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March 3, 2020
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Over the spring/summer, I traded into a Winchester Model 70 chambered for .270. It is a post-64, but nevertheless is a beautiful rifle in a pretty nice walnut stock.
Anyway – I spent some time working up a good load for it, and then set it aside and waited for hunting season. I went in with a group for the non-resident draw, and as we were successful, I tagged along with them to the general area of Newcastle Wyoming.
Opening day comes, and on the way to our agreed upon hunting spots, we decide to take a look over a cut bank overlooking a creek drainage. Before I even get close to the edge, I see two bucks looking up at me. They both stand up, I get tunnel vision and shoot at one, and he drops into the sage. His buddy starts trotting away, and as he does 4 other bucks pop up to the left to see what all the commotion is about. My friend, who apparently wasn’t expecting to see anything, left his rifle in the truck. So – he puts his hand out, I slap my Winchester in his palm, and he takes a nice 3×3 before they all get wise and run off into the horizon.
When we go into the sage to recover my deer, I come up to him and am surprised by what I see. Easily the nicest buck I have ever taken – a 4×7 brute with a 28″ spread, tipping the scale at almost 200lbs after we gutted him.
My hunt was over before it even started, but I was OK with that. 
I spent the rest of the week spotting for my friends and enjoying my time in that part of the state.
December 9, 2002
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Congrats on a very nice Trophy and a successful hunt. Even if it was with a post 64 Winchester rifle, you still, bagged you’re Buck with a walnut and steel example!
Thanks for sharing and posting.
Anthony
January 20, 2023
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Outstanding trophy buck, John!! I was just reading an article about Audie Murphy in the latest American Rifleman and was struck by something he was quoted as saying that kept him alive during his very dangerous war in the ETO. He said he learned the value of acting within the “split second” – that it was indecision that got soldiers killed in combat.
I believe that translates to the hunting fields, which you’ve just demonstrated. Congratulations and that big fellow deserves serious taxidermy!
Now show us the rifle!
Best wishes,
Bill
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
May 22, 2024
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Congrats on a beautiful buck, Thanks!
November 7, 2015
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Nice buck and a story well told. Getting the tag filled early takes the pressure off and lets you do the fun stuff. Personally I enjoy being camp cook but he lease I sometimes hunt has plenty of excellent cooks!
Mike
November 19, 2006
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As has been already said, Nice Buck!
Thanks for posting.
March 3, 2020
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Thank you for all the nice replies. If anyone cares, I was using hand-loaded ammunition, A 130gr Nosler Ballistic Tip over H4895, in a commercial Federal case.
I always pillar and glass bed my hunting rifles, and was going to do so with this one. However, it was shooting under 1 MOA as it sat, so I figured why bother. I have a very similar one in .308 which is pillar and glass bedded, and it shoot under 1 MOA as well. Both rifles are 1970’s production, with the .308 being an “XTR” in a synthetic stock and having a blind box magazine. The .270 has the hinged floor plate, which I much prefer.
However – I really, really like shooting the .308, and filled my local doe tag with it last Friday evening. The doe, butchered out:
January 20, 2023
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The push-feed post-63 Model 70 rifles had several features that on average rendered them more accurate out of the box than most of their predecessors. The action was stiffer, the lockup was more consistent, and the barrels were hammer forged.
Enough shooting comparisons were done and recorded in John Amber edited Gun Digest volumes to document the fact.
The post-63 Model 70 and the Remington 700 were both employed in Vietnam as sniper rifles. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock used a Model 70 for that purpose. Neither could match today’s accuracy levels but in the late Sixties and throughout the Seventies, they set the standard.
Inherent accuracy obviously isn’t everything in hunting rifles but, cosmetics aside, the collector-despised post 63 Model 70 was underrated for what it could do. (I shot and hunted with one, a 1966 Standard grade chambered in 243 WCF and it was an eye opener.)
All Model 70 Winchester rifles are reliable, rugged, sufficiently accurate for hunting game, and fairly priced for the American workingman. That has always been true and still is.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
November 7, 2015
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I have extensive experience with a push-feed Model 670; an inexpensive birch stocked, blind magazine version of the post-63 Model 70 in 30-06. In its later years a bit of rifling let go and I had it rebored to 35 Whelen and placed it in a Boyd walnut stock with acraglass bedding. An upcoming project is another Model 70 in 30-06 but I can’t bring myself to modify a nice collector model 70 or pay today’s market price for a modified specimen. The project will involve lots of shooting and informal accuracy testing (translated: good recoil pad required!) so I think I’ll spare a collector gun from that fate. I happen to have another 670 waiting in the wings and another Boyd gunstock is a few keystrokes away. As Zeb noted these later guns are solid shooters and I need to save my discretionary funds for commercial j-word bullets. I’ve been spoiled by the old cartridges I love that are perfectly happy with my cast bullets.
There’s no shame in post-63 Model 70’s, however, collector interest is lukewarm at best. That actually works out well for the shooter and hunter, acquisition cost is relatively low and we won’t hesitate to take it on a rough country or bad weather hunt. No complaints from that big mulie, either!
Mike
August 8, 2024
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John, Very nice Mule Deer! As We know some rifles shoot better then others. I had a Friend of mine that had a 670 Carbine in .270 Win. That was extremely accurate. I have found that all the Pre 64 Models 70s that I have shot in .300 H&H Magnum are very accurate. A while ago my Brother was concerned with the accuracy that he could receive from a 1960 Standard Model 70 in .270 Win. He was going to the range with his friends that were shooting the new Models. I told him before he went to the range that your old Model 70 would shoot just fine. He called me later, and told me that I was right. His old Model 70 out shot the newer Models. A man should hunt with what ever rifle that pleases him! I myself, have found in my older age that life is too short to hunt with a ugly rifle! If you see me in the woods. You will notice that I am carrying the finest magazine rifle ever made. A Pre 1964 Model 70. My Son as well. He also hunts with a Pre 1964 Model 70 Winchester. I am a very happy Father!
January 20, 2023
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Bo, you make me think of two aphorisms:
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and
“Beauty is as Beauty does.”
I will agree with you that, for grace of lines pleasing to the eye and execution of build, the Pre-64 Model 70 Super Grade was the most handsome factory-made bolt action centerfire rifle in the American catalog.
That said, the successor Model 70 Super Grade rifles now being turned out by Browning Winchester are a close second, if we discount Kimber and Cooper.
If we expanded the category beyond bolt action models, I would personally have to concede the Ruger Number 1a takes all the cake, at least in its current execution for Cabela/Bass Pro. (And yes, the #1 still is a chore to make into an accurate shooter.)
Best target accuracy isn’t determined by one or two examples. With exceptions for the influence of Murphy on the factory floor, all American bolt action centerfire rifles are hunting accurate. Some of the new ones are astoundingly so. But benchrest and high power competitions have proven beyond reasonable doubt that the 1898 Mauser action and its clones and near siblings are not the place to start for a competition rifle.
The Remington 600, 700, and the post-64 push feed actions were closer to the winning target rifle designs, in several respects. The Winchester 670, the Remington 600, and the Remington 700ADL all shared one feature that made them, on average, more accurate than their deluxe siblings — a blind magazine, which stiffened the action and rendered barrel gyrations more consistent.
Do I like a blind magazine? No, nor a bull barrel or an uncontrolled feed action.
My 1950 Model 70 Super Grade can’t be fed single rounds into the chamber without jamming and I like it that way. Somebody before me floated the barrel and then added a contact point ahead of the tension screw, and it will consistently shoot into 1.25 to 1.5 MOA with any good factory ammo. How small a Whitetail am I going to hunt? But I wouldn’t bet lunch money against Mike’s Model 670 in a bench contest.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
March 3, 2020
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While I have pretty guns, unfortunately where and how I hunt is not kind to them. So, I usually take the uglier ones out with me when I go. And if they have synthetic stocks, they go to the front of the line.
May 23, 2009
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John D. said
While I have pretty guns, unfortunately where and how I hunt is not kind to them. So, I usually take the uglier ones out with me when I go. And if they have synthetic stocks, they go to the front of the line.
Well now if the uglier ones includes your face, you don’t have to take it out of the photo as well. We are all very PRO 2nd Amendment and PRO Hunting here on this Forum! There has even been several hunting articles and even butchering of wild game shown in the Association’s Quarterly Magazine. So if you are not already a Full Member, I recommend you join.
Sincerely,
Maverick
WACA #8783 - Checkout my Reloading Tool Survey!
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-research-surveys/winchester-reloading-tool-survey/
August 8, 2024
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A Man should hunt with what ever rifle that he wants. There is no right or wrong answer to this. Kinda like music. What ever you like, you like. At my age, and all the hunting that I did in my youthful days. Killing something is not the top priority. It is funny how your thoughts change. 95% of the time you will find me with my 1955 Featherweight Model 70 chambered in .30-06. That is my old friend, and I feel bad when I leave him back in camp. Being a gun guy. I have always enjoyed hunting with nice rifles. I enjoy having lunch in the woods, and looking at my old Model 70. Going hunting with a ugly rifle is like going to Church in you pajamas!
December 9, 2002
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Well said Bo, as I’m in agreement with you.
Anthony
March 20, 2010
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Congrats John D. on a really nice buck. Ive done some hunting in the southwest corner Wyoming. Love hunting Muleys.
Chris
1892takedown @sbcglobal.net ......NRA Endowment Life Member.....WACA Member
"God is great.....beer is good.....and people are crazy"... Billy Currington
March 3, 2020
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1892takedown said
Congrats John D. on a really nice buck. Ive done some hunting in the southwest corner Wyoming. Love hunting Muleys.
Chris
Thanks, Chris
It is a pretty part of the country. If it weren’t for the wind, I’d live in Wyoming.
I’m in the Cody area now with a couple of pronghorn and a couple of whitetail doe tags. Killed a nice doe pronghorn yesterday on BLM, and will go out later to see if I can improve my score.
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