Model 670 Winchester

T

taylorce1

New member
I recently purchased a used Winchester 670 rifle in .30-06. I got it cheap, because it has a bad barrel and seller was honest about it. He had the rifling counter bored at the muzzle to remove damage, and bedded the stock and it would only shoot 2.5-3" groups at 100 yards.

I was at my GS yesterday getting some stock work done on a couple of my rifles. I brought up I had this rifle that'll need a new barrel. He builds a lot of custom M70s and he suggested I go with a .270 Win. It was on my short list of cartridges I told him I was considering.

Here was his reasoning, he builds everything from custom ML to high end DGR rifles. He said he could use any cartridge he wants, but hunts most of his big game with his Pre-64 .270 Win. He's rebarreled that rifle with a Pac-Nor 1:8 and throated it for the 175 Sierra TGK, and said he's getting 2750 fps from that rifle and bullet combo. He considers that the best bullet right now for hunting at any range with the .277 caliber.

He also said that Winchester needs to market the 6.8 Western better. He feels Winchester is dropping the ball and missing getting some market share away from Hornady. He has been building a lot of them, and he feels it's better than the 6.5 PRC in a lot of ways. He said the 6.8 has impressed him in barrels as short as 18" for the guys using suppressors on their hunting rifles.

So it looks like I'll be buying a barrel for a .270 Win in the future.
 
I have heard nothing but good things about the 6.8 Western, just bad marketing and Hornady seems to have the market on all the new cartridges coming out.
 
I have a good friend that was my hunting partner when I lived in Nevada. He bought a Winchester 670 secondhand chambered to the .243 Win. and he just could not make it shoot a decent group. He asked me to try the rifle and he was right. The grouping was erratic as all get out. I first suspected the scope that came on the rifle so I put a spare I had. No help. Tried several of the handloads that worked in my rifle, no help there. Finally, I pulled the barreled action from the stock and the place where the recoil lug abutted was badly cracked. Still trying to figure that one out. Not much recoil from a .243. Well, a decent glass bedding job and a couple of tailored handloads that that rifle was shooting more like a good target rifle. I was happy and so was he. I put his original scope back on the rifle, sighted it in and told him to. "Have fun." He reloads so I gave him the data I worked up.
I've shot a few 670s in the past and they've been pretty decent shooters.

Currently I have a Model 70 in .243 that I haven't been able to get to shoot all that well. I don't know if I'll ever get around to fixing it. It's a post 64, pre 68 rifle is that makes any sense.
Paul B.
 
They backed off some of the 1964 corner cutting. Better stock, stainless magazine follower, I think that is when it got a bolt guide.
 
Well, I should pick up the M670 on Tuesday (FFL isn't open Sunday and Monday). I did the paperwork on Thursday evening, and I really dislike this 72 hour waiting period Colorado now has. I also had a Beretta APX A1 carry with Burris Fastfire shipped in so I only had to do one form 4473.

Thankfully I was able to find a new FFL that's only 10 miles from my house. The next closest FFL transfer agent is 45 miles one way. Just the amount of driving I have to do with the waiting period has slowed down my firearms purchases.
 
.270

I read enough of O'Conner as a kid, that when it came time to semi-retire my heirloom rifle that I did most of my whitetail hunting with, I bought a Rem 700 ADL in .270. Replaced the wonky poly stock with a really nice factory walnut version. The rifle has a rather coarse bore, which needs attention every 20 rds or so for best accuracy. This was back in the era when the 700's wore 22" barrels for most calibers and I found I could not get the velocity I wanted with the 130 gr slugs with powders I normally chose. Twenty years later, I have finally found a combination that gets me very close to 3000 fps and that's good enough.
I suspect that most of us can't utilize the advantages that the .277/175 tipped offers. Maybe I could better state don't need the advantage they offer, because most of us shoot <200 lb critters at distances under (way under) 300 yds. But I get it, not everybody is limited to hunting just deer/hog size critters and short shots by todays standards.

Good luck with your new project.
 
bamaranger said:
Good luck with your new project.
Click to expand...

Well it really isn't a new project. I bought a M670 .30-06 off of gunbroker back in 2012, cheap again of course. It had a broken toe on the stock, and I sent it off to have a recoil pad installed. I never got the original stock back, the guy I sent it to passed away from a heart attack.

So I found a deal on a Winchester Winlite stock and put the rifle back together with a Burris 3-9X40 FFII with LRS. The Winlite is a McMillan fiberglass stock, and mine is configured for a sporter barrel and blind magazine. I used it for awhile but eventually it found its way to the darkest corners of one of my gun safes.

Well about three years ago, I sold that M670 to a young man graduating college who wanted a big game rifle. I sold it to him for $600 with a cheap hard case, sling, and about 100 rounds of various factory ammunition to try. Anyway, he didn't like the Winlite stock, so he put a factory injection molded stock back on and sourced a 2 piece bottom metal.

Without asking me if I wanted it back, I received the Winlite stock in the mail. I offered to refund some money to him for the stock, be he didn't want any. He told me other than the stock, he loved the rifle and has managed to take two cow elk with it since he bought it off of me.

So I've had that stock collecting dust about two years now. I have been looking for another rifle to drop into it, trying not to add another .30-06 to the safe. Attempting to keep the cost under $500 in case the rifle had issues, but with no luck. Most were going to run $600-700 with shipping and FFL fees. So I jumped at $250 shipped for the action.

I probably could have sold the stock for more than I paid, but while not super lightweight it makes an 8 lb +/- hunting rifle with sling and 3-9X40 scope. To me that makes it a pretty useful rifle for most western hunting. Not so heavy it kills you to carry, and heavy enough to be shootable by most people.
 
The only .270 I have that has a 22" barrel is a Ruger #1A. the other four all have 24" barrels and I like them that way. I prefer hunting with the Ruger #1s and still kick myself for passing up a #1B in .270 with 26" barrel. My favorite loads run the 150 gr. Sierra Game King and 150 gr. Nosler Partition at close to 2900 FPS from the 24" guns using the long discontinued Winchester WMR Powder.
Paul B.
 
Ruger

The No.1 series with the longer tubes offer the ballistic advantage of the longer barrels, but an overall length close to a most 22-24" bolt rifles. Similar to the O/U shotgun v. pump-semi shotguns. The .270's early velocity claims were reached with 24" tubes. When Remington returned to the 24" bbls in the Model 700 line, they did ballistic buffs a real favor.

I have thought many times about having my 22" bbl ADL rebarreled to 24" but I no longer hunt it enough to justify the cost. Powder wise H4350 ( of course, presently near impossible to find) gets me the numbers I want with a 130 gr pill.
 
H4350 isn't hard to find, Midway, Midsouth, Natchez, and Powder Valley all have 8lb kegs in stock. However H4831 or SC has given me the best results with 130 grain bullets. Alliant Reloader 26 is impossible to find powder, and drives 150 grain bullets around 3000 fps out of 22" barrels in the .270 Win.
 
About 15 years ago, I bought a used but not abused 670 in .270 and had it re-barreled to 35 Whelen. Fitted with a 2-7X Burris scope it would deliver consistent 1.5 inch groups at 100 yards shooting Nosler Partitions. Turned out to be a great elk rifle. - Jack
 
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