I purchased one of the FN manufactured Model 70's in Super Grade from CDNN last week. They were having a sale and the price was right.

Initial inspection suggested it was better built than the old model 70's. The rifle has nice walnut and checkering. Both bolt lugs were lapped an making good contact with he receiver. The single piece steel bottom metal is excellent and the fit & finish were definitely "supergrade".

I took it to the range today to break it in and I was surprised at how smooth the internal finish on the hammer forged barrel was. The gun settled down and shot nice groups after 3 shots. It is not affected by barrel heating after multiple shots.

USRA guarantees the rifle to be better than 1 MOA. Last 5 shots was 0.7" (center to center)group at 100 yds. It liked the Hornady 165 SST and H 4350 loaded to 2850 fps average velocity.

I'm happy with the rifle. I have heard others say these may be the best model 70's ever and I agree!

quote:

I have heard others say these may be the best model 70's ever and I agree!

That was my opinion as well.....thanks for the report!

I am up to 4 of these and all have been perfect so far. I would not take a pre 64 at half price over one of these.

I have a SC FN Super Grade in .300 Win Mag. Nicest M70 I have ever seen, much nicer than any of the pre-64s ever were. More like an early Dakota than a Winchester.

And almost as good as the Kimber 89 Supergrade

kidding aside, it used to take a lot of work to get "factory" rifles to shoot this well. Those of us that love to shoot and like nice affordable rifles are very fortunate these days. I've been impressed with both Winchester and Savage lately. They shoot just as well as custom rifles of a few years ago.

My 300 WM FN super grade is a tack driver with factory ammo. Even my gunsmith was impressed with the rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by Ammoloader:
..... I've been impressed with both Winchester and Savage lately. They shoot just as well as custom rifles of a few years ago.

They shoot better than some of the high priced custom P64-Krieger barreled rifles of today.

I have an older model 70 winchester in the super grade, CRF configuration. It is chambered in 300 WSM.
I bought it used from a friend with the scope already mounted somewhere around 2003. He gave me a box of ammo loaded with 150 gr. Sierra spitzers. Since I shot the original 20 and they worked so good. I loaded 20 more. IIRC,I've shot 26 times at deer, hogs and turkey with it. All were DRT. Shoots the 150 gr sierra spitzers under an inch at 100 yds.
Beautiful wood, flawless fit and finish. What's not to like.
GWB

Nice to hear that they've got it right .

Thanks very much for your report. Very glad to hear that the New, New, New Model 70's,(FN) are coming out as a quality rifle. Guess I will have to take a long look at one of them in the near future.

Questions for you SC M70 owners:

Do the SC manufactured M70s fit "drop-in" stocks made for pre-SC M70s??? Or are there differences in the outside foot print of the two versions (e.g. tang, bottom metal - you name it)??

Will the trigger used in SC M70s cause problems if one attempted to fit a SC M70 to a pre-SC M70 "drop-in" stock??

Can the SC M70 trigger be adjusted for pull weight?? I read an article in "Rifle Magazine" about the SC M70, and it indicated the trigger adjustment screws were covered with some compound to stop adjustment. Can this compound be removed, and the trigger adjusted down in pull weight - if so, how low??

Thanks for your time in advance

- mike

The action is the same but the new bottom metal is one piece with two screws instead of two pieces with 3 screws. If you have the older bottom metal and an extra screw you can fit a new action to an old stock.

I don't think there will be any issue with the new trigger in an older stock. At least nothing that a dremel tool can't fix.

I have not tried to adjust my trigger yet but a friend of mine did his. He scraped the sealant off and adjusted the weight down to about 3.5 lbs then added some more sealer. I think all the sealer does is tell Winchester if you adjusted it. I do not know how low it will go.

I would guess they come set at 4.5 to 5 lbs. It's a bit heavy but breaks clean so it is not nearly as bad as most triggers that weight.

I have three SC SuperGrades and a SC 416 Safari and Ammoloader pretty well nailed it, except that there isn't a hole in the bottom of the receiver for the middle triggerguard screw. The footprint for the action is the same as other post '64 actions of the same length.

On some stocks the front corners of the trigger housing hits...dremel or a wood chisel will cure that.

You can adjust the trigger down to about 3-3.5 pounds but that seems to be about it. Supposedly you can get an aftermarket spring and get it lower but I haven't tried it. To me, three and half pounds is 'bout perfect for a hunting rifle.

Thanks Gents!
- mike

I took the supergrade apart today and adjusted the trigger to 3.5 lbs. It was very easy to do. While it was apart, I noticed the action was glass bedded around the front lug and at the rear action screw. the action fits in the stock quite snugly as it should.

I did find three threaded screw holes in the bottom of this action. So this one would indeed work in an older stock as long as you have two piece bottom metal.....