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Legacy Member
Originally Posted by
Cosine26
Types of Winchester M70 target rifles.
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The M70 NM was very rare. Someone indicated that there were only ~2000 manufactured
Target Model was the most popular. Mostly in 30-06. It was never offered in 308/7.62 , but many were converted to this caliber
The Bull gun was most popular in 300H&H though it could be had in 30-06
This is my Bull Gun with a 12X 1 1/4 inch Unertl
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FWIW
It was never offered on a production basis,but the pre_64 M70 target rifle could be had in 308, by special request(not to be confused with special order) starting in '59 or '60. I've seen standard targets in .270, 220 Swift, and.243 on auction sites and photos of a .308 on another forum.
Oddly enough, the.270 chambering was a standard option up till 1949, IIRC.
I've read that Winchester would make you one in .222, .222 mag or .300 Win Mag if so requested but have yet to see one.
BTW, that's a nice looking bull gun. What year was it made?
Last edited by vintage hunter; 06-04-2019 at 08:18 PM.
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06-04-2019 07:52 PM
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Deceased May 2nd, 2020
In 40+years of high Power competition, (I made master in 1960 and elected to be a Lifetime Master in 1962) I have never seen a factory made pre 64 Target M70 in .308, though I do not doubt that you are correct and they were available as special order. If you look at the pre WWII ad that I posted, you will see that the Target M70 was available in several calibers - the .308 excepted, for it had not been developed at that time. As I understand it, all pre WWII receivers (with the exception of the .22 Hornet and the Magnums) came with clip slot and all calibers were built on the same receiver-i.e., no short actions. After WWII the receiver was modified several times. According to the catalogs of the era, only the 30-06 Target came with clip slots. After WWII, the M70 Target was advertise in only three calibers. 243, 30-06 and 300 H&H. I have actually examined a Model 70 Target in .243 with the idea of converting it to a .308 Target rifle, but the lack of clip slots made it not feasible.
I have seen and converted many standard M70's to .308 after it became popular as a target caliber. The parts(short magazine box, short follower, follower spring, ejector and bolt stop ) used on the sporting rifle could be purchased from Winchester. The .308 version required a special ejector because the bolt throw was shortened so that the face of the bolt came only as far back as the forward edge of the rear receiver bridge. Mo and Roy Dunlap fabricated clip slot adapters that could be used-I have used both types and they are satisfactory. Sometimes the receiver rails required modification, but I never had any problems. Roy Dunlap made a practice of shortening standard actions by removing a 1/4 inch section and it worked very well. This was a very complicate action not viable for the average "bubba".
When the first post 64 Target models were introduced, they came in 30-06 caliber only. Later the .308 was added, but it took a special receiver with the rear receiver bridge extended to accommodate the clip slots. I saw several, when the All Army team came to one of our matches. I scored for an army shooter who was using one in .308 at 1000 yards. He was not having much success for the rifle had a 1 in 12 twist, which made the 200 grain Remington bullets marginally stable. It was built on a special factory receiver.
I might add, that when the .222/.223 round became popular it was discovered that the .22 Hornet bolt could be satisfactorily modified to accommodate this cartridge. Since Winchester would not sell this bolt openly (one had to return the rifle to Winchester for bolt replacement) I know of one .22 hornet that must have had a dozen bolt replacements. Winchester must have thought that California riflemen were careless with their rifles. .
After Winchester went out of business, the succeeding companies made some short actions for the .308, 243,etc. I do not know if any were built in the Target version.
I do not remember the date of manufacture of my Bull Gun but it was post WWII and pre-64 in 300 H&H.
FWIW
Last edited by Cosine26; 06-06-2019 at 01:29 PM.
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Thank You to Cosine26 For This Useful Post:
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Deceased May 2nd, 2020
Date of manufacture of Bull Gun is 1957
FWIW
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