Winchester M70 Jack O"Connor Tribute rifle....Wow!
 

I have owned and been around a lot of fine guns in my days. Every now and then there is one or two that puts me to my knees......I have found such a gun this year.:eek: For Winchesters 75th anniversary of the great Model 70, they teamed up with one of, if not THE biggest hunter and outdoor writer of the last century Jack O'Connor. For those who do not know, Jack O'Connor was one of Winchester's biggest supporters. Jack's love of the Winchester 270 caliber and love of the Model 70 made the gun and caliber legendary hunting all over the world with the gun/caliber combination. Winchester teamed up with the Jack O'Connor Foundation to bring out a limited edition Model 70 worthy of Jack's name. The foundation loaned Jacks famous #2 rifle to Winchester so it could be exactly reproduced. Everything from the stock to the checkering is a mirror image of Jack's #2 custom M70 rifle.



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Winchester spared no expense in this rifle using only the finest grade French Walnut for the stock and the engraving is outstanding. The "Jack O'Connor" signature is in nickel across the finger guard. One of Jack's signature Ram trophy's is engraved on the floor plate in great detail. The motif is carried out on the pistol cap.

The action on this gun is all Winchester Custom shop. That is to say "perfect". Free floating barrel with custom match crown has the best tolerance I have ever seen on a rifle. Metal to stock tolerance is absolutely as tight as I have ever seen.

My Sako's and other high end guns are extremely good but this particular Winchester sets the standard in elegance and action. I actually plan on using this fine gun and not hunting with a "Jack O'Connor" gun just seems wrong....:cool:

Jack died in 1978 and left a legacy and wealth of knowledge on what makes a good hunting rifle/caliber.
For those that do not know who Jack was as a man, hunter, and outdoor writer, take some time to investigate his accomplishments.


(My pictures do not do this gun justice.)


Shooting and breaking in the Jack O'Connor rifle:

The conditions were less than ideal a pretty good cross wind at 73 degrees. My ammo choices for the day were Winchester 130 and 150 Power Points. Hornady 130 SST and 130 SP Interbond. I had the gun sighted in and was cleaning the barrel every shot to properly break in the barrel. I shot a total of 45 rounds. The tack driving round of the day was the Hornady 130 SP. These bullets stacked on top of them self at 100 yards. I dont think I could reload a more accurate round.

:o



The Winchester wasnt bad at about 1" group but the wind was bad for about 2 of the three hours I shot. Its hard to tell if it was the wind or just a average grouping. Either way they were good enough for hunting big game. The Hornady SST were about the same as the Hornady 130 SP. I would get two round almost touching and then the third would fly a inch off. Its hard to tell if it was the wind or me but I was able to produced one hole groups and its 300yard groups were excellent.






45 rounds were a lot of big game rounds to shoot at one sitting. Between cleaning and letting the barrel cool, it was all I wanted to shoot. Recoil was nothing the first 15-20 rounds. I was use to a 300 Win Mag and I would put the recoil of the 270 about like a 30-06, perhaps a bit less. The M70 JOC gun was smooooth as butter. It picked up rounds out of the magazine better than any of my other M70 guns. The trigger was a clean 3lbs with no creep and seemed effortless to break a clean shot off. The gun seemed to be getting even smoother after each round. For a feather weight 22" barrel, its a tack driver.
Needless to say I am thrilled. It shoots as good as it looks.




When my JOC rifle isn't afield, it is displayed in my office. A gun that looks this good would be a shame not to be able to admire it on a daily basis.:s4:

I couldn't agree with you more about Jack as a man, hunter, writer, etc. IMHO he was by far the best of the best and as I was growing up I read everything he put out in print. Unfortunately, none of your pictures came through on your post!

Got it,...Had to re-size all pics but lost a lot of quality in the process.

I own all Jack's books. His book "The Hunting Rifle" should be required reading to all serious rifle hunters. The wealth of knowledge in one book is outstanding. Many dont know but Jack hunted with many calibers like the 30-06,300 Weatherby, 7MM Rem Mag. 375 H&R just to name a few. Jack and Roy Weatherby were very good friends. Of course the Winchetser 270 was Jacks favorite caliber and has killed everything from Moose,Ram,Caribou, Grizzly,etc.... with it. Dozens of Elk and he writes all but one were one shot kills. The guy knows his calibers and knows his game. There will never be another hunter like him simply because the world has changed.

Here is some of the accompanying material that came with the rifle.

A special limited JOC case that was designed for this rifle and comes from the Jack O'Connor Center is sent to each owner.

Can't quite remember the exact quote but I know it was on an Africa hunt and the guide asked why Jack didn't shoot. His reply went something like this. " I didn't spend a lifetime of perfecting my trigger pull to screw it up now". Now that's what I call a man who know's the difference in shooting vs. chucking lead and hoping for the best.

Glad you got the photos up, as that is one fine piece and displaying it like you are is a great idea! What are they charging for this classic masterpiece?

Winchester was smart and truly made this a low limited production. I think most all are gone because they were released for the 75th aniversary of the Model 70 for 2012 but I have seen a few pop up on gun trader. Sale price is about $2199.00 to $2499.00 pending who's selling one. I am sure most will never be shot and just be displayed. Its a shame because alot of time and fitting was done to these to make them a super shooter.
Even the Jack O'Connor Center is keeping track of the serial numbers before they send out the custom gun case. I am glad Winchester is truly making a limited production "limited". I forgot to mention that Winchester even copied the custom stock that Jack had fitted and even matched the exact grade of French Walnut that Jack used. The Jack O'Connor Center was heavily involved with making sure the Tribute gun matched Jack's famous #2 rifle.

I agree with your choice of using it in the field the way it is put together and shoots! I have a pre 64 30-06 along with a couple Sakos that are almost too nice to take in the field, but the only rifle that doesn't go out of the house on a regular basis to hunt with is an 1866 Henry antique that is much too valuable to even put out on display like yours. It's a real shame I have to keep it in a safe. It's the first repeating rifle built by Tyler Henry and was used by the Yanks during the war. The Confederates said those Yanks could load the thing on Sunday and shoot it all week without reloading, as it held at least fifteen 44 rimfire cartridges. There were only about 12,000 of them made and the serial number on this one is in the 8XXXs. It's the rifle that the Winchester 73 was patterned after that is known as the gun that won the West! I haven't had it appraised but Dad was offered $10K for it, sight unseen, back in the 70s! I would imagine it's probably worth at least 2 or 3 times that now, maybe more. Anyway, I thought you might like to see it since you're a Winchester man and this is what got them started many moons ago.

Beautiful, and obviously fine shooting, rifle. What is that scope? To my eye, it's too big and overpowering for that lovely rifle...but I'm glad you like it. Congrats.

Scope is a Docter 3 x 9. Docter is a German company that broke off of Zeiss to make surgical optics and still makes some high end sporting optics. I have had the scope for 10 years and its still the nicest glass I ever seen. It rode on top of a M70 300 Win Mag for the last 10 years. Super bright high quality scope. They are getting very hard to find in the USA.