While I like Dave and think he has great insight and taste in rifles I've got a beef. Even though he is a left hand shot.
While thumbing through Field & Stream on the news stand the other day I scanned his latest article. In it he extols the virtues of the new FN Model 70 as being the greatest production Model 70 EVER produced under the Winchester trade mark. OK. Then he goes on to pout about no lefty in this new wonder. Understandable. Then the crap. He opines the fact that when left handed versions were produced between the mid 90's and early 2000's they were nothing but inaccurate junk. Siting one example of such a rifle that couldn't keep three shots inside the lid of a 45 gallon drum or some such nonsense.
Having owned more than a few of these left handed pieces of junk. I have some idea of what they can do. We will not go into the fact that they function outside of accuracy better than any other rifle I've worked with. We'll stick with accuracy. In the last few months I've picked up three of them, so last night I grabbed one of them (a 30-06) out of the safe. I reset and lapped the rings and then mounted a Leupold 6X36 scope (another apparent detriment to good shooting). Then I grabbed three different bullet weights from my collection, a pound of H4350 and Virgin R-P brass that had been trimmed to the same length, referenced a few manuals and past load data from other 06's and loaded 150gr TSX's, 156gr Remington bulk PSP's, and 180gr Nosler BT's. I seated the bullets deep for easy function and went to the range.
While I realize these groups are ho hum by internet standards, realize that NO seating depth monkeying was done, No adjusting powder charges were attempted etc. It is better than minute of drum. Here are the results and they are FAR from uncommon.
While thumbing through Field & Stream on the news stand the other day I scanned his latest article. In it he extols the virtues of the new FN Model 70 as being the greatest production Model 70 EVER produced under the Winchester trade mark. OK. Then he goes on to pout about no lefty in this new wonder. Understandable. Then the crap. He opines the fact that when left handed versions were produced between the mid 90's and early 2000's they were nothing but inaccurate junk. Siting one example of such a rifle that couldn't keep three shots inside the lid of a 45 gallon drum or some such nonsense.
Having owned more than a few of these left handed pieces of junk. I have some idea of what they can do. We will not go into the fact that they function outside of accuracy better than any other rifle I've worked with. We'll stick with accuracy. In the last few months I've picked up three of them, so last night I grabbed one of them (a 30-06) out of the safe. I reset and lapped the rings and then mounted a Leupold 6X36 scope (another apparent detriment to good shooting). Then I grabbed three different bullet weights from my collection, a pound of H4350 and Virgin R-P brass that had been trimmed to the same length, referenced a few manuals and past load data from other 06's and loaded 150gr TSX's, 156gr Remington bulk PSP's, and 180gr Nosler BT's. I seated the bullets deep for easy function and went to the range.
While I realize these groups are ho hum by internet standards, realize that NO seating depth monkeying was done, No adjusting powder charges were attempted etc. It is better than minute of drum. Here are the results and they are FAR from uncommon.
