Winchester Pre/64 Mod. 70

[NAA]

Picked up a nice 1954 vintage Model 70 in .300 H&H recently. I cant wait to get it home and install the Leupold on it.

Geoff in Victoria

I've personally seen & handled this one & she's a beauty! Had lots of opportunity to pick it up for myself... Falls into the "if you snooze, you lose category". But she's gone to a great home & to someone who can appreciate her.

 

[Bowie]

Am I hearing suggestions that the "new" Japanese-made model 70 will be a better action/rifle than the American made M70's.

Why do you think that is/will be?

Miroku consistently shows better fit and finish than
anything Winchester had built in the last 50 years.

 

[Rod]

I agree with everything you say except stock design. The older ones are basically useless when it comes to scope mounting.

I have scopes on some of my pre-64's and they work great. Have both the high comb and low comb stocks, both with scopes on. I prefer the low comb stocks from the early 1950's. The high combs work okay too and are a little bit lighter as they are slimmer in the fore-end. My scopes are as low to the receiver as possible. The pre-war I have is not scope friendly because the rear of the receiver is not drilled; they used to use the left rear receiver site holes for a side mount. Got the riggings for it but I don't hunt with it. If the rear of the receiver is drilled, on these pre-wars, the resale goes to shooter value and not collector value.

I used a 1978 M70 for a few seasons as I was afraid to damage the pre-64's,
but I did not like that gun. The stock was to thin at the butt and I didn't care for the push feed as well as other reasons. I sold the sucker and bought a pre-64 shooter. Life is good.

 

[Rod]

Picked up a nice 1954 vintage Model 70 in .300 H&H recently. I cant wait to get it home and install the Leupold on it. Only other Pre-64 M70 I had was a 1947 made .270WCF with Griffin&Howe side-mounted Lyman Alaskan (post+crosshair) scope. Sold it about 15 years ago for $800, was a heavy beast.
Geoff in Victoria

Have owned a 1953, 300 H&H, M70 for quite some time. It is my favourite
hunting rifle. The 300 H&H is one great cartridge; the long tappered case feeds through the action like hot knife through butter and easy to extract as well. The long case neck gives good stability for 110, 130 gr bullets as well as 200, 220 gr bullets. 74 gr. of 4350 pushes a 150 gr. @ 3400 fps.
The 300 H&H works especially well with the heavy bullets, 200 and 220 gr.
and is one of the most powder efficient magnums. I find with handloading it will out perform the 300 Win. The 26" barrel helps too.