That Safari Express stock fits me very well, too.

George

I'm just curious. I hear everything about the winchesters won't feed, sights are off-center, sight base screws are crooked, etc., has anyone had any luck with a m70 classic right out of the box recently? I was wondering if anyone had something good to say about them, excluding pre-64 versions?

Sevens

Sevens - I bought a Model 70 416 rem mag safari express recently and am very pleased with it, specifically the fit and finish as well as the feeding. The trigger is heavy and will be adjusted for a lighter pull. The front sight is a bit challenging for me to see so I will put a white or possibly red bead on the front. I too had read the numerous complaints concerning the new model 70's so I really took some time looking over the rifle before purchase; I believe the rifle I (fortunately) bought is a keeper - good luck - KMule

I have two that are excellent one in .458 WM and one in .416 RM both shoot sub moa excellent wood, fit, and finish. But i recently purchased one in .375 to replace my browning A-bolt, unfortunately all the mounting screws are drilled off center bore and the front mounting screws are drilled crooked!! The mounting screws were so crooked that i could not find a scope with enough windage to sight the gun in!! Winchester is sending me a new rifle, they do have excellent customer service, if you need it. I also have heard of similar instances of this happening recently. don't let this scare you off from the m70 it's a great gun, for the money it's an excellent value, compared to some of the other rifles out there.

In the last 10 years I have owned 7 M70's of the new design.
Of these 7 I have not had a single bad experience. I currently own a 1939 custom a 1947 transition custom and a custom SS .375. The 375 has consistently shot 260 gr Nosler Partitons in 1/2" to 1". One 20 shot string (20 consecutive shots with no cooling time except the time taken to refill mag) measured .72". If anything better is required of a hunting rifle I don't know what it is. Over the past 50 yrs I have probably owned 30 M70's and truly don't remember a single problem. I must just be lucky. I probably look at 5 or 10 a week, just looking and don't see the problems that are reported here. I don't hear any of these comments reported by gunsmith friends. Lest you think I speak from
bias my favorite actions are the big Brnos for DG rifles.

I own two and have owned another of the current new versions of the M70. I own an M70 supergrade in 30-06 which is as fine an out of the box rifle as one could buy for under $700. Even the trigger was excellent. The gun will consistently put 5 shots into an inch with most loads.

I owned and sold an awesome supergrade in .338 Win Mag. The wood was unbelievable and the gun was scary accurate. Off the bench the gun was literally better than I could hold. If it weren't for that bitch ex-wife and the divorce I'd still own that gun...never again!

Finally, I own one of the first M70 FWTs. to be made in 300 WSM. It had a feeding problem out of the box and looked like the gemoetry of the receiver was wrong. I called Winchester and they sent me an overnight label and returned the rifle at their expense no questions asked. I kid you not, 10 days later the gun was back in my hands. Winchester replaced the receiver. The gun is an awesome shooter. Again, one of the most consistent MOA or slightly better rifles in my safe with just about any handload or commercial load.

I've got 3 Sakos in my safe that can't outshoot my M70 FWT including a $1,000+ M75 SS in 7mm Rem Mag. And I won't even go into the troubles I've had with Sako customer service in the past. (like 6 months after receiving the gun they admitted they LOST my rifle, and 3 months after they admitted they lost it they basically told me tough luck!) Or Remington's customer service which takes about 3-4 months to fix a problem...

Winchester is a good buy for the $$$ and if its not right they will fix it quickly... That's my experience...

If you want a Model 70, get a pre-64 or else one of the post-1990 Classics that was built before about the G300,000 serial number range. You can tell these apart because they still retain the pre-64 style firing pin stop screw on the left side of the bolt sleeve, and are also built before the LT stock series came out. Much better-built rifles than the current ones.......

The trouble is, a lot of guys expect some sort of out-of-the-box miracle rifle, when in reality they almost always need some tuning or rework to get the most out of them. The Classic needs to have the injection-molded extractor replaced with a true spring-steel aftermarket extractor from Jim Wisner. The open sights are flimsey and should be refastened or better yet, completely replaced, plus the rifle could benefit from a trigger job, a rebedding job, and a stronger magazine catch spring.

The best way to really improve on the Model 70 is to strip it for the action and then send it to a good riflesmith for a custom job...........

AD

All six of mine (CRF) are good. They were all made in '97 or later.

George

I just bought a new classic stainless and am basically satisfied with it. It seems to feed and shoot ok. It suffers the following slight defects:
Trigger needs lightened
Recoil pad hard as a rock
Cartridge follower and spring are a little flimsy
Checkering on plastic stock is sharp and abrasive

I have bought two of the Classic M70's. In 2002 I bought a new SS 7mm WSM. The stock was too low in height or the screws and magazine box were too high as it was bedded on the box. The injection molded stock had a memory to the right so removal of matterial in the barrel channel only made the gap wider. The recoil pad is harder than a ball peen hammer it seems.

The rifle wanted to shoot and with a Bell & Carlson stock it's one of the most accurate rifles of it's type I have ever seen. The barrel and chamber are very smooth. It functioned very well from the start.

Now I have discovered that the chamber is out of round .0015". This is quite a bit to be out of round and it requires all ammo to be FL sized. As of the moment I am keeping it as it shoots so well.

All of this took a few moments to type but long time and a lot of trips to the range and workshop to correct.

Another Classic is a SuperGrade made around the mid 90's in 300 WM. This rifle seems pretty good but I have not shot it much nor looked at it for a while. It has the Boss system and I got it just for the fun of it.

In general the CRF M70's are such a good design that they are worth keeping and fixing what is necessary.

As you can tell, most who have either mod 70's or CZ's will normally do some tweaking on them to get 'em right. I doubt there are too many rifles that come out of the box that are just rights. In my case, my RSM's came out of the box with everything I've ever wanted and absolutely no tweaking necessary to get 'em to shoot accurately. I will get them all pillar and glass bedded in a bit so that I will never over-compress the wood when re-installing the action onto the wood when necessary.

My last two were excellent rifles. My only complaint is the butt-ugly presses "checkering" they use.

ASS_CLOWN