Hi,

I visited cchunter's excellent Scandinavian Big Bore Meeting the other week here in Sweden and participated in the shooting competition which comprised of aimed fire at different African targets under a time limit. It was basically 3 shots at 3 different plains game, plus 2 shots at buffalo, plus another 2 shots at buffalo, and then 3 shots at a lion.

Since I got my Remington 700 (458 Win Mag) almost 3 years ago it has given me feeding problems with all handloaded ammo I've put thru it except Woodleigh PP 400. I guess the Woodleighs work due to their pointy tip.

During the event I was using Speer FN 350 which I actually knew would give me a head ache, and they did. Not so much as I would have expected, but I had one incident when the rifle just jammed completely and manual intervention was needed. When I've examined the feeding cycle I've noticed that the tip of the bullet simply gets shoved into the front of the magazine, and never "pops out/up".

Instead of taking the gun to a gunsmith and having the problem fixed (this must have happened to others(?) as this is a pretty high volume rifle), I acted on the feeding problems combined with my belief that the 458 is a bit too much for my needs, and started looking for a 375 H&H.

The other day I found what I was looking for: a new Winchester 70 Classic Stainless. I really got more and more fond of it as I was "caressing" it in the store. It has the "hockey puck" recoil pad, but I've already ordered a pre-fit Pachmayr from Midway which I've read a lot of good stuff about here.

I picked up Norma brass, Hornady FP 220's, Hornady RN 300's, and Norma Oryx 300's to get me started. As soon as I get the gun I will of course do a break-in before putting it thru its paces at the range. I really hope it will give me good groups as well as great service over the years to come, and great FEEDING!!!

I might be childish, but I just LOVE rifles!

Aren't new toys grand! Congratulations!

Good luck with the .375 -- mine (a Mark X) should arrive tomorrow!

The 458 is too much for me too......and the 416 or .375 makes a lot more sense to me as well.....just have a ball and shoot as much as it takes to get good and develope confidence in the gun and your abilities.

Rikard..
Congratulation with a great rifle and caliber.
If the stock pattern on the Stainless is the same as the Safari Classic, you are in for a big surprice.
My M70 SC with the Decelerator pad is as easy on the shoulder as an 30-06, or as least it feels that way
I have put lots of bullets through mine, both lightweight and heavy, and not a single feeding problem so far.

A great hunting rifle and a great cartridge !

Thanks for your kind words, guys.

Arild: I do believe that the Safari Classic is a tad heavier than the stainless, but I'm not 100% sure.

Good luck on your new gun!
I have the same .375 in Stainless Classic and synthetic stock, I have a 2.5-8 Leupold on it and really love this gun. It is fairly light for a .375 ( I think right out of the box 7.5 pounds with no scope or mounts) but the stock seems to suck up a little of the recoil. I can't take a steady diet of bench shooting it but I love to offhand shoot it!
Mine shoots Federal Classic 270 grain factory shells in 1" groups at 100 yards which I was real happy with for something to just shoot through it.
Good luck and have fun!
Are you fixing or selling the .458?

I already got rid of the 458. Some other sucker will have to fiddle with it

I'll also put a Leupold 2.5-8x36 Vari-X III on the 375 as I've been very satisfied with this scope on the 458.

I've never enjoyed lengthy bench sessions with any of the 340, 358 Norma, or 458 without a sissy bag, and I assume it will come to good use with the 375 too.

That is a good scope choice for that rifle, IMHO. If you have any mechanical ability you should be able to replace the recoil pad and adjust the trigger yourself and be good to go.

You will love the .375. I have both the M70 Stainless Classic and the Safari Express. They are setup with Leupold QR mounts and 1.75-6x Leupold scopes. The Safari Express is a bit heavier (especially after Mark Penrod's pillar bedding job) and is more pleasant to shoot from the bench, the Stainless Classic is a bit more lively. The Express comes standard with a Decelerator pad which is a vast improvement over the pad on the Stainless Classic which is hard as a brick. I intend to replace the pad but haven't gotten around to it. Either gun is a joy to shoot offhand or from sticks and the Express is not problem at all from the bench however I like a Past recoil shield when shooting the Stainless Classic off the bench as it does have a little bite. Good luck with your new rifle.

Andy

Glad you found a Win M70 Classic Stainless in 375 H&H, I too was lucky enough to get one. I've heard a few mentions about the factory recoil pad being hard and the suggestion that the Pachmayr pad would really help. But didn't know it was "pre-fit". Does that mean its is a screw on replacement and does NOT need any "fitting", ie filing/rasping/grinding etc.
If that is the case would you mind sharing the Midway Item # and the Pachmayr part number? Thanks HL

I believe that the part no. is 297164, at least on the Swedish Midway site that I ordered from (I assume all Midway sites share the same order system, hence, the part no. should(?) be the same).

I hope it will fit, and that I've bought a post-1999 model Winchester

Have you considered a Limb Saver recoil pad? I bought one and it cuts recoil substantially over the stock version. It's a simple screw-on pre-fit and looks great on my .375 Classic Stainless.

I installed the pre-fit Decelerator last night and it took about one minute. Removed the two screws holding the original recoil pad, put the Pachmayr on, and fastened it with the two attached screws.

Reasonably snug fit and a softer and thicker pad than the original hockey puck.

Tried a few rounds of Hornady RN 300 yesterday during break-in, and I have to say that inspite of the pretty low weight of the rifle, the recoil is surprisingly mild. I like this gun!!!

I installed the Leupold in a Leupold QR mount. Seems to work very well, and the mount is fairly low.

Tried the setup yesterday shooting groups for the first time. The accuracy of this rifle is more than I had hoped for. I tried 3 different loads each for Hornady RN 300 and Norma Oryx 300. 3-shot groups were all around or just above an inch at 100 meters (110 yds). One group measured a mere 16 mm (0.6").

I seriously love how this gun handles and I'm really impressed with how the Decelerator pad eats up recoil!

quote:

Originally posted by ScottW:
Have you considered a Limb Saver recoil pad? I bought one and it cuts recoil substantially over the stock version. It's a simple screw-on pre-fit and looks great on my .375 Classic Stainless.

+1 on Limb Saver. I've owned Decelerators but LS just works better.Rikard, from your pic, it looks like Alaska.

Where can I get a front rest like that?

quote:

Originally posted by Pegleg:
Where can I get a front rest like that?

Special order.