Win Featherweight flyers?

Gary O

Gary O

New member
Over the years I have owned Winchester Featherweight rifles in .243, .270, 7-08 & 30-06. All of them began to wander after 2 shots on paper; so much so that I gave up on 5 shot groups and went to 3. My latest rifle is a 7-08 that I bought new last year and sent to an accuracy rifle smith for a pro bedding job. Today I came home from the range with 4 groups that all displayed flyers that ran over an inch away from the first 2 shots fired. I spoke to the rangemaster and he suggested that I get a concentricity gauge to check my handload runout. What say you? Thanks...
 
What would it take to convince you that this is normal for these rifles???? I mean, there's a pattern here. And across the world. Go look for a Win of any sort in an accuracy match, let alone a fw.

Buying a concentricity gauge is good for the economy but will do precisely nothing for your groups.


opinionby







al
 
This has always been a problem with the Win featherweights. Usually a good pillar bedding job will help a bunch but the thin barrel heats up so fast, it will always wonder a little. Let is cool and shoot the third shot.....where does it go? Probably where the other two are.

Hovis
 
I had a Featherweight, 30-06 and loved it. Found you had to have a hard hold, pulled tight against your shoulder to do any good on paper. Hold the forearm and pull back on it, don't let it sit on the front bags, keep you hand between the bags and the forearm and hang on. Of course you need to make sure the barrel is free floating, mine needed a lot of work in this department. It's a one shot rifle, not a group shooter, but mine shot extremely well, that was 35 years ago though.
 
Gary O said:
Looks like this was a waste of time...
Click to expand...

It is my experience shooting a 243 Winchester featherweight that bedding does nothing. Mine was not free floated, so I made it free floating. No tighter groups. An inch and a half at 100 if I am lucky. So I added pressure just at the end of forearm (took someone's advice, can't remember who) no better, no worse. Removed that pressure, added some a couple inches ahead of receiver, no change. I was just using a piece of leather to add this pressure to experiment, did nothing so it is currently free floated. Bedding doesn't matter on mine. So I tried 6 or 7 different bullet brands/weights, some shot 3 inch groups, eventually I landed on a 90 grain I believe, Sierra shooting around 1 1/2. I like these actions for hunting rifles. But as for accuracy, the barrel is the problem. So the advice to check bullet concentricity was given with good intentions I am sure, but in my opinion the poor accuracy from these models is something huge like poor barrel, not a tiny detail like concentricity. Funny how well they work for hunting though. Reliable and accurate enough. A good rifle.
 
Seems that you are satisfied with two shots but not the third. You need to ask yourself if you need the third shot to be as accurate as the first. Does it fly way off or just more...and would you miss, given the distance it flies?

A concentricity guage will not help if it's always the third shot or so.

What do you think and why did you believe this was a waste of time? We may not understand what you're asking.
 
I had a .240 Weatherby that I bedded and did all of the trick stuff to it and the ammunition. First 3 shots on 200yd paper! cover with a 25 cent coin, 4th shot would be gone to never, never, land. What did I learn?? Lucky the 200yd backstop was big. Just to find out what happened I set up paper all over the place, calm that day, and the 4th shot went a foot high and to the right. Moral of the story? shoot 3 and put the gun away. Sounds like you are having the same problem.
 
Light rifles, and or those with heavy recoil can be very demanding as to how they are shot and rested. A friend was having problems similar to yours, and after determining that he wanted some help, I changed how he was holding the rifle, and how his front rest was placed. That got rid of the flier. If you can shoot a series of two shot groups that are good, with some time in between them, I would say that barrel heating may have something to do with your problem, and that residual stress in the barrel may be involved. I am not saying that I know that it would help at all, but the only thing that I know of that is commonly done to address that sort of thing is to cryo the barreled action. Another thing that I have seen is shooters failing to reposition the rifle on the rests after each shot. The sling swivel studs were in the clear on the first shot, but the rifle moved a little to the rear for the following ones, until the studs were in the bags during recoil, which will throw shots.
 
commando57 said:
What about the 52?
Click to expand...

LOL :)

I'll own that one....

OK, I'll rephrase to "look for a Win 70 in an accuracy match." No matter their reputation in print (Hathcock, 'The Black Kings' etc) they've never been known for accuracy in real life.

I own them

I love them

They're beauteous

But they don't shoot


again,









opinionby


















al
 
al, Okay, you say they don't shoot, I say they do shoot. They shoot for what they were designed to do, kill game, not group shoot, not score shoot, not high power shoot, but to be used as a light weight carry gun for woods use, not bean field shooting at 400 yards, etc., actually I use a 44 Blackhawk stuck in my belt behind my back when I'm scouting, or my 44 Ruger carbine slung over my shoulder, but I wouldn't disadvantaged with a Featherweight, in fact would be better served, but mine was too purty to be banged up.


So





I




don't





really





know



what the argument is about.
 
Charlie....

and


I



agree


:)


But the op seemed to think that there was something wrong with the rifle grouping as it does. I submit that it's acting as it's designed to.

That's all

al
 
My dad has a pre-'64 Model 70 Featherweight in 30-06 he won in an air show raffle. (This was in Lewiston, Idaho in 1964, and storied Lolo Sporting Goods on Main Street provided the prize - a brand new Model 70 in 270 Win. Dad wanted an "ought six" so they told him "Well, we have do this last year's Featherweight model still on the shelf in 30-06, would that do?")

In those days, when elk were still plentiful in the Clearwater Country, tags were unlimited, and every wide spot on the pre-dawn logging roads on opening morning held a rig, many sporting California license plates, "minute of angle" was not yet a catch phrase in the typical sportsman's lexicon. Any rifle that could hit a pie plate at 200 yards, from a decent field position, was considered plenty accurate enough for hunting in North Idaho. If you complained about two-inch groups, the response would likely be "Ok, so what's your point?"

Anyway, after I obtained it in the '80s, it had fewer than two boxes of shells through it. That rifle never shot small groups for me, but 1-3/4 inches all day, no matter what I fed it. And with no recoil pad, it really punished me even if I hugged it for dear life. Eventually, its dark, pretty stock developed a bad crack in in the wrist area, and it was retired to dad's closet. (He just turned 89 last week.)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top