Verifying manufacturing dates|What's New!|Forum|Winchester Collector

Buck,  the OP describes his father’s .270 as a Model 670, not a Model 70. If that is not a typo — and he’s described the number twice — it cannot have been made in 1949. 

Kyle, could you please verify that the Model number of your Dad’s .270 is “670” or “70”?

Thanks

Thanks, Steve. I remember the 670 well because it is so much better looking than the 1964 – 1967 Model 70.

For its perceived faults, the post-63 action is much stiffer than its predecessor and the blind magazine of the 670 improves on that benefit. The 670’s short barrel of moderate taper provides additional stiffness. 

I never owned one but the similar 1966 Remington 600 carbine chambered in 6mm Rem was a $99 education in a box. 

The graduate course was a 1966 Model 70 .243 I got much later in 2002, as a result of too much good Scotch while surfing Gunbroker. It was marginally less ugly than the 1964 version, like the other fat girl who didn’t sweat as much. It would shoot subminute groups to the point of boredom. 

I have been told my 1980 Model 70 XTR Magnum 375 H&H will also shoot tiny groups, if I work up the right loads. Somehow I haven’t found time to do that.

TxGunNut has a neat little 670, a 30/06, set into a cherry red laminated (Boyd, I think)  stock. He’s fettled the inletting until the gun shoots very well indeed. 

While impractical accuracy is the current manufacturer’s rage in major caliber big game rifles,  anyone [most of us] who collect and shoot  pre-64 Winchester game rifles know that target competition accuracy was not a first concern of WRACO (or Savage or Marlin or even Remington) for their hunting rrifles. Despite the advertising hoopla about their target competition line. 

Although Remington loyalists would cut their tongues out before admitting it, the late Merle (“Mike”) H. Walker’s motivation for his brilliantly accurate Model 721/722 action design was to keep Dupont from shutting Remington down. He had to design a rifle that could be made in quantity at a profit, using cheaper materials and less skilled labor and machine time. That his basic design still rules benchrest and long range target competition today, was a happy byproduct. 

That is not to disparage Walker’s skills or his fame as one of the leading lights of the sport of benchrest. I expect his expertise in building and using benchrest guns informed his 721 design, at least subconsciously. But what he most wanted at the time was to keep Remington and his job afloat