Restocking Winchester 70

Do you have to cut a relief for bolt handle clearance?

Da Boyd's and da bees...

Lafitte--We'll need a report on your results--WITH pix! We all like pix!! (IMX, Boyd's stocks are great.)

Smokey Joe said:

Lafitte--We'll need a report on your results--WITH pix! We all like pix!! (IMX, Boyd's stocks are great.)

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Ill second that and add some before pics too!

I don't know how the M70's are these days but there was a point in time when one could not really improve on the shooting abilities of an as purchased M70 Winchester, especially the Pre- 64 versions!

If you don't need to clearance for the bolt it should be a breeze. I had to do some relieving on a sporterized 03A3 for the bolt handle and Timney trigger, but they may leave that for those customers to finish since there's no way for them to know what bubba did to the rifle. As it was, all it took as some patience and a Dremel for me to make it come out nice. I'll eventually get around to bedding it. I'll post a picture if you do the same.

Get the heaviest sandpaper you can find, and a few flat sticks. You'll find now and then you need to relieve a little wood, and that's the best way to do it.

Regarding:

I don't know how the M70's are these days but there was a point in time when one could not really improve on the shooting abilities of an as purchased M70 Winchester, especially the Pre- 64 versions!

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That's because those pre-'64 barrels were broach rifled. New rifling broaches made the 30 caliber barrel's groove diameter as big as .3086" and most bullets were no more than .3082" diameter; bad combination for best accuracy. Winchester knew that and had Western Cartridge Company make their 190 and 200 grain match bullets .3088" to .3089" diameter so they would shoot very accurate in such barrels. And they did, too.

Arsenal match bullets (the M1 FMJBT 173-gr. one used in M72 .30-06 match ammo) were .3086" diameter and shot very accurate in them.

Barrels rifled when the broach wore down and made groove diameters about .3080" were pretty accurate with all bullets, but few were ever encountered. I was told years ago that in the 1950's, the US Army had Winchester make .300 H&H Mag barrels for their solid bottom M70 pre-'64 receivers (no magazine box cutout, single shot only, 20 of them were so made), they were to use worn out 30 caliber 1:10 twist broaches so the barrel's groove diameter would be about .3080" or less for best accuracy.

A laminated stock will not have checkering and it may make the rifle weigh even more.

Consider finding another rifle already made up you like better and then just sell that one if you want to.