1. Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964)
It was not even an original design. The Model 70 was an improvement of Winchester’s Model 54, which in turn was based on the Mauser Model 98. But upon its birth in 1936, it kindled a love affair that has never died. Winchester advertised it as “the rifleman’s rifle,” and the slogan stuck. This was the big-game rifle by which all others were measured, and it is still, in my opinion, the best factory bolt action ever made.
The gun borrowed the best features from both the Mauser 98 and the Model 54. It retained the Mauser’s massive extractor and controlled-feed system but utilized a cone-shaped breech like the Model 54’s, which guided cartridges into the chamber even if they weren’t perfectly aligned. In place of the Mauser’s slow, jarring firing-pin fall, the Model 70’s was very fast and smooth. The trigger was the best ever designed for a hunting rifle, period—a three-piece miracle of simplicity that gave an excellent pull, would never fail, and once adjusted was adjusted forever.