Has anyone shot one of these yet?

Nope, not the SS. I have the blued version, though. Pretty typical M70, with lots of potential waiting to be brought out by throwing money at the trigger and stock. Reasonably accurate, no more than 1.7 inches at 100 yards with five shots. (I'm still looking for what it like the best - so far H4350 and Hornady 129g SP.)

It did come with the Williams bottom metal and extractor, though, so that's a couple of hundred dollars benefit. Maybe USRAC is planning to move up-market.

I sold a more accurate Ruger M77 MkII, simply because I like the M70 better.

Jaywalker

Want to tighten up the groups in that 6.5 x 55. Try IMR 4064 or RL 15. In all of mine, those two powders shoot circles around the slower 4350 and 4831, RL 19 and RL 22 powders. IMR 3031 gets real honorable mention! That is with all bullet weights.

IMR 4895 gets a thumbs up on 100 to 129 grain bullets.

Cheers and good shooting
seafire

Seafire,

I'm not ready to give up on H4350/H4831 just yet. Last year I was trying to find a mid-velocity load that filled the cases less than 90%, which explains the groups to date (I think). This year I'm going with more traditional 90 - 95% filled cases, and I expect that'll improve things all by itself.

I had some bad experiences with 4064 with a previous 6.5 Swede, given my habit of shooting a barrel to just-short-of-melting before swapping to a different rifle. 4064's temperature-sensitive, and I think the breech heat affected the powder in the chambered round, increasing the pressure in each successive shot. At that point I tossed the rest of the 4064 and gave away my last unopened can of RL22. Only temperature-insensitive powders for me from now on - RL-15 is on my lst to try, BTW.

Jaywalker

JW, Have you compared your Featherweight to a standard M.70? As you suggested I needed the trigger lightened on both my standard SS M.70's, a .270 and a 7mm Mag. Both have the BOSS muzzle brake/compensator. I had a custom stock put on the 7mm Mag as my beanfield gun. Both guns shoot well but are heavy. Shooting 175 gr. Fed. Premium the 7mm Mag averages @1.5" at 200 yrd.s from the bench. With the standard black plastic stock, on a good day, the .270 shoots 130gr. Rem. Core Lokt into one ragged hole at 100 yrds. It always shoots under .5" Originally I planned to put a custom stock on the .270...but why bother? I've never owned a Featherweight and I wonder if one in 6.5x55, without a BOSS would shoot as about as well as the other two.

holzauge,

There are a couple of ways to reply to that, re "Standard" M70. When I started looking at M70 Classics, I first bought a Classic LT (.300 Win Mag), but one hunting season taught me not to carry it up and down hills anymore. It had the cheaper two-piece bottom metal, with three screws holding the two pieces to the stock. At that point, AFAIK, only the Supergrade used the higher grade bottom metal.

After selling the Heavy Beast, I ordered this M70 FWT 6.5X55. I was quite surprised to find differences between it and what I understood to be the standard Featherweight. It had the one-piece bottom metal, vice two-piece, and a stainless extractor, vice cast, both of which appear to be Williams. It's excellent work, BTW.

There other differences, as well. The stock's barrel channel was free-floated - no fore-end tip hump. Additionally, the bedding material wasn't the yellowish glop (technical term) that's been there since 1984, but rather is black and appears to have been solid sheets before being melted in place, both by the lug and the tang.

I don't know if these changes to the FWT model are permanent, or just a shortage of standard parts during one production run. As I mentioned, possibly USRAC is trying to upgrade the model, but possibly not. If they are trying, they still have some distance to go with their triggers and stocks.

Jaywalker

Uppdate - I understand that there aren't many - perhaps 100 or so - M70 FWT that came with the Williams bottom metal. USRAC is changing over to a one-piece aluminum bottom metal, and they had stocks inletted before having the new pieces available. They had to buy the Williams metal in order to ship - so I got lucky in that regard.

Jaywalker

Hmmm. Way more going on here than I would ever wnat to follow on a blow-by blow basis. I guess I'll just have to see what's being called a SS M. 70 FW when and if I actually decide to buy. I bought a Rem. 700 Ti in about August 2004. Then bought an upgraded Rem. (Limbsaver) recoil pad for it. When I went to have it installed I discovered my Ti 700 was made in 2002 before Rem. changed the shape of the composite stock. The recoil pad won't fit it. Unless I want to drive 100 miles to the gun store where I bought the pad I'm stuck with a $30-40 buck recoil pad that won't fit my gun. Booger!

holzauge,

I know what you mean. I got tired of having to tweak everything I bought, so I sprung for a Kimber M84 - bedded, air-gauged barrel, quality trigger, recoil pad - all the tweaks pre-done. It has all those things, all right, but so far I haven't been able to get it to shoot. Maybe it's the bedding - I'll just tweak the bedding a little...

Jaywalker

After giving up on finding a 6.5x55 I narrowed my search for a stainless lt. mt. gun to a 7mm 08, either the lt. wt. Kimber or the Rem. Ti. I decided I'd probably prefer the Kimber but couldn't find one to look at. I mean I dove and called all over and couldn't find one. My buddy with the FFL looked all over on line and could only find one in .308. I thought I'd get to use the gun last Nov. if I went ahead and sprang for the Rem. so I did. It weighs @6 lb.s loaded with the scope sling etc. The recoil was startling. I couldn't get the recoil pad I wanted so I put a muzzle brake on the little beast and didn't get it back in time to use it last fall. Now they make the stainless Win. FW in 6.5x55. So it goes.

The 6.5x55 is a Scandanavian caliber, and I use only Scandanavian components in it. Boy what a difference. In my Remington Classic I use Lapua Scenar bullets in 108, 123 and 139grs. They're all very accurate especially when driven along by VihtaVouri 550 and 560 powders. Quite frankly I was very surprised by the difference. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Cal, where do you get your Lapua bullets? Are they hunting bullets or target. I have a tweed and would like to try the 123gn if they will shoot in my long throated sweedish barrel. capt david

Capt David, you can order Lapua bullets from Midway USA or Sinclair International

The Lapua Scenars that Cal is talking about are target bullets. I use them in my 260 Rem Model 70 target rifle and they are very, very good.

I have one of the old push feed M70 FW 6.5X55 with European looking rifling - 4 grooves and lands of equal width and very deep cut. It is extremely accurate with Hornady 140s and IMR 4350.