I have plenty of experience with the Ultimate Shadow Stainless and can recommend the gun with little reservation.

My dad owns one in 7mm WSM and he has killed a mess of game with it already. Our friend has one in 270 WSM and he has shot a bunch of wild hogs and an antelope that I witnessed.
I just got through working up loads for a 300WSM that shot remarkably small groups. These are great rifles, a good concept and I really like that stock.

However, I have had pretty sorry luck with the Super Shadow Super Short in 223 WSSM. Mine was so bad that I sold it and the guy who bought it sent it back to Winchester. They sent him a new rifle and it would not shoot either. He sent it back and got a third rifle. All of them shot poorly and he finally just rebarreled it with a custom barrel and made it a 243 WSSM. So far, it seems to shoot pretty good.

I think your choice of that Camo Stainless in the 25 WSSM is about the wisest of the bunch for predators. The barrel life should be good and that stainless steel rifle with that camo stock is a good deal.

The 300 WSM I just worked with was very easy to adjust the trigger down to an even 3 pounds, no problem.

Even with all you hear about feeding problems, all these rifles that I have worked with have fed cartridges quite smoothly.

R F

The store I bought my M70 at told me he same story about both makes being made side by side. But when I look at my buddies Browning A bolt (in 270 WSM) it says made in japan, while my two Mod 70's say New Haven CT

So I don't think they are both made in the same plant even though both companies are owned by the same parent company.

The rifles are definately not made in the same plant, same planet but not the same plant.

The trigger on the 70 is the same trigger used from the beginning. The A-Bolt trigger is definately different. They don't even look the same. If your gunsmith says they are the same, time to get a new gunsmith.

Your rifle choice is a good one. I would like to have one of the 25WSSM's. I have a 223 WSSM right now in a Coyote. It shoots about 0.60 consistantly. Those super-short actions are the greatest; short stroke, light weight, handy and cute as a rifle can get. Mine feeds so slick I sometimes pull the bolt back to see if it picked up a cartridge, which it always has.

The 25 WSSM should flatten anything up to large deer. With bullets down to 75 gr, groundhogs should vaporize, and with the 87 grainers, long range predator hunting should be a snap.

Aaron

I'm pretty sure theres a M70 Super Grade in my safe that is made in Japan.

It would not surprise me if this gunsmith is a total quack. I would hardly call him my smith. He just happens to be a couple of doors down from where I buy some of my guns and I'd never take anything to him that was considered serious work. I was given the green light by my friend to use him and I would choose to take my own work to a guy called "Jennings" in Kamloops.

I think this rifle choice is growing on me.

boilerroom,

I took this out of context from your first post and want to say that I still like your choice of the Utimate Super Shadow Camo a lot and want one myself, but thought I'd respond to this sentence.

"I would much rather the 243 Win or 6mm Rem in a light wieght rifle for this application."

In light of this there is also another good rifle to consider and it's certainly a "tried and true" rifle.

Model 7

It's not as "sexy" as the new Winchesters and it's not very pretty but the Model 7 Stainless Synthetic weighs in at 6.25 pounds and is imminently practical and has excellent resale if you grow bored later...

$bob$

I've been looking there too.

I sort of want to stay in the 22" barrel catagory if I can. I'm not ruling it out though.