I purchased this M70 .300 WM (I think it is a shadow) about 7 years ago brand new. It sat up for about 6 years. I just got back into reloading so I go to the range often now. The only thing is I shoot my Colt 1911. I have never shot a rifle this poor before in my life. If I try to shoot a 7 shot group only 3 or 4 if I am lucky will group the rest just go all over. I thought it was my shooting at first but other have the same luck. I have check the runout on cases and bullets, I have used different powders, diffenet bullets ect. I can take a 180gr bullet barely seat it in the case an chamber it, when i extract it there are no rifling marks, and the bullet is not pushed back at all. Is my throat worn? Did I just get a lemon? Someone told me to bed the action to the stock but I don't want to waste my time if the barrels is bad. I am at a loss with this rifle. Some days I just want to take a cutting torch to it so no one else will have the misfortune of stubling across it. If anyone has any ideas or could point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

Noone can accuratly guess what the problem is, the barrel may be heating up and applying pressure to the stock would be a good guess..Good chance the metal is moving in the wood, so glass bedding may solve the problem...

A rifle out of wack is a case of investigation, you, you illeminate all the basic problems until its fixed....

I would have it glass bedded by a real gunsmith and if that didn't work then the barrel may be bad..Id sell it in that case and buy another...

My experience is if a gun won't shoot pretty good from the get go then quit wasting your time with it, send it down the gunshow road and replace it...

Thank you for the insight. I will definately consider it. Like I said though, I would feel bad dumping my problem on to someone else.

How bad are the groups? Any particular pattern to them? Have you tried factory ammo? Is everything tight: ring, base, and guard screws?

The throat is apparently very long, but if it's straight that shouldn't be too big of a deal.

If it were mine, I'd set the barrel back and rechamber. I've found Winchester factory barrels to be quite good after things have been trued up .... the factory installation often leaves much to be desired. Be sure that the 'smith you choose has a bore scope and make sure that he uses it before you go to the trouble of setting the barrel back. Bad ones do get though.

Finally, please don't sell it as is, nobody wants a lemon.

Gabe

well, I don't want to pile on, and I DON'T want to start anything, but all this sounds very familiar.

I had a Winchester model 70 in .300 win mag two years ago that wouldn't shoot either. No matter what. Dirty, clean, hornadys, noslers, 165g, 180g, H4831, H1000, R19, magnum primers, standard primers, deep seated bullets, barely seated bullets and virtually all combinations of the above. 4 or 5 inches was the best I could get at 100 yards. The best. Floated the barrel and tried all of the above all over again. I must have had 400 rounds through that rifle. Lotsa folks said that I just couldn't shoot such a hard kicking gun - but they couldn't do any better.

Traded it for a remington, and did 1.5 inches out of the box with the last load that the winchester wouldn't shoot.

Guess I'd either send it back to winchester (but it's so old they might not want to deal with you) or trade it.

good luck.

jeff

What happens if you shoot 3 shot groups?

Is the barrel free floated? If so, try slipping a piece of paper between the barrel and stock after it has heated up, to see if it is touching.

I had the same problem with my model 70, in 22-250. I free-floated the barrel and made sure the action was solid. Now the rifle will shoot all bullets into 3/8 of an inch. This was probably the reason why I was able to pick up the gun at a reasonable price. Good luck with yours!

If the barrel is free floated it had to have been done at the factory. The gun is stock the only thing I have done is put a different scope on it. Actually I am on my third scope, it destroyed two simmons scopes now I have a Burris.
Because I have not been able to get a good group, I have not really sighted it in, but I will get two to group then one will go way off followed by another next to it then back to the original spot or further off.

I bought such a reject at a gunshow about 7 years ago for $325 in 300 Win Mag Featherweight Classic. It looked new. Guy was selling it for exactly the same reason, plus he couldn't handle the recoil which made the groups wander even more. I brought it home and dismantled it. The bedding (if you want to call it that,)was awful, trigger was heavy and rough, and the barrel rested unevenly in the stock. The barrel was floated, action bedded and trigger adjusted and that gun shot the tightest 3 shot group I've ever shot with a hunting rifle, .197".

Most guns don't shoot real well out of the box. Sad but true. You have to tweak them a bit.

That vintage of a Win M70 had problems with the factory action bedding. I was in Winchester warranty then & we had about all of the guns at that time need to re-bedded. They bedded the receiver lugs with some sort of a golden colored epoxy of sorts. It would not adhear to the stock. If you took the barreled action out of the stock, many times chunks of this "bedding" came with the recoil lug.

The warranty cure was to re-bed it with fiberglas. Then as the previous post says, check the barrel bedding & also the trigger pull.

Sometimes its the rifle. I had a M70 Classic FW recently that I finally gave up on. Floated, bedded, rechambered to AI, trigger, dozens of loads. 4-5". Gone. Shoulda done it sooner.

You may also have a reputable gunsmith recrown it. The crown can cause real problems and more than likely it is a combination of little things.

I had a Ruger that had to get the full treatment before it would really shoot well enough. The bedding was the biggest contributor, followed by the poorly engineered muzzle brake. It now has a bench crowned 22" barrel, bedded, trigger tuned up, and lapped lugs. It will shoot anything I've tried so far into an inch.

I would send it back to Winchester. They might get it right the second time, but probably not.

Winchester quality has been pretty shoddy lately.

Since it is an M70 I would definately bed the action properly as a start, then smooth the trigger pull a bit.

You may try 3 shot groups as 7 is a lot and would require some time between shots with a 300 WM to let the barrel cool properly.

Thanks for all the info guys. That crappy yellow stuff is now out of the stock and I am getting ready to have it bedded. I will let everone know how it shoots after that. Thanks.