Have a chance to pick up a 70 Winlite in 300 win mag. I don't need another 300 mag, but the action and McMillan stock interest me. Anyway, the guy wants $650 Cdn, or about $415 US. In good condition and comes with bases and rings. What do you figure, is this a decent deal or what? I don't own a lot of Winchesters and the ones I do have I've had for a long time, so the price seems high, but I could be wrong. - Dan
Posts: 5285 | Location: Alberta | Registered: 05 October 2001
Dan, I've owned two Winlites. Still have a winlite 24" 300Wby. It will shoot around 1" with handloads, and will feed empty cases. It was obviously assembled with care. Based on what I paid, $650 is on the high side, but if it's in mint shape it may not be a bad deal. Hope this helps.
Posts: 235 | Location: British Columbia | Registered: 08 November 2000
The Model 70 Winlite gets a "best buy" award nomination out of me every time. Most of them shoot, feed, and function very well, and that McMillan stock is almost worth the price of admission all by itself. One of my friends has a pair of Winlites in 7mm Rem. Mag. and .300 Weatherby: both rifles are real shooters, and he swears by them.
I bought a winlight in 270 Win 7 years ago and it is still my go to rifle.It is a perfect mixed country whitetail rifle and has unbelievable handling. The quality is excellent compared to the toads that the push out now and the McMillan stock has survived a ride down a NWT river and being stolen by some boys from the reserve. Accurace is 1' and more importantly it is perfectly reliable. 300 Sounds like a nice unit.
Yeah, I bought it. I'll test the Winlite to see how accurate it is, and depending on the results, I'll decide whether to re-barrel or not. I had this happen with a 270 Model 70 I traded for sometime back, I was going to re-barrel it, but I tried it and it turned out to be one of the most accurate hunting rifles I own (130 gr Barnes X @ 3000 fps into 3/8"). I still hate the stock it came with (plastic shiny finish with sharp monte carlo), but it shoots so well I'm afraid to mess with it. Oh well, maybe just strip it and plane down the monte carlo, then do an oil finish. And throw away the plastic bits. Hey BR, wher around New Norway do you live? I have some friends out there, and get out that way about once or twice a month. Maybe we can meet up for coffe and a BS session sometime. Email me and let me know. Take care - Dan
Posts: 5285 | Location: Alberta | Registered: 05 October 2001
I'm planning buying a Winchester Mdl 70 stock by Mcmillan and it was made for the Winlite Featherweight rifles. But I have one problem and that is if the rear part of the stock will allow me to align my eye with the scope which has a 30mm tube and 50mm objective. I hope that there is not more drop then my factory stock which was plastic on the Model 70 classic stainless. By the way the stocks are $200.00, good deal?
I mounted a 42mm 1" scope on this one for testing and it is on Weaver rings and mounts (yeah, I know, but I've never had a properly set-up Weaver set slip or move) because I have a bunch of them. It mounts perfectly for me, with a 13 and 1/4" length of pull. I have a "full" face (Ok, fat, with no neck) so most monte carlos and such bother me. I find this style of stock very comfortable. It looks like the scope center is about 1" from the top of the reciever (hard to measure) and there is about 1/8" to 3/16" clearance between the adjustable objective (which neasures 56.25 mm outside diameter) and the barrel. FWIW - Dan
Posts: 5285 | Location: Alberta | Registered: 05 October 2001
