Finally I got my 7mm WSM Stainless Classic M-70. Today was the first day that I got to shoot it and so far it's looking good.

Some of the issues with new M-70's have been function and while this is only one example it works quite well. It even feeds empty cases with no bullet in the case from a full magazine! Fired cases chamber very well indicating that the chamber and bolt must be aligned.

So far I have only fired 10 shots but it shoots well. Somehow I am starting with imr 7828 and there is no published data for this and the 140 gr bullet. I fired 3 shots at 100 yards with 68 grains and it grouped into .896" but this was hand held as I was checking out the recoil. Next 69 gr went into .729" and averaged 2997 fps. The last group with 70 gr made 3047 fps and sent the first two into .522" with the last flying out to 1.915"

I messed up as the scope had come loose in the Weaver mounts and had crept back to stop at the power adjustment ring. I was in a hurry and there was some tape left in the rings. I should have put some new tape in and tightened the rings more.

I don't know what there is not to like about this rifle? The bore is very smooth, much like a match barrel and much smoother than any pre-64 that I have. I have a Wally Siebert bore scope. It just magnifies the throat and does not look direct onto the bore from a right angle. A patch pushes really smooth thru this bore.

There is little to nit pic. I have the trigger adjusted now from it's smooth 7 lbs to a smooth 2.75 lbs. That only takes a minute with a M70.

The safety does not operate as easy I like. It's better than one old M-70 I have with a 290,XXX SN but not as good as others. I have to become a M-70 safety slicker it seems. I refuse to take the two boxes of 150 gr Power Points. All of the exposed lead tips were bent and they were way off!

Good for you, I bought a 300 WSM last year, I shot seven deer with it so far. But since I moved to Alaska from Connecticut 21 days ago. My next outting will be for Carabou and Moose next fall. I'm thinking about a 270 WSM and a 6 x 42mm Leupold for Sheep in the Brooks Range. I think that once you sort out the mounts and such, you will find that the M-70's are a pretty good rifle for the money.

I had given a thought of buying a Leupold VX2 2X7 Matte but there is so little time right now. Better to enjoy the anticipation. Right now there is a VX11 4X12 on it for testing. This scope spoils the balance of the rifle. I will put a old 4X on it in a couple of weeks for hunting here.

The 270 and 7mm WSM's are much the same but the 7mm WSM Mark 11 case that I have is longer to the shoulder than the .300 WSM and may hold a little bit more powder than the 270 version.

I have a friend who wants a 7 WSM very badly. So I'm interested in how yours works out. Keep us , or at least ME informed on how yours works out. I'm mostly interested in real world velocity and accuracy with hunting bullets like partitions or standards. Especially in the 140-160 gr range.

If you can afford the price jump go for the 2.5-8X over the 2-7, a much better/brighter scope. I used the little 2-7's a lot then one 2.5-8 convinced me to make the switch.

Thanks,

FN in MT

[ 10-19-2002, 18:38: Message edited by: Frank Nowakowski ]

Frank,

I think I bought this rifle only because of these forums! For sure I did not need another rifle. The other reason I got it is that my gunsmith retired and I have two rifles now with worn out barrels and they are piling up. I want to find a smith I can drive to and comunicate with face to face and so far I have not.

The bolt face on this rifle is highly polished and it feeds better than my 1962 M-70 in .300 H&H. Honest it does! The only thing that bothers me so far is the safety. I can't let it off with just my thumb with out a noise. But as I said before I have at least one pre 64 that has a safety that is worse in it's operation. I measured the amount the safety pulls the cocking piece back on the new one vrs a old M-70 and the new one pulls it back only 1/2 as much. So it's not the amount of work it's doing. It must be the alignment of the parts, their finish or both.

For sure my cup is at least 1/2 full. I only paid $660 plus tax for this rifle! So far it's excellent just as it is.

I am not going to be the one who will take this rifle to it's limit's velocity and pressure wise. I just don't care if it does such and such velocity. I do care where the first shot hits and that I have enough gun however.

This reminds me that the barrel has been very clean of any powder residue. I looked at the muzzle for a build up of residue checking for a pattern to read the crown and it's clean there also. So far all I have used is imr 7828 and CCI BR primers.

Don, my 300 WSM shoots wonderfully... 3/4" groups (and less) with Hornady and Failsafe 180's. Once I got used to how the WSM feeds ("quick & hard") I've become very fond of it. In fact, it'll probably become my "go-to" rifle for nearly everything here in MT. 180's at 2,900 fps (+) out of a 22" bbl. will certainly do it all.

I sent an M70 338 WM back to USRAC this past week because each cartridge's mouth hang-up at the chamber entrance (belt cut-out) if fed slowly. Not good! My 300 WSM has never done that. I agree with Frank N. as well... I curently have a 2x7 Leupold on top my WSM. I plan to replace it with a 2.5x8 as I think it's the slightly better scope.

Brad

On next trip to the range with this new 7mm WSM it shot 2" groups at 100 yards. I was back again the next day with another scope on it and got the same results so I suspected the bedding and I took the stock off at the range and tried shims under the barrel at the forend and then under the action. Contact with the barrel seemed even at three points. This turned out to be misleading.

So I had to make a decision to send it back or fix it. I do have a Bell & Carlson stock for this rifle but I would require barrel fitting and I like the looks, feel and weight of this Winchester plastic stock. So I filed the barrel contact away with a stock inletting file and put it back on. It made contact now with the left side. More filling and it still contacted the left side. Then it dawned on me that the forend is bent and has tension on that side. All of the groups were horizontal by the way.

But a trip to the range got 1.4" groups so I filled some more but have reached the limit to where it will not look good if I take anymore off. But the last groups were 1 1/8" so there is some hope.

My last effort was to just bend the forend in the vise. It looks even and a .010" paper shim clears all around.

The luck of the draw did not come my way. I saw my buddies Classic Stainless in .338 WM today and it's the same rifle as mine except for the caliber and 26" bbl. It came with the barrel free floating and has never been out of it's stock. It shoots 3/4" groups!

I have had a chronograph since the early 1960's not counting the ballistic pendulum I made in the 50's.

I want one but don't feel someone needs one. At this point the 7mm WSM has little data but my chronograh results seem low compared to what others report. I have five foot screen spacings and measure the spacing before each test. But I have not calibrated my chrongraph and my old one is broken.

You should have bought a real Magnum! My Win model 70 Classic Stainless in 7mm Rem Mag does 3200fps with Hornady 139gr bt's, and 3/4" at 200yds! That right out of the box, no bedding or anything!

[ 10-23-2002, 16:31: Message edited by: GSF1200 ]

I have had 7mm Rem Mags and they are a good size cartridge. I just wanted to try this new 7mm WSM.

I have many rifles that will beat 3/4" at 200 yards and in fact group .000" with a single shot.

So Don,

could you reccomend an m70 classic stainless in a .375 H&H ??

I'm getting 3100fps with Hornady "Light Magnum" 139gr SST in 280 Rem. This is out of a 22" barrel on a M700 Mountain Rifle.

With RL22 and Hdy 139 BT's my 280 safely reached 3,250 fps (22" bbl.). I generally "backed off" and ran them at 3,150 fps. Your 7mm WSM should easily run at 3,300 with 140's. One friend's 7mm RM ran 140 B-Tip's at 3,450.

Brad

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PC:
[QB]So Don,

could you reccomend an m70 classic stainless in a .375 H&H ?
--------------------------------------------------

Yes I would. I like the look of this rifle. This is my first stainless and first plastic stocked rifle. I have had wood stocked blued rifles for a long time. I have no problem with them but with this internet I have got caught up in the fashion of the moment.

A friend who has been to Africa twice buy's all of these big guns. He seems to have a new one very month. When I meet him at the range I get to try the stuff out if I want. His favorite rifle of them all is a M70 Classic in .375 H&H. This is a blued rifle that came with a wood stock and he bought a new plastic stock from Winchester and put it on the blued rifle. He now has a few of the Stainless Classics also and I mentioned, a .338 WM with a 26" bbl in another thread.

I just looked at my 7mm WSM to see if the forend that I bent has a memory or not and if it's even or not on it's clearance. It seems stable and it is the same as when I bent it. So I seem to have solved all of the problems but I still don't know if this rifle will be really accurate or not.

Something that I had not mentioned is that the rear guard screw which goes into a now blind hole in the tang was too long and the trigger guard while tight was not as tight as I like it. Also the middle guard screw was not threaded long enough and would not tighten that end of the guard at all. I had to cut the threads deeper on that screw and chase those on the rear screw. This is the only DIY that might be a little harder to do as not many have a 1/4-32 die.

I still have not slicked the safety but it's functional.

"Don't think so! That case isn't much bigger than a .280 case."

GSF, you should stick to what you know... from what I've observed on this board that's not much.

[ 10-24-2002, 19:05: Message edited by: Brad ]

OOPS!

[ 10-24-2002, 16:44: Message edited by: wildcat junkie ]

OOPS! Again!

[ 10-24-2002, 16:48: Message edited by: wildcat junkie ]

Sorry for the repeat posts

Loading data at www.shortmags.org

Wildcat, Sorry to hear about that horse!

The 280 is a pretty interesting round... those 139 Hdy. BT's really scream. When I got those sort of velocities with Rl22 in my 280 I scratched my head and backed-off the load a bit even though there were no excessive pressure signs. Later I was talking to Dave Gentry (our local smith) and he told me he gets similar velocities in his 280 (22" bbl). Again, he uses RL22. It's been several years since I loaded for the 280 and don't have my data handy, but I'm sure something in the 59-60 gr. category would be a good place to start with the 139 Hdy. Check your load manual's first though!

What town in "upstate" are you in/near?

Brad

[ 10-24-2002, 19:12: Message edited by: Brad ]

Don - .000" with a single shot, now THAT'S funny. - LOL - Dan

[ 10-24-2002, 21:05: Message edited by: dan belisle ]

I've said it once, I've said it twice, and a few other times,
so I'll say it again:
Give us a 6.5 WSM and I'll be in line.

Got better groups today. The change came from a tip from Jack Belk who mentioned that sometimes the magazine box is too high and it was! I found that the front of the trigger guard was bottoming on it and not the stock. So I filed some off and got two nice three shot groups at 100 yards. One was .23" and the other .53"! And this is with a full power load giving 3185 fps instrumental which puts it close to the factory load claims. This is a maximum load of RL-22 with the 140 gr Sierra SBT.

The bore of this rifle remains very smooth and it does not require cleaning. I never bothered with the break in proceedure that is popular now. But I do clean it with Hoppes 9 and a brass brush afterwards.

[ 10-27-2002, 18:10: Message edited by: Don Martin29 ]

Don, thanks for the info on the magazine box. I guess I should check my Model 70, but it shot so well out of the box, I never touched it.

More success. Today I shot a three shot group at 100 yds from this 7mm WSM with 150 Sierra MK's using a full load of 7828 and got a .35" group then the 160 Sierra SBT's shot three into .6" with the same powder.

This rifle has earned the right to go hunting.

[ 10-28-2002, 22:59: Message edited by: Don Martin29 ]

Hey 500 grains!

What's up? Truck won't start?

GSF1200,
hahahahahhaaaaa, I like that.

Don't think so! That case isn't much bigger than a .280 case

.280 Remington (R-P): 68.6 grains
7mm WSM (W-W): 83.0 grains

that's about a 21% gain.