'68 Winchester Mod 70

[steve b.]

Hey all,

I'm getting to rebarrel ( with my shop guru / mentor Sheldon ) my Winchester mod 70 at the shop, and I have heard some discussion about the receiver ring being rather thin and somewhat weak on these actions.

I understand that the Mod 70, mostly the pre 64, are considered by many as the holy grail of american sporting rifles, but looking at how much metal has been cut away near the rear tang, I have some reservations about the overall structure of the action.

This action does not have the standard Mauser type extractor, but one in the front lug.

This will be rebarreled into a .22-250 Imp for rock chuck hunting, not BR, but before I get too deep into this, I was wondering a few things:

1. Any problems to look out for when working on these actions in terms of safety?

2. Besides my pillar and bedding work, any tricks on dealing with what appears to be a rather unsupported rear tang?

3. I was planning on removing the ejector from the bolt. The rifle will be used as a single shot platform. Should I just weaken the spring and leave in to keep the hole filled incase of venting gases due to any primer failure?

Thank you all for your help!

s.

 

[shevelin]

Steve,


These are good actions and this one should work just fine for a varmint rig. Front ring is strong enough and there is nothing about safety that needs addressed. I think this action is actually more rigid than a 700 Rem due to the square bottom, but it takes a bit more work to get it bedded. The rear of the action can affect bedding, but anything past 1/2 inch behind the lugs has little to do with safety. If you use pillars front and rear and do the final skim bed using surgical tubing to just squeeze the final product together it will work just fine (don't use the action screws to pull things together during final bedding, or ever tighten the middle screw). I have built 5" 1000 yard guns on this action (blue printed).

Yes, just shorten the spring until you find the ejection/non ejection force you like. Don't plan on blowing primers - it does damage to the bolt face and indicates poor reloading practices. The ejector will get jammed if you let a lot of gas loose, but I can't really speak to the effect of venting gases - use common sense and this is not an issue.

Scott

 

[steve b.]

That's good to hear.!

I was thinking of a fairly conservative load in the rifle, so that should work out well.

The barrel is a Shilen 1-12 heavy varmint taper, and I have a few hundred new Lapua 22-250 brass to work with.

Thanks for the help with my questions. I appreciate it.

s.