I recently acquired a Winchester 70 Featherweight stainless rifle in .270 WSM. I am new to both Winchester featherweights and magnums/WSMs (previous bolt experience has been .270 Win & .308 Win in a Ruger 77). I took it out to the range this weekend, shooting 150 gr Federal Fusions to sight in. After the first 3 rounds, the barrel was very hot. It took almost 10 minutes to cool down enough to touch comfortably. Weather was mostly cloudy and around 80F according to the thermometer. Is this normal for featherweights and/or magnums (or the combination of the two), or a sign of a problem with the rifle? Does anyone have any suggestions about how 'warm' the barrel should feel before firing the next group or how long the wait should be?

Double whammy going on there, Fwt barrel and a Magnum. It is going to get hot. I test my hunting rifles with three shot groups and thoroughly clean and let cool between groups. I want to know where the gun is printing cold and clean and where it prints heated up.

I shoot the first shot and get a good spot and then follow up with two accurate shots as fast as practical to simulate field shooting.

Cleaning the gun will help it cool down; also take a walk down range and study the groups, mark them etc, to kill some time waiting for that Fwt to cool.

M70 WSM FWs, IIRC,are roughly a #2 profile(.585-24") as apposed to .560-22" of a std cal FW.
My .270weatherby had .560 -24", got hot, but put the first two touching with third making about 3/4" or less...plent good enough for BG.

Any idea how long it should take to cool down? And, given the light barrel, how cool is cool enough (warm to touch, ambient temperature to touch)?

Cool is cool and warm is warm and hot is hot. I prefer to test mine cool (and clean). You are OK if you let it get to ambient temperature. Limit the groups to 3 shots with the Fwt. It will take a while to get cool especially outside in the sun.

Do the stuff I do between groups and perhaps think about taking another gun along to shoot while you let the Fwt cool down. Cleaning it between groups will aid in cooling (a lot) plus let you get the gun tested cold and clean. Then you need to make a decision if it prints different cold and clean and warmed up whether you have the gun sighted for the cold clean shot or sighted for the warmed up shots. Some guns are close enough that it doesn't matter, but some aren't.

I have a lot of guns but my pre 64 M70 Fwt is my mainstay. It is light and very accurate for 3 shots. It won't win in an 80 shot highpower match, but it is a winner out hunting.

Thank you very much for the advice.

Well, went to the range yesterday for a bit, and let the barrel cool in between groups, and noticed something strange. The first shot was 3" to the right, shots 2 & 3 were dead center. Let the barrel cool to ambient and tried again, with the same results (1st 3" right, 2& 3 center). Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Where the results are the same between the two groups, it sounds like the problem is between the barrel and forearm. It sounds like the barrel is in greater contact with the forearm when cold than it is when the barrel gets warm. Could be that the barrel is walking to the right as it warms up.

You can get a pretty good idea as to where, and to what degree this contact is occurring by pulling the barreled action out of the stock and looking carefully at the bottom and sides of the barrel for any visual indications of contact such as rub marks. The evidence of contact can be quite obvious, or, very subtle. But it is there if you look.

With the first shot on a cold barrel going right of the mark, look for contact on the left side of the barrel.

If this were happening with a floated barrel, I would suggest increasing the clearance between the stock and barrel before resorting to adding a pressure point.

Sounds like a typical non-premium barrel that was straightened at some point during the manufacturing process. They shoot one point cold and as soon as heat is introduced they shoot to the other point. This is very typical, hence why I like to know if the cold clean shot is different than the rest

Westpac: How difficult is it to take a stock off this (or any) rifle to check. I've not done any rifle disassembly other than removing the bolt for cleaning, so I'm a bit nervous to disassemble it further.

Airgun1: Is there a way to tell if the barrel has been straightened, and if so, is there anything that can be done about it? I read something somewhere about doing some sort of cryo process to the barrel can help.

Does it sound like this rifle should go to a gunsmith, think about a new barrel? Or...?????

Sorry for all the questions - while I've been shooting for awhile, I've never had a problem rifle before, and am a noob when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Are you using factory ammo? I know this sounds inane, but sometimes just changing loads will resolve the problem your rifle is showing. Not usually, but sometimes. If you are a handloader, it shouldn't be too difficult to try a few different loads to see if the problem continues.

Second, at what distances do you usually see/shoot your game? If at 150 yards or less, you can pretty much ignore the problem for hunting deer-size game...it is shooting 3" groups now...at 150 yards those should translate to about 5", maybe 4", groups. Vital zone on a deer is usually 8" or more in diameter.

I agree, I'd like better accuracy IF I normally had to take more than one shot at an animal. But, as your gun shoots right on for the 2nd and 3rd shots, follow-ups shouldn't be hard to handle if needed.

If you live where there is a good gunsmith available locally, you might just want to take it to him and have him re-bed it. If that doesn't work, you might need to do something more drastic.

That is the original barrel, not a premium barrel. It is standard practice to straighten barrels that were bent in the manufacturing process. They were only bent a few thousandths of an inch and were restraightenend. Your's act like the classic example. You just need to either leanr to live with it or if it really bothers you, have it rebarreled, but there is nothing wrong with your gun. It is a common occurance (sp).

To take your rifle apart you must first make sure it is unloaded and then also remove the bolt. There isa little button on the left rear of the receiver which you depress to remove the bolt.

There are three screws holding the barreled action in, front and rear triggerguard and the floorplate screw.

The following things may improve the groups:

You can experiment a bit by putting a little piece of cardboard under the barrel by the receiver and tightening the action screws which will float the barrel. Try it this way. This causes a FreeFloat condition.

You can also remove the cardboard from under the rear of the barrel and put it right and the front of the stock under the barrel, Tighten the action screws and try it this way. This causes a PressurePoint condition.

Yes, for now I am shooting factory ammo (150 Federal Fusions) - two boxes came with the rifle, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through box 2. I will probably pick up a box of Winchester ballistic silvertips to experiment with as well.

As for the barrel floating, I was able to slide a piece of pritner paper up to the receiver with a cold barrel, although it didn't go as easy as I would have expected.

I'll try both a change of ammo and testing the barrel after it's heated up (probably next weekend) and report back.

Thanks everyone for all the help. It's very much appreciated.

quote:

Originally posted by Eric B.:
As for the barrel floating, I was able to slide a piece of pritner paper up to the receiver with a cold barrel, although it didn't go as easy as I would have expected.

It needs more than one sheet of printer paper clearance around a free floated barrel. Fold that piece of paper several times and use that as your guide. Keep removing stock material until it clears. If you don't do that, then you will never know.

quote:

Originally posted by Westpac:
It needs more than one sheet of printer paper clearance around a free floated barrel. Fold that piece of paper several times and use that as your guide. Keep removing stock material until it clears. If you don't do that, then you will never know.

I'll check that tonight and report in.

Ok, checking the barrel this evening, I can only get a single sheet between the barrel & the stock. There appears to be a tight spot where the end of the stock meets the barrel, on the bolt handle side of the stock.

Your gun is taint...taint free floated and taint got a pressure point. You know that barrels vibrate when shot? Yours is slapping up against the stock sending bullets hither and yon...and different when cold than hot.

I'd recommend skim bedding the action and free float the barrel. As I recall reading on these pages, Winchester uses some kind of putty to bed the action...not the best for accuracy.