Whoops, sorry I didn't mean to misrepresent. The target was shot at 100 yards, not 200 yards.
New Winchester Model 70 followed me home: Third range report.
- Thread starter pharaoh2
- Start date
Whoops, sorry I didn't mean to misrepresent. The target was shot at 100 yards, not 200 yards.
I did it, I finally did it, I found a short action Featherweight in .308 Win. And to make it even better, I found it cheaper than the long action ones I had checked before! I can't wait for the weekend to go to the shooting range. If it is as accurate as I think it'll be, this is going to be one of my favorite rifles.
Nice go! I want one of those as well, though not because I'm expecting to experience any gaps that my .270 can't fill. I just kinda want a .308. And the Featherweight looks like the rifle to do it with... but I might be a little biased, what with owning an M70 sporter and all...
Whoops, sorry I didn't mean to misrepresent. The target was shot at 100 yards, not 200 yards.
Still a great group for a hunting rig!
I finally got a chance to try my new .308 Win yesterday, and I think I experienced the same think pharaoh2 did with the bore getting dirty. My impression is that this rifle has a very rough bore. I mean, I can fire 20 rounds of 180 Barnes TSX from my Weatherby MK-V, at 3,300 fps, and still don't get as much fowling as I got with only 5 rounds of 150 Winchester Power Points at about 2,850 fps in this rifle.
I had taken all my cleaning stuff to the range, because I was planning on breaking in the barrel, cleaning up after every shot for the first 10 and so on. But I was just amazed at how much copper the Barnes CR10 was cleaning out after just one shot. The patches were coming out fairly blue. After the first 5 shots, and well over 1 hour rubbing the bore, I just gave up with the break in of the barrel.
After I stopped cleaning, I fired about 8 rounds at 50M, 150gr Win PP, and got about 6 of those rounds within little less than 3/4”, through 2 holes. I then switched ammo to 150gr Win Power Max Bonded and fired another 4 shots at 50m and got a 1.5” group.
By now I was confident I had the scope fairly centered, so I did a quick bore clean and moved back to 100M. My first 3 shots gave me a group of a bit over 1.5”, but then the next 3 opened it up to 4”. Every time I cleaned, the groups tightened, but after 3 rounds they would open up again. At the range I was never able to get clean patches out of the bore; they always came out with some blue on them.
I have now cleaned the begeezers out of the bore, and polished the heck out of it with JB bore cleaner and Bore Bright. I hope I can make it to the range next weekend and see if it made any difference. In the meantime, I’m ordering a set of dies this week, so that I can try my own reloads. I’m sure I’ll be able to do better than Winchester’s cheapo stuff.
One more thing, about the trigger; mine came adjusted at about 3.6lb. It felt light years better than most factory triggers, but still a bit too heavy for me, so I had to play with it. The adjusting screw does come out all the way, you just have to overcome some red glue they put on it from the inside before it happens. Pulling the screw completely out lowered the trigger pull, according to my RCBS scale, by a huge 8oz… I was a bit disappointed! I like my triggers at 2.5lb and this one won’t come under 3lb. But hey, it is still better than most factory triggers I’ve tried, and it feels crisp, indeed.
I had taken all my cleaning stuff to the range, because I was planning on breaking in the barrel, cleaning up after every shot for the first 10 and so on. But I was just amazed at how much copper the Barnes CR10 was cleaning out after just one shot. The patches were coming out fairly blue. After the first 5 shots, and well over 1 hour rubbing the bore, I just gave up with the break in of the barrel.
After I stopped cleaning, I fired about 8 rounds at 50M, 150gr Win PP, and got about 6 of those rounds within little less than 3/4”, through 2 holes. I then switched ammo to 150gr Win Power Max Bonded and fired another 4 shots at 50m and got a 1.5” group.
By now I was confident I had the scope fairly centered, so I did a quick bore clean and moved back to 100M. My first 3 shots gave me a group of a bit over 1.5”, but then the next 3 opened it up to 4”. Every time I cleaned, the groups tightened, but after 3 rounds they would open up again. At the range I was never able to get clean patches out of the bore; they always came out with some blue on them.
I have now cleaned the begeezers out of the bore, and polished the heck out of it with JB bore cleaner and Bore Bright. I hope I can make it to the range next weekend and see if it made any difference. In the meantime, I’m ordering a set of dies this week, so that I can try my own reloads. I’m sure I’ll be able to do better than Winchester’s cheapo stuff.
One more thing, about the trigger; mine came adjusted at about 3.6lb. It felt light years better than most factory triggers, but still a bit too heavy for me, so I had to play with it. The adjusting screw does come out all the way, you just have to overcome some red glue they put on it from the inside before it happens. Pulling the screw completely out lowered the trigger pull, according to my RCBS scale, by a huge 8oz… I was a bit disappointed! I like my triggers at 2.5lb and this one won’t come under 3lb. But hey, it is still better than most factory triggers I’ve tried, and it feels crisp, indeed.
Thanks roadkill7205. I almost got myself one in .270 Win, too, it is such a nice looking rifle I had a hard time walking away from it. But I had my mind set on a short/light rifle, and the long action one didn't feel remarkably lighter than my Weatherby MK-V, so I passed on it. The short action .308 on the other hand feels lighter, even when compared to the .270, so I'm happy with it. Although it does not weight 6.5 lb as Winchester says, mine is 7 lbs, which leads me to believe the long action .270 I checked was probably about 7.5 lbs heavy. That is close to my MK-V's weight of 8 lbs. I just hope I can get it to shoot now, because that bore is really rough.
Gun Lover, great write up. I hope you get your straightened out. I took mine to therange Yesterday for awhile just so my friend could try it out. He never fired a rifle that big so it was kind of a fun day, just playing around. My bore is dirty, and the rifle has now been hunted with. I never tried for groups but just fooling around was putting my shots in about 2 inches at 100 yards. This rifle simply will not be a tack driving rail gun, and I'm ok with that. And that's not what I bought it for. I'm getting plenty good accuracy out of her just the way she is, shooting a couple different types of factory ammo. I will say this, this rifle is a joy to carry afield. I admit I spent more time admiring the colour and grain then I did about calling critters. On a sling, it rides comfortably but more often then not it was in my hand. The rifle balances well and even for it's weight still feels plenty feathery hiking along trails for a few hours. How about one more photo, away from the house or the range? 
I'm having the same issue when trying to clean out my bore. I was wondering if I was doing something wrong. I have that really basic Hoppe's cleaning kit and a bottle of Butch's Bore Shine, but I can't seem to get the patch to come out white. Should I just keep going for an hour, then?
Whups. I guess I should have read all the way down before replying to the above post. Maybe I'll give the Tubb stuff a try. Do I use it as the follow-up to a bore cleaning, or do I use it instead of the other solvents?
For that matter, should I use the Hoppe's and the Butch's solvents one after the other? When I went and bought the Butch's stuff, I stopped using the general solvent that came with my cleaning kit...
Here's hoping...
This rifle simply will not be a tack driving rail gun, and I'm ok with that. How about one more photo, away from the house or the range?
I feel the same way about mine. Once I get it cleaned up properly, so long as it can hit minute-of-deer, that's all I care about.
And as far as I'm concerned, you can post as many pix of that pretty rifle as you want.
roadkill7205, I still have a bottle of Hoppe's No.9 Benchrest I bought ages ago, because I just don't use it anymore; I stopped using it the day I discovered Barnes CR10. I've never tried Butch's Bore Shine, so I can't really comment on it, but I've read it's supposed to be good.
I just used CR10 and house cleaning ammonia on mine until the patches came out clean, which took quite a long time. I then cleaned the bore with J-B Bore Cleaner and polished with J-B Bore Shine. I have no idea if that will make any difference, but it has on other guns I've tried it on.
Oh, and I don't really need mine to be a tack driver, I've been shooting my deers from a stand at 50M for years now, and that is not about to change. But this is a very nice rifle and I think it can do better than it's actually doing right now. I mean, if I can get it to shoot 1.5" groups at 100M with any degree of consistency, I'll be quite happy. I use my .300 Wby for longer distances, and that one can give me 1/2" groups at 100M, if I do my part. So I don't really need this .308 to shoot that good.
By the way, I took the barrel and action off the stock and discovered that half of the rear bedding surface was missing. It looks like the epoxy cracked and lost the left side, but they just let it go like that. Maybe that was causing the wandering shots. Anyways, I put some extra JB Weld in and have it curing in the basement at this moment. We'll see what it will do this weekend.
I just used CR10 and house cleaning ammonia on mine until the patches came out clean, which took quite a long time. I then cleaned the bore with J-B Bore Cleaner and polished with J-B Bore Shine. I have no idea if that will make any difference, but it has on other guns I've tried it on.
Oh, and I don't really need mine to be a tack driver, I've been shooting my deers from a stand at 50M for years now, and that is not about to change. But this is a very nice rifle and I think it can do better than it's actually doing right now. I mean, if I can get it to shoot 1.5" groups at 100M with any degree of consistency, I'll be quite happy. I use my .300 Wby for longer distances, and that one can give me 1/2" groups at 100M, if I do my part. So I don't really need this .308 to shoot that good.
By the way, I took the barrel and action off the stock and discovered that half of the rear bedding surface was missing. It looks like the epoxy cracked and lost the left side, but they just let it go like that. Maybe that was causing the wandering shots. Anyways, I put some extra JB Weld in and have it curing in the basement at this moment. We'll see what it will do this weekend.
I'll ask around about the J-B stuff. If it works, why not use it, right?
I'm frankly shocked that Winchester left your rifle leave the factory in that condition. Now I almost feel like checking mine, though honestly, I've never taken a rifle apart, s I'd rather take it in to a smith...
