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January 23, 2018
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For those who attempt to search out the provenance of a particular M70 or other custom shop gun beware. A conversation with Winchester archives on 1/24/18 stated that during the transfer of the company in 93 the records of the custom shop were NOT moved and no attempt to date has been made to locate them. In my case I have a Sharpshoooter 2 with a Schnider custom barrel and a 1982 receiver all carefully placed onto a Mcmillan stock. The gun definitely shoots as advertised with <1/2 moa with 180 grn. Sierra hpbt @ 100 yards and with the conditions favorable I shot a 14″ group at Ft. Sill this December @ 950 meters. This issue is again pedigree and so many of the new companies and consolidations don’t seem to be taking the extra care in writing anything down for posterity. Thank god I’m able to trace all of my other Winchester shotguns.
November 7, 2015
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Thanks. Big fan of the M70 but not a collector. The M70 collector market is a great illustration of the “caveat emptor” philosophy, IMHO. The earlier M70 rifles were a bit better as far as documentation but as you probably know most serious competition rifles have complicated “pedigrees”.
Mike
January 23, 2018
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Both of My Van Orden Rifles were such a joy to research, especially after having my one of my original
1st officers who knew him personally. As we move forward thru this electronic age it seems as if critical intel is secondary to the WWW’s unverified BS. I think I’ll still base my knowledge on face time, Norm Flayderman and older Stoger catalogs.
January 23, 2018
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Mike: Progress is far better than Regress. Unbeknown to me a shooting buddy who worked in the custom shoop at Winchester before he left and went to Mossberg told me it was common for them at the WCS to take 1 of the selected receivers off their shelf to begin a build, then match a finished bolt, trigger group and barrel, the issue was always the quality not the roll mark serial number. My Sharpshooter has a 1982 receiver with a schneider barrel that was finished in 1990. Regardless, <1/2 moa with a 180 gr. sierra hpbt is effortless.
David
November 7, 2015
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Makes perfect sense, David. The age difference in barrel and receiver doesn’t seem unusual. I know serious rifle shooters who don’t hesitate to replace a barrel at the first hint of declining accuracy or other reasons. Reminds me of my Open PPC revolver, first two barrels were relegated to paperweight status in the first few years of competing with this gun.
Mike
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