Model 70: A Great Dangerous Game Gun

Guns Magazine, Sept, 2000

Making the best bot-action rifle in the world better wasn't easy, but Winchester found a way to do it.

Winchester Model 70 actions are considered the most desirable custom rifles because Winchester's action is the ultimate refinement of the legendary Mauser 98.

Gunsmiths prefer the vault-strong design, simple trigger and massive locking lugs while users are attracted to the beefy claw extractor, controlled round feeding and incomparable three-position safety.

The year 1964 stands as the demarcation point for Winchester actions. It was then that a cost-conscious decision was made to be abandon the hard-to-manufacture claw-extra a push-feed version, known derisively as the round action" Model 70 for its tubular bolt.

Gunsmiths bemoaned the passing of the "pre-64" action; but it wasn't until 1990 that U.S. Repeating Arms executives, the inheritors of the Winchester name, decided to revisit the pre-'64 action and see if modern computer-controlled machines could make the classic action at a competitive price. Much to everyone's delight and amazement, the engineers were not only able to recreate the "pre-'64", but also improve on it.

"Without a question the new action is better (than the pre 64) The old Model 70 was made of a steel that was very hard and brittle, similar to the old Springfields Winchester has put a better, more modern steel in these rifles, said custom gunmaker Sterling Davenport.

"Winchester kept in all of the good features -- the three-position safety, the Model 70 trigger, which you can adjust down to 1 1/2 lbs, if you want to, and the claw extractor," Davenport noted.

For building a custom rifle, Davenport said a current production Model 70 is significantly superior to a pre-'64. Not only is the modern steel better and stronger, there are a number of subtle improvements to the pre-'64.

"The bolt release on the pre-'64 -- the spring and plunger that operate the bolt release -- fit inside a hole in the receiver. That little spring and plunger could rust and get stuck. If that got stuck in there, there was no way to get it out. Winchester did away with that and put an external spring in there. That makes it a trouble-free part," Davenport said.

The action is safer, too. "They made the action and magazine box a little bit longer than the original pre-'64. That gives you more safety up around the front lower locking recess in the receiver. On the pre-'64. 375 and 300 H & H models, that lower locking recess for the bolt was very, very skimpy because the action actually wasn't long enough to take that Holland belted magnum case. They had to move the magazine forward, and that look some of that front locking recess away," Davenport said.

In fact, the new Model 70 is longer than the pre-'64, making it more desirable for large cartridges such as the .505 Gibbs and .416 Rigby. "Because they've lengthened the action, they've strengthened the action a great deal. They took all of the good parts of the pre-'64 and made them better," Davenport said.

The Model 70 was dubbed the "rifleman's rifle" because of its many desirable attributes. Just like the original Mauser 98, the Model 70 features a large claw extractor that takes a massive bite on the case rim. The ejector is a fixed mechanical type unlike the small, spring-loaded extractors of other design.

The Model 70 also has the best safety of any bolt action with a three-position switch that completely blocks the firing pin and the sear. It allows the rifle to be unloaded while "on safe." The trigger is also elegantly simple, allowing a skilled gunsmith to bone the pull down to "hair" weight.

Winchester did the impossible with the Model 70. They took what was arguably the best action ever designed and made it better Says Davenport. The new Model 70 is absolutely the best ."