Don’t turn your nose up at a Winchester M70 in .225.
In spring of 1987, I went bear hunting in New Brunswick, Canada, with my older brother, who was stationed at Loring AFB, Caribou, ME.
A coworker of his brought over his M70 that had belonged to his FIL, who got it from his uncle who lived in Montana. He claimed that the rifle barrel was “supposedly shot-out”. He also had a quantity of both factory 55gr ammo, and some handloads, well labeled with IMR4320 and Sierra 50gr Spt’s.
Looking through the bore I wasn’t convinced it was shot out, but was heavily fouled. My brother concurred, and the coworker left the rifle with us to “check it out”. Over several days, we repeatedly swabbed the bore with Shooters Choice solvent until they quit coming out blue/green.
We took it to a range and benched it. Factory ammo shot under 1”-5shot groups (even I was surprised), but handloads (under published Max) shot 1/2” 5-Shot groups, and not just once! We were astonished. His buddy reported back that his uncle said it never shot that good before, ever. It wore a period correct Redfield 4-12x scope with tri-plex reticle.
We could have bought it off of him before cleaning for $200.00. Actually a “fair” price at the time.... Only IF !
And, BTW, it’s the only .225win I’ve ever seen “in the flesh”.
It amazes me how many fabulous rifle/cartridges never got off the ground due to tepid support from the manufacturers.
Ie; the .308ME and .338ME. I’ve never seen but a few .308 ME’s and those were the ones Academy Sports had. The only .338’s were the two I have I got off the Internet. Nerver saw a box of .338ME ammo for sale, except on-line. Going hunting in am with my recently aquired.308MXLR. Already banged one deer with it this year...
