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Quality of Model 70 Winchesters?

hadjii
I am in the process of buying a model 70 Winchester that was manufactured in 1965. Yesterday, I read an article in one of the major gun magazines about the history of the model 70, and basically it said that the post-64 model 70's were of terrible quality, and really sucked, and that it wasn't for 3 or 4 years after 1964 that the model 70 was any kind of gun at all? Am I indeed buying a piece of junk, or is that a bogus opinion? Thank You. You can e-mail me at yeehaw358@aol.com if you have a take on this.
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4 comments

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  • calamitywood
    I am a big winchester fan however, it is common knowledge that the post '64 model 70's and others had many bad changes made to them. I have read that these problems have been fixed, particularly with the new models. To answere your question the article is correct but you still may be purchasing a good gun. It would depend on what you are going to use it for, how much you plan to shoot it, and what you are paying for it. I owned one winchester model 70 that was manufactured in the mid 90's. I never had any problem at all with it.
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  • hadjii
    Thanks calamitywood. It is a 243 heavy barrel. I'm giving around $425. I.m going to use it for coyote hunting, as we have a pot load of them where I'm at in Ia. I figured I would retrigger it, recrown it, and float the barrel. Do you think that would take care of the problems they are known for, or is there anything else you think I should do to make it right? Thanks.
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  • JimmyJack
    I read that article and they didnt say they were really bad and sucked. They may not have been as good as the pre 64 , but what is? A "bad" model 70 is pretty damn good.
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  • Ray Boone
    I recall the advertisements by Winchester in 1964 and they made a big deal about the advantages of free floated barrels that were one of the improvements- the picture showed a handkerchief pulled through between the barrel and fore-end; so yu probably won't have to free float the barrel. I have several pre-war, pre-64 and an ever increasing amount of newer M70s, of the Classic type. While the quality of the 1965 M70s wasn't as good as the pre-64s, I wouldn't go so far as to say they are "junk". Part of the problem was that people that bought Winchesters at that time were very traditional. Probably a better tactic would have been for Winchester to continue the M70 as was, with an increase in price to cover it's costs; then to introduce another model, the equivalent of the post-64 M70. Then the shooters wouldn't have felt betrayed by the "bean-counters" at Winchester. The other problem was that Remington has just introduced their M700, and a lot of the change in the M70 was to compete with the Remington; such as the enclosed bolt face, rotating extractor, spring ejector. Winchester was trying to compete in an entirely different market, which was shown to be not inclined to switch away from Remingtons. The price you are paying seems pretty high, but I think yu will have a good shooting rifle, regardless of the reputation and "press" that it has.
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