful rig. The eye relieve of the new VX6 was so long and with the huge field of view, I couldn't resist the 3x18. Its like the best of both worlds in optics. Had I done over again, I would have put the light weight Talley mounts on instead of the Leupold mounts. I do get into some long shots from time to time so the added zoom was too hard to pass up. I took a Black Bear a few years ago at 270 yards and that's about as far as I felt comfortable with my last scope. I was shooting 300yards with the VX6 like my last optic was at 100 yards. This new 6x that all the top tier optics have is increadable. I am now shooting this JOC 270 out to 500yards with this new optic.

I personally like the scope. It may be a little big for that fwt, but I kind of like big scopes myself. Here's how my old fwt's were scoped when I bought them:

270 fwt with steel tube weaver K4 4x:


308 fwt with kollmorgen 4x bearcub and beuhler adjustable mounts:


Now they wear 3-9x40's for the most part...

It's all good...

Thanks Mystro,like I said it's a sssaaawwweeeetttt rifle and that you will take it huntin' is even saaaawwwweeeetttteeerrr!

That's what it's for.

I have been a student of Jack O'Connor for a long time. I have all his books. I have spoke to his son Bradford a few times about the review I did of the JOC Rifle just to get a insight on how much his family had control of the final Winchester JOC rifle. They had complete control and approved of all designs as they were being discussed. They also said there would be no more JOC tribute rifles after this one. They loaned their Dads famous #2 to Winchester to be disassembled and stock laser measured.
To not hunt with a Jack O'Connor rifle just seems wrong to me. I purchased it with hunting in mind. I just will hunt with it on nicer days and avoid the really bad weather.

I've been a Jack O'Connor fan since I was able to read,about 40+ years now.

Honestly Mystro to not hunt with any rifle is just wrong.

Here is my other Featherweight that was bought a week ago. It's a Pre '64 .30-06 with a 6x42mm Leupold in Leupold bases and rings. This one is 7lbs 14 ozs.



Strongly considering taking this one as a back up rifle for the bear hunt.

We have the biggest black bears in the world here in central Pa. 500lbs are very common around my house. Most are shot with a 270, 308, 30-06. Not many Magnums and most are the tried and true deer cartridges. Now that bonded bullets are so good, I would use your 270. Either of your rifles would be great.

Here is one of our 800lbs+ Pa bears.

That's HUGE!

Went last year and took a .375 H&H and after seeing the conditions and such,don't think I need something that big for Black Bear.