The groups so far have been lack luster but I'm shooting Remington Core loks.

I've come to the conclusion that the trigger on the Winchester M70 sucks donkey balls. I'm super pissed about it. I had it smithed down to 1 3/4 lbs. The problem is that depending on where you put your finger on the trigger you get a very different response. Essentially if your a bench shooter I'd wait till there are some after market triggers out there for this rifle. Otherwise if you're just a hunter this may seem like the best trigger you've ever sampled on a factory gun. For me it sucks.

The best groups I've gotten so far are around the 1.5" range. Right now I'm just fire forming some brass. In the next handful of weeks I will be getting down and dirty with some nicer bullets and different oal cartridges.

One thing I notice right away is that this light weight barrel gets really hot. Like three shots and I'm on a 15 minute time out.

I will report back over the next couple of weeks.

Tom

Tom you should be doing the reviews for the mags. You are doing a heck of a job. Brutally honest! Thats the way any review should be. The old school Winchester fans had been rough on the trigger on that gun as well. They all liked the old one much better.

I have a Winchester M70 with the original trigger. A $40-$50 trigger job and you have a trigger that is on par with a Timney.

I contacted Timney and they do not have a trigger for the new M70 yet and I was told that there is a long line of rifles they are working on. Hey, at least they were honest.

Tom

I've owned a Carolina made M-70 featherweight .270 Winchester for several months now.

The stock is very nice with pretty grain.....it's a "limited edition" model
The trigger is far better than former M-70 rifles and required no adjustment at all.

I'm not happy with the Browning recessed crown as I really like the 11 deg chamfer of the traditional M-70 FWT but that's a small complaint. The thickness of the stock is large for me in the right hand wrist area. The former featherweights were less meaty there and I preferred the former stock dimensions.

Accuract for a featherweight is completely acceptable to me but to date I still haven't fired more than 100 rounds and I find accuracy in many new rifles to improve after about 200 rounds. I'm fully expecting MOA accuracy even though my current groups are running 1.5 MOA

I've read several accounts on this new M-70 and it seems folks that actually own one like them and the criticisms seem to come from those that have only heard about them. I've yet to read a critical account from an actual owner of this new rifle.

Again.....I'm fully satisfied with mine except for the crown and extra thick wrist area. Many others might like these changes.

I might also add that the feeding is flawless. It's a superbly functional rifle and there's a lot to be said for that.

I shot three more three shot groups today. Same stuff as before, remington core loks. Though this time I tried a different powder. I tried IMR 4831.

The first group I shot was horrible but I pulled the last shot. It would likely have been similar to what I saw in my next two groups but it measured 2.5". The next two groups measured 1.11" and then 1.13" at 100 yards on a warmish day.

So now I have 40 pieces of fire formed brass. I'm going to load up a couple of batches of bullets. I'm going to load up some accubonds and Game Kings touching the lands and .002" off the lands to see what they do. I'm going to stick to IMR 4350. Not sure why just trying to limit the number of variables.

Here is some other data. Nosler custom brass, winchester large rifle primers standard. I will be neck sizing. The bullets I'm sticking with right now are 180gr pills.

If anyone wants to throw their .02 in I will doing the loading later this week. Would mind some opinions.

Thanks

Tom

Okay, things are getting interesting now. I have 40 pieces of fire formed brass. I decided I would check it for sensitivity to OAL to ogive instead of dealing to much with powder and what not.

So here is what I loaded up.

6 IMR 4350 at 55g under Nosler BT 165gr loaded to the lands 2.647"
6 IMR 4350 at 55g under Nosler BT 165gr at 2.643"
6 IMR 4350 at 55g under Nosler BT 165gr at 2.629"
4 IMR 4350 at 55g under Nosler BT 165gr at 2.615"

6 IMR 4350 at 53g under Sierra GK 180gr load to the lands 2.635"
6 IMR 4350 at 53g under Sierra GK 180gr at 2.634"
6 IMR 4350 at 53g under Sierra GK 180gr at 2.625"

I didn't shoot them all off but I shot a bunch.

I started with the (6 IMR 4350 at 55g under Nosler BT 165gr loaded to the lands 2.647") these shot into a 0.812" 3 shot group.

Then I shot the (6 IMR 4350 at 55g under Nosler BT 165gr at 2.643") these shot into a 0.782" three shot group

I jumped all the way down to the (4 IMR 4350 at 55g under Nosler BT 165gr at 2.615") these are the shortest bullets. They scored 0.937"

The final bullets I shot where the (6 IMR 4350 at 53g under Sierra GK 180gr load to the lands 2.635") The longest 180gr bullets. I shot a 5 shot group for this one and it scored 1.126".

So far OAL doesn't seem to be that big of a factor. So I'm thinking about loading the cases more full. I'm in the middle of the recommended powder band. I'm thinking go to the 3/4 range in powder then try a couple of different oal lengths.

Tom

I handled one today and while the action was smooth, it was loose as all get out when locked up. I was not impressed at all with that.

Dubs,

I have no idea what you're talking about. The action on the M70, at least the ones that I've handled have been exceptional.

Tom

As I said.....the only ones that throw trash on the new M-70 are those that don't actually own one.

As to the Timney trigger for the new -70, while I really like the Timney triggers and actually installed one in a previous M-70, anyone that buys a new M-70 will not likely want an improved trigger as the new M-70 triggers are exceptional.

Vapo,

Do you shoot a lot of paper?

Here's my issue. Depending on where you put your finger on the trigger you get a very different pull weight. I had the smith test it and it was a half lb different between the middle and tip. You don't get that with a timney. It's very consistent.

I wish they had just put the original Winchester trigger in there and for $30 I could have just about any smith stone it down to 2lbs crisp with no creep. Done. No b.s. no set screw nothing. The rifle cost nearly $1k. Anyone in shopping in this price range doesn't mind dropping the extra $30 to get what they want.

For me I'm waiting for Timney to make me a trigger.

What new Winchesters do you own? How are they shooting? Give some stats.

Tom