I am an absolute sucker for the Model 70 in any form (well, maybe aside from the push-feed stuff). Wood stocks, glass stocks, stainless, blued, long barrel, short barrel, standard action, long action… I love them all.
“The Rifleman’s Rifle” — how could anyone possibly compete with that tagline?
The three-position safety is the only safety. Their factory triggers are unmatched and unrivaled. They have almost a hundred years of mystique behind them and names like Jack O’Connor and Carlos Hathcock.
You can dress them up or dress them down ad infinitum — the cowboy boot of bolt guns.
I made the decision to commit to the platform when I moved West and wanted to reach out a bit farther than the old .30-30 would let me. Since then, the rifle has become a close companion; we’ve burned countless miles of boot leather and gas together, taken bulls and bucks, and the walnut bears witness to our adventures all across God’s country.
She’s my workhorse, and in the parlance of the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan, she’s my first wife, too.
The Workhorse
I wasn’t always a handloader… so beautifully oblivious to the cost and availability of ammunition. I sought one out chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum, still one of the effective and versatile cartridges of all time. I also wanted one made before 2013 — before Winchester moved production of the Model 70 to Portugal. The new ones are great, but, you know… it’s a Winchester. Some things should stay in America forever and ever, amen.
The gun is not bedded beyond the goop that the factory put in and the trigger is worked over for zero creep or grit. It’s wonderful, but I’d like to lighten up 1-2 pounds; the adjustment screw is currently maxed out, so I’ll need to play around with springs a bit to get that lighter pull weight.
I tried out the aluminum DNZ Game Reaper one-piece mount when I set the gun up initially. It’s been on there for five years and probably two dozen hunts — no issues. This thing is rock solid. I did file down the front lip of the mount to clear the objective of the scope. As I explore in my full review on the DNZ mount, the eye relief is not 100% perfect with this combination of scope and gun, but it’s worked well enough for me to kill a buck and a bull with this rifle (all shots taken under 200 yards). I’ll probably switch over to their two-piece offering before coues season.
Currently, she’s running an old Leupold Vari-X III 3.5x-14 with a duplex reticle. I kind of like this setup, especially since my MPBR zero on an elk approaches 400 yards with 150gr Barnes TTSX bullets zipping along at around 3,150 feet per second. It is an absolute max book load; exceeding that during testing immediately led to a sticky bolt handle and a goodly amount of primer flow.
Like most of my other long guns she’s carried via Quake Claw sling, straight off the shelf.
When it comes to rifles, there is nothing on earth more American than the Model 70, and that’s the hill that I’ll die on. There are some that are just as American — the AR-15, the 1911, the ’03 Springfield and the Garand and the Thompson — but amidst a sea of modern, five-pound guns with fiberglass stocks and carbon barrels… the classic Featherweight lives on as a shining example of American excellence and craftsmanship.
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