Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964)

Earning “The Rifleman’s Rifle” title back in mayday, the Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) still deserves the moniker as it is one of the guns that have an iconic place in the American sporting culture. Introduced in 1939 by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, this high-quality bolt action rifle has a lot of things in common with Mauser’s designs. The Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) has yet evolved to better models which puts use of the newest technology and still maintains the original strength giving you the best of both worlds. Its production, however, ceased in the year 2006 but FN Herstel, a Belgian company, announced that the production of Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) will resume. The company began the production of the model in 2012 until the assembly was moved to Portugal in 2013.

The original Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) rifles were manufactured from the year 1936 through 1963 after which numerous changes in design and functionality of the models were experienced. The gun is an action rifle in the American market. The rifle quickly established an incredible reputation with most American sportsmen since their perception was that the rifle was of higher quality and brought them more desirable features. While compared to the Mauser-type rifle, the Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) did not cut control cut checkering, round feed which the Mauser-type did. The Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) can be identified by the presence of a fore end screw that secures the barrel to the stock and if it has a serial number below 700,000. The rifle was named the rifle of the year in 1999 by the Shooting Magazine.

Specifications of the Winchester Model 70

Has CRF property (Controlled Round Feed)

The Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) model has a Mauser-type non rotating claw extractor and two forward locking lugs. The primary merit of a gun with this type of an extractor is that as it is fed from the magazine, it captures the rim of the cartridge controlling its journey forward into the chamber of the rifle. This type of feed is normally referred to as “controlled round feeding” which is an incredible property for a rifle that is used by people pursuing big or dangerous game.

This rifle is considered superior to its fiercest competitor, the Mauser 98, not because its ejector blade was similar to the Mauser 98, but also because unlike the Mauser rifle which required the Mauser type slot through left locking lug, the Winchester model had a bolt face just below the locking-lug hence the forward lugs’ solid.

The rifle has a barrel length of about 22 inches and its overall length is 42.75 inches. Its length of pull is 13.75 and weighs 7.0 lbs.

Bottom Line

The Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) rifle is one of the guns that you surely can rely on. After testing it with about 50 rounds, the hot barrel still fired with great accuracy. Although the point of impact shifted a little, it was buy such a small degree that I still feel that I should blame the user, not the rifle. Sporting lightweight barrel, the Winchester Model 70 (pre-1964) rifle meets and exceeds expectations and is an impressive company for a hunter.