Tikka T3 Lite vs. Winchester 70 Featherlite?

I've never touched a Winchester other than my buddy's Model 70. His was an older one in 308. The one difference, and I'm not sure if it applies to newer Winchesters, was the smoothness of the action. My Tikka T3 is waaaaaaay smoother. But, the action on newer Model 70s might be a lit smoother now.

Everyone gets excited about controlled round feed; I don't hang upside down from trees to load my gun. At least not yet.

A word of advice, if you go with the Tikka, it only has one action length (long). So since you have to pull the bolt all the way back, you might as well be loading a 30-06 over a 308 IMHO. Get a recoil pad. Mine is a 300 wm and I never notice the recoil when I'm shooting at game, I sometimes notice it at the range. Just my 2 cents.

Winny fans start piling on..
 
I have both, hands down go with M70.
Tikkas are accurate, but if you get one that isnt (I did) it is not worth the grief in trying everything ($$$$$) to make it accurate.
 
I've had 3 of the new FN M70's. One featherweight and two extreme weather. The featherweight wouldn't feed properly and the area to depress the bolt release wasn't inlet properly and it was virtually impossible to remove the bolt. The first extreme weather I had had a 1/8" wide circle of tooling marks 1/2" from the muzzle and a fault in the chamber (more tooling marks) that resulted in fired brass having spiral shaped protrusions on the brass. It also had a large gauge on the conned breech. The EW I have now is perfect but I'm 1/3 on the new and improved FN m70's.

I've had 3 T3 lites (243, 338 wm and a 6.5x55). No longer have the 243 or the 338 wm but they shot lights out and were perfect right out of the box. The 6.5x55 is flawless and accurate, again, nothing I had to do with it.

ALBERTA BOY said:
....one is clearly superior.

Advantages to a M70:

Beautfiul wood finish (FW)
Higher quality polished bluing
wonderful trigger - better feeling than even the Tikka. It's an amazing design
best safety in the business - complete disengagement
controlled round feed
conical breech face
Twist disassemble bolt - easy maintenance
no plastic parts!
Fixed ejector
Massive mauser style extractor which holds more than 1/3 of the rim of the cartridge
3 position safety
Pachemayer decelerator standard
No need to remove magazine to load rounds (solid top receiver on t3 makes this necessary)
Integrated steel recoil lug (T3 has aluminum)
Shot and Long action receivers (T3 has one size fits all)

Advantages to the T3:

Plastic is lighter, I guess.
70 degree bolt lift
better for road hunting because of dbm
umm....maybe....nope. Can't think of anything else.
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A few things to be said here imo:

-how pretty something looks has nothing to do with superiority as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
-there is nothing high quality about the polished blueing on the fw. Supergrade yes, fw no.
-the m70 trigger is not superior to the t3 trigger. If it was, people wouldn't want the old one back.
-please explain why crf is important in anything other than a DG rifle. Tikkas feed upside down and have single stack magazines.
-my glock has lots of plastic and my sig doesn't. My glock keeps going when my sig won't anymore.
-solid top receiver means a more rigid action and having dropped my share of ammo when it's -30C and my fingers are numb while dropping the hinged floor plate a magazine doesn't sound all that bad tbh.

The t3 also has a 1moa accuracy guarantee from the factory. M70's don't, if winchester tested all their guns like tikka does and had the same quality control the two lemons I got wouldn't leave the factory and they could guarantee moa accuracy like the tikka. But since winchester makes way more guns than tikka does it isn't going to happen.

The barrels on the t3's are excellent, perfect crowns and the bore is smooth. The machining on the receiver is perfect. My EW that cost almost twice as much and has burrs, etc on the receiver.

For the money the t3 is the way to go. It's light and accurate. At ~$200 more for the featherweight (nothing featherweight about it, it's heavy and the stock feels like a 2x4) it's not worth the money imo.

I most certainly like my extreme weather but it costs almost twice as much as a t3.
 
Actually the m70 does offer a 1 moa guarantee. I'm on my phone now but can look it up later.

The rest: well everyone's got an opinion. I find yours disjointed from reality but I'm sure you feel the same way about mine.
 
Actually the m70 does not have a moa guarantee. Disjointed from reality indeed.


ALBERTA BOY said:
Actually the m70 does offer a 1 moa guarantee. I'm on my phone now but can look it up later.

The rest: well everyone's got an opinion. I find yours disjointed from reality but I'm sure you feel the same way about mine.
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kman300 said:
Actually the m70 does not have a moa guarantee. Disjointed from reality indeed.
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:rolleyes:

"Guaranteed Accuracy
Do the rifles come with an accuracy guarantee? Yes. In its promotional material Winchester says, "you can expect 1 MOA accuracy for three-shot groups from your Model 70 using a properly managed barrel, quality match ammo and superior optics under ideal weather and range conditions."

My experience shooting the Model 70 with a variety of factory ammo at targets out past 300 yards indicates that shooters can expect top-notch accuracy.
"

Outdoor life magazine.
 
:rolleyes: Well if outdoor life said so...

Winchester, you know, the guys that make the guns say they don't offer an accuracy guarantee.

ALBERTA BOY said:
:rolleyes:

"Guaranteed Accuracy
Do the rifles come with an accuracy guarantee? Yes. In its promotional material Winchester says, "you can expect 1 MOA accuracy for three-shot groups from your Model 70 using a properly managed barrel, quality match ammo and superior optics under ideal weather and range conditions."

My experience shooting the Model 70 with a variety of factory ammo at targets out past 300 yards indicates that shooters can expect top-notch accuracy.
"

Outdoor life magazine.
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If it doesn't shoot and inch, they will accept it for warranty work. I've never seen one that wouldn't shoot and inch, however.

No matter how you slice it, it's a better rifle. Better materials, more features.

The t3 is designed from the ground up to be cheap to produce. Solid top barstock one size receiver, plastic, aluminum lug, 2 stage safety, etc.

I admit that the qc is very good. That's what the reputation is built on.

In terms of features and design, it's closer to a savage axis than a rifle in its price range.
 
WASNTME said:
Everyone gets excited about controlled round feed; I don't hang upside down from trees to load my gun. At least not yet.
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Some guys get excited about CRF, some guys get excited about a 'waaaaaaay smoother' bolt...;) I like a well used M70 for both CRF and smooth function. But, what matters to me, may mean nothing to someone else. :)
 
I have a couple of the new FN M70's one FWT and a Super Grade. Both shoot good and I have had no problems with them whatsoever. The quality is great IMO on both. My father in law has a Tikka T3 Lite .223 and that thing is a laser beam on coyotes, he loves it. I think both are great guns, its just what tickles your fancy when it comes to making a choice. You can't go wrong with either...
 
kman300 said:
:rolleyes: Well if outdoor life said so...

Winchester, you know, the guys that make the guns say they don't offer an accuracy guarantee.
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If you look at the winchester catalogue there is a very clear picture that says 3 shot moa accuracy guarantee. But I guess someone like you would already know that. Fn is making the model 70 btw.
If I wasn't on my phone I would post the picture I am talking about.
 
hometownhero said:
If you look at the winchester catalogue there is a very clear picture that says 3 shot moa accuracy guarantee. But I guess someone like you would already know that. Fn is making the model 70 btw.
If I wasn't on my phone I would post the picture I am talking about.
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I am not aware of any Model 70's featherweights being shown on the FN website. Please feel free to link the page. If you are referring to the fact that FN makes the rifles, we all know that and I already stated in post #23 that I had 3 of the new FN M70s.

There is NO mention of a 3 shot MOA guarantee in the Manual that came with my M70 EW (which is FN made), there is NO mention of a 3 shot MOA guarantee on the winchester website. Lots of talk about a MOA trigger though, nothing guaranteeing any kind of accuracy though. If you are referring to page 3 in the 2012 catalogue (or page 5 if you are looking at the pdf version available for download on the winchester website), it has a picture of a X with 3 holes in it stating: You can expect 1 MOA ACCURACY for
three-shot groups from your Model 70® using premium ammo and quality optics under suitable weather and range conditions. They are very careful not to guarantee anything and imho they are missleading people with the MOA trigger babble and statements like the one above. They don't guarantee anything.

Someone like me does indeed know these things because I can read. Can't say the same about you.

ALBERTA BOY said:
If it doesn't shoot and inch, they will accept it for warranty work. I've never seen one that wouldn't shoot and inch, however.
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Please provide a source for this statement.
 
it has a picture of a X with 3 holes in it stating: You can expect 1 MOA ACCURACY for
three-shot groups from your Model 70® using premium ammo and quality optics under suitable weather and range conditions
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That's called a guarantee. If the product doesn't meet its advertised capabilities, it's a warranty matter. It's simple contract law. I believe it's called "fit for purpose".


All of this is splitting hairs. .9MOA vs .75 MOA? Totally irrelevant in a hunting rifle.

I'm sorry you had 2 lemons. Stuff happens. I've had an incredibly bad run of luck with (now) 7 defective Savage rifles in a row. I recognize that they aren't all like that.

From the little bit of googling I've done, I can't find anyone who is reporting more than 1 MOA with a M70. I also can't find any complaints of the nature you're making.

Funny, that.

The M70 is a wonderful, quality piece which is very accurate, below MOA.

It has better materials, features, and design than the Tikka and as a matter of fact I find the bolt every bit as smooth after a little use.

Sorry that yours were bad. I hope you realize that your experience is an outlier and not normal.
 
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Sask.elk.hunter said:
Used the Winchester for 20 years, then bought the Tikka .338 win. mag. and never looked back.
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20 years? So...a 90s model? I'm guessing not a pre-64?

The current FN produced models have no relation at all to the one you likely used and is not comparable in any way.

Not the same design. Not the same features. Not the same manufacturer or quality standards. All have significantly improved since 2009.
 
I find no actual guarantee from the Winchester site about MOA. Like already stated though it does seem to be a bit misleading with all the talk of the MOA trigger.
 
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