Winchester m-70 llightweight

Saved me some nickles together and finally got the rifle I been desiring for some years. Yep the Winchester model 70 chambered in 270 win.

This rifle is to replace my Grandfathers rifle handed down through my Dad Winchester model 54 with the snazzy snable forend. She finally and sadly enough ... found its way to my house but alas I have a tough time useing like an everyday rifle. I love the style and feel but it holds way too many memories for me.

Long story huh ... brings me to this classy model 70 with its snable forend. Almost stacks up to the old 54 but it has no memories attatched so it will make an everyday target, hunting rifle.

Shoots very well. An under MOA when I do my part. My handloads with imr 4831 Hornaday 140 grain btsp with cci large rifle primers.

NOW here comes the part that kinda buggs me. Loaded Lee 277 boolits that I powdercoated ford blue and excitedly dashed off to the range. Loaded her up to see what kinda cast boolit rifle she was gonna be. Cycled the action and chambered the first round ... bang. Chambered the second round and she delivered the second hole about 3 inch from the first. Went to cycle the third round from the left side of the mag and it stubbed on the right side of the chamber opening.

Cant remember any further accuracy details form my precious cast boolits ... spent awhile trying to figure out why the failure to feed the 3rd round of round nose ammo. Then I tried some 150 grain round nose Hornaday's and the 3rd round failed as well. Spitzers work flawlessly and for hunting this is fine ... but ... my favorite shooting is with our cast boolit missles.

Filed a bit and polished the feed ramp, filed a bit and polished the mag followerer. Helped and now I enjoy shooting my favorite projectiles ... CAST BOOLITS!

She still stubbs sometimes but think I have the workaround figured out. Accuracy with the cast boolits still dismal but it is a work in progress.

Anybody else experience feeding issues with these new manufactured mod 70's?

Push feed or CRF?

I never had feeding problems with the new retro 90’s Model 70 .270 I had for a while. But I mostly used Loverin boolits and didn’t powder coat.

It functioned well, but certainly wasn’t something to recall Winchester’s legendary pre-war output. You could slip a business card between the floor plate and the trigger plate when it was latched, the checkering looked like termite damage, and the forestock was seriously warped and pressing against the barrel. When I was relieving the wood, I noticed that the “bedding” was a dab of some kind of hardened plastic in the action lug well. Once the barrel was relieved, Jack O’Connor’s comment, “It’s not free-floating; it’s adrift!” came to mind.

After the wood issue was resolved (I did nothing to the “bedding”), it shot like a house afire, cast and jacketed. It followed O’Connor’s observation in shooting most jacketed bullet weights to a pretty close point of impact at “practical” ranges; say, out to 200 yd or so. Cast boolits were sized 0.280” nominally, with the usual light cast loads. I would get one-hole 50 yd groups with (IIRC) 8 gr Unique.

Watching this with interest.


I've owned 3 model 70 featherweights and never had a feeding issue with any of them with any boolit. I still kick myself for letting the 7x57 go.

Larry, it is CRF. Just wondering if it has the wrong follower and putting too much pressure on the left side case. I have never seen this configuration on the top of a follower before. It has a lengthwise groove on both sides . The groove on the left has a bit carved out and when I carved this a bit more it seems to help solve the stubbing into the right side of the chamber mouth. What makes me think this is the fourth cartridge seems to load good most of the time and ALL spitzers all the time.

Bent Ramrod sorry to hear bout your model 70 experience. This one is a newest made model and other than the feeding of blunt round nose boolits, is perfect. Great fit and fully floated barrel, great looking sharp checkering beautiful wood and nice tight bedding. The blueing is superb and very impressed with the trigger. Overall this is a very nice specimen of a foreign made model 70.

Fatnhappy. Yep the 7X57 mauser was my second choice as well. Hopfully you can land another.

Attachment 306359

This is the follower with the two grooves. That left side seems too high to me and seems to shove the round to far to the right. I took approximately 1/16th off the top right there by my thumb and about the same on that front left corner. Also carved just a sliver off the left rounded portion of the feed ramp. Seems to have helped a little so began looking for another follower so I can further carve up this follower to try and cure my round nose feeding issues.

Problem is I cant seem to find another follower that looks like this one.

Other than this minor mystery this made in Portugal Winchester ... says made by Browning and "imported by BACO".
Any rate she is a beaut and seems to be a keeper.

Attachment 306360

Attachment 306361

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigted

Yep the 7X57 mauser was my second choice as well. Hopefully you can land another.

---

I sure hope so too. If they make another run of them in 7x57 I'll absolutely break out the plastic.


What the featherweight was made for. On top of a large clearcut in the Adirondack mtns.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f9761c18_c.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fatnhappy

Watching this with interest.


I've owned 3 model 70 featherweights and never had a feeding issue with any of them with any boolit. I still kick myself for letting the 7x57 go.

---

Me too, a mid-1980's push feed M-70 FWT. Sold it to a good neighbor who loved it more than me after he borrowed it to hunt in Montana where his daughter lives.

I have a 90's built M-70 FWT in .308 I'm going to give my grandson as soon as he moves. I bought a Ruger M-77 RS in .308 last year that I like a lot more than the Winchester M-70 FWT.

That is a dandy. Are you sure they do not chamber them in 7X57?

never had issues with mine...I did however have issues with a mauser .308 I owned...my work around was round nose on one side of mag and spitzer on the other.....the round nose up the spout/in chamber was the first down the barrel and the one that counted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigted

That is a dandy. Are you sure they do not chamber them in 7X57?

---

No 7x57.....

https://www.winchesterguns.com/produ...herweight.html

My favorite rifle platform is the model 70 Winchester
I own a few of them a 220 Swift current production featherweight, a featherweight compact in 358 Win, a supergrade in 35 Whelen and a model 70 featherweight in 280 a.i.
the only problem i ran into with any of them is the current production Super grade had a shorter firing pin in it and was not going bang all the time
I did have feeding issue's with the 220 swift because I converted an new 22-250 and had to make a new magazine box and install a different follower but that is because the follower is not going all the way to the bottom of the mag without binding, a work in progress

I had a feather weight in 30-06 bought new in 2008, very nice rifle with a serious problem. Shots 1-3 would group well, 4 would be an inch left, 5 would be two or three inches
left of that. As the barrel warmed the poi would drift further. Let it cool for an hour and poi would return to normal. I sent that one down the road.

I have an M70 in 270 Win. I ran into chambering issues when I powder coated, but regular lubesizing with the Star and Blue Carnuba lube has no problems. Load with 10 grains of Red Dot. It’s the RCBS 270 150 Boolits. Usually shoots an inch or two at 100 yards depending on me. I’ve loaded it with W748 powder at around 2000fps but prefer the Red Dot load.

All great info. I will look for the RCBS mold.

So is my follower like others followers? Also does anybody have a hint concerning finding another follower that I can experiment with?

Thanks for all the reply's. I also like my Ruger 77 in 25-06. It shoots very well.

bigoted, I'd try Brownell's

The left feed rail and that follower are not releasing the cartridge rim soon enough to slip up under the extractor. That causes the cartridge to get too far kitty wampus before the bullet enters the chamber and or feeding cone of the M70. I'd get a follower of regular design and try that. The followers are available from Brownell's, Midway and other parts places.

bigted. spell-correct got me. my last entry is not what I typed. 725

Going off memory, my follower does not look like that. I do have a blind magazine, don’t know if that makes a difference. If you’d like, just say on here and I’ll take mine apart and post pics.

725, lol not to worry my friend. I didnt even notice till you mentioned it.

Right on. I have found regular followers. Brownells among others. I will shell out some coin and get a regular follower coming. Thanks all.

No need to take it apart tho I appreciate the offer. I lean with Larry and believe this follower is the main fault. After I fiddled with it that left cartridge feeds a lot better.

I even wondered about the left rail not letting go soon enough but the top and 4rth cartridge has pretty much fed my round nose loaded cartridges. Just the second cartridge coming off the left side of the follower gives trouble and wants to stub into the right side before it gets released from the mag and pops up under the claw of the "control round feed" bolt face.

Soon as this gets figured out to be 100% reliable I will definitely post the cure.

Even wondered if I carved down that middle ridge back to about where just before the cartridge stubs would allow that cartridge to release and jump up under the claw.

Really like the help here from others. Thanks a bunch.

Attachment 306718

So finally took the bull by the horns and whittled the follower down further on account of because this rifle has to feed the cartridges that I will be using most if not all the time. Namely round nose cast boolits.

Success!!! Not sure why that left rail was so high but now it ain't. AND she feeds just fine now!!! I can feed that problem child ( the second round) slowly and it chambers like butter. Fast it goes even better. The cast boolit does the same.

Attachment 306719

So here we're the culprits that spun me up. I got impatient and began filing and polishing till this rifle now feeds ALL rounds that I will ever use ... better yet is that my favorite cast boolits feed like eggs through a chicken ..
Or ... gas through a funnel.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Now for the shooting to see if she warranted all this attention for shooting cast.

Keep posting, we wanna hear about the loads and accuracy.

Will do as soon as my right eye sees again. Last friday it developed a bleed at the rear of the eyeball and proceeded to cloud up my vision till its like trying to look through a iced over windshield. Namely light and shadows.

Isnt gettin old a hoot.

any progress on this??? possibly also try changing seating depth.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigted

Will do as soon as my right eye sees again. Last friday it developed a bleed at the rear of the eyeball and proceeded to cloud up my vision till its like trying to look through a iced over windshield. Namely light and shadows.

Isnt gettin old a hoot.

---

Dang, hopefully no permanent loss of vision. Hope you heal well.

I certainly hope your eyesight isn't impaired. Praying for you.

Thanks for the get well wish's and prayers. Seems to be improving but SLOWWWW.

No nothing new with the project Featherweight . Cant shoot if cant see. Will commence with accuracy loading and testing ... hopefully soon.

Best wishes for your recovery bigted.

I had one of those burst capillaries. The Doc said the most common cause is diabetes, but in the absence of that, they don’t know why it happens.

I had a blurry, yellow map of Africa going up my vision from just above the focal point in my left eye. Blood flow in the eye is extremely sluggish (that’s why the red in the white of a damaged eye takes so long to go away) so it took a month or two to carry away the blood and shrink the map of Africa to a map of India and then finally disappear.

There are a couple “blank” spots above the center of vision where the nerves, deprived of blood by the break, died. They won’t come back unless time reverses itself. Getting old ain’t for sissies.

Boy you got that right ""ain't for sissies" stuff. Only 'golden' is my savings going into someone. elses sail boat. Sorry to hear about your permanent damage in your left eye. Sucks.

Happy thanksgiving all. Hope your day was full of great food and thankfulness. I got to spend it with my 86 year old mom and my oldest sister and TON'S of food.