I have a win m70 feather weight 7x57 that was given to for my first rifle. i have had it for 18 years and got my first deer and elk with it but stopped using it after that first year because of inconstant grouping but always liked the gun. do the win m70's have a long feed throat? i would like to shoot lighter bullets in it what are my options.

I had one, what I did was I got it glass bedded and floated the barrel and did a litte trigger work. It would shoot 140 gr Nosler Partitions fairly well with 50 gr of IMR-4350. It would shoot the 160 gr bullets a bit better but it was always accurate enough to kill ever thing I shot with those 140's a bedding job should do the trick for you

I have the same rifle and had the same problem. I tried every handload in the book to no avail and just about threw in the towel. Some of the guys on this forum told me to try and seat the bullets waaaay out. I did and that fixed the problem. I am shooting 160 gr accubonds at about 2600 FPS with very good results now.

EZ

thanks i will try seating bullet way out first. I was thinking about re barreling it but from what people say about the 7x57 on this site I'm going to try to make it work.

I've got one.. and I love it..

it does have a long throat.. so take advantage of it..

Mine is a tackdriver, regardless of what I load in it..

if you do have a 7 mm Mauser that won't shoot consistently, try a load of 40 grains of 3031.. with any bullet weight from 139 to 175...

velocity will be in the 2600 fps range..and it will be very accurate..

the 7 mm Mauser case just seems to like that charge and powder combo..

I have the same rifle and usually shoot Barnes TSX bullets through it. They are fairly long for their weight and have shot very well for me.

Tim

I 'saved' my (my dad's) M-77 tang safety by giving it 2 treatments of David Tubb's Final Finish fire-lapping. But it also had an internal crack in the stock somewhere fixed and a bedding job along with a pressure point at the fore end added. So, you can't really know what's up until you take it to a gunsmith and do what the others here advised. THat Ruger was a cursed rifle. It has had a myriad of problems, but it felt so nice in hand and came up so well, had a slick action, a good looking rifle and, of course, was a 7X57. THat made it immediately worthy of the work, as it does with your Win-70. Your barrel probably hasn't the problems that my infamous Ruger did, but a Final Finish lapping can help any barrel.

Mine was new in the box when i got at age 12 and i put around 25 rounds though it. But if you know kids i was off to bigger and better things by the next year. After getting my Kimber 325 working the way i wanted it to. It got me thinking about the 7x57. When I stop by Montana for leave on my way to Alaska i will try some of the stuff you all told me to try. thanks all

Do yourself a favor and lose the hang up over light weight bullets.
Try some 175 grain RN bullets like they are the latest most modern thing around. You may find they shoot so well you will forget about the lighter bullets.
I shot a lot of well known 140 grain bullets through my long throated old model Ruger 77 in 7X57 with ordinary results.
I got some Federal 175 RN plain vanilla ammo cheap because no one likes those bullets. I proceeded to shoot some groups with it while burning it up to get the brass. I consistently got groups around 1" for 5 shots. So I quit wasting time on the lighter bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by MT:
I have a win m70 feather weight 7x57 that was given to for my first rifle. i have had it for 18 years and got my first deer and elk with it but stopped using it after that first year because of inconstant grouping but always liked the gun. do the win m70's have a long feed throat? i would like to shoot lighter bullets in it what are my options.

I have one of those rifles and it has become one of my all time favorites. When I got it. accyracy was horrible. ( I bought it second hand BTW) Nothing I tried would shoot worth a damn. I noticed that the barrel copper fouled very quickly and clean up to get rif of it was literally an all day job with Sweet's 7.62 solvent and even with JB Bore paste. One a hunch, I tried another scope although I thought the new leupold I put on the gun should have been OK, being brand new and all. Well, the scope chamge made a big difference bit the fouling still made good groups a problem. So, I got a fire lapping kit and rather than use the recommended 10 shots with each grit, I used 5 shots with cast lead bullets rather than jacketed. I figured that if that didn't do the trick, I could always go to 5 more of each grit. Then I did 10 rounds using JB Bore paste on the lead bullets to finish the procedure. Well, the gun still fouls some but it cleans out easily and accuracy was much better. I took the gun to my gunsmith and had him glass bed the gun, free float the barrel and do a 3 pound trigger job. The gun is now MOA to sub-MOA depending on the load. I won't give any of my loads as they are all well over any manual I've seen but the bullets that have shot th best so far are the Nosler 140 gr. Ballistic Tip, 140 gr. Sierra peo-Hunter and game Kings, and the sadly long discontinued Sierra 170 gr. round nose bullet which will shoot three shot cloverleaf's all day long when I do my part. I've been using W-760 as my powder of choice in the 7x57 and so far I've had no reason to complain.
If I were you, I'd start with a good copper cleaning regimen and check all the screws for tightness. Switch scopes to see if that cures the problem. A trigger job should help some as would the glass bedding and free floating.
FWIW, I had to do the same thing on another M70 Featherweight in .257 Robt. That one was improved as well but not to the degree the 7x57 was.
The most accurate bullet as that 170 gr. Sierra, but they have no plans to bring it back on line. A pox on them for that move. The Hornady's will shoot almost as good so I can always use those if I want.
Paul B.

quote:

WIW, I had to do the same thing on another M70 Featherweight in .257 Robt. That one was improved as well but not to the degree the 7x57 was.
The most accurate bullet as that 170 gr. Sierra, but they have no plans to bring it back on line. A pox on them for that move. The Hornady's will shoot almost as good so I can always use those if I want.

Paul,

two things..

I'd sure love to have one of those Featherweights in 257 Roberts, to go along with my 7 x 57 and 6.5 x 55...

I'll also agree with you on the Sierra 170 grain RN... I loved that bullet.. only have about 3/4 of a box left..

seems we round nose fans, sure are getting out of luck, as all the manufacturers keep canning them for lack of sales..

all these younger guys seem to think they need a spitzer because it will shoot flatter and further.. even tho most hunt in areas that shots are mainly woods ranges..

a good old round nose with a high sectional density was not only accurate, it was also deadly, and negated the real need for some "premium" bullet..

still 99 % of most game is taken in 200 yds or less... 95% within a 100 yds...

but everyone still thinks they need that magnum that will drop a deer at 500 to 100 yds..

I wish these manufacturers would make special runs of their old round nose products.. I am sure there are enough of we old school guys that would probably stock up a life time supply if given the chance..