Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/79269
Winchester now offers what Jack O'Connor fans might consider the best limited edition Model 70s ever, both chambered for (no surprise) .270. O 'Connor's original #2 Winchester Model 70 is on display at the Jack O'Connor Hunting Heritage & Education Center in Lewiston, Idaho. The rifle's pistol grip cap and buttplate were ordered from a European engraver by Al Biesen, who restocked the rifle in 1960. Opposite: O'Connor killed this Stone ram with the #2, which he treasured as his all-time favorite hunting rifle. Fully three generations back, gun-writers began calling it the Rifleman's Rifle. Jack O'Connor heralded it in print and carried it around the world. Then, in 1964 it became historic news when Winchester itself corrupted it as the revamped, push-feed M 70 – a Model 70 in name only. In 1992, like Classic Coke replacing New Coke, it returned as the M70 Classic controlled-round feed M70 of old with a couple of small improvements. You'd think that should be more than enough press for any rifle, but the Model 70 has as many ways of staying in the news as Madonna. Winchester shook the foundations of American rifle-making in 2006 by closing its ancient, inefficient manufacturing plant in New Haven, Connecticut, after 140 years of operation. The Rifleman's Rifle would no longer be built! Used M70 prices soared. Grown men wept. Winchester heard them. Two years later M70 production resumed at a new, computerized, modern facility in Columbia, South Carolina. Tighter tolerances, attention to detail and increased W It deserves it. Rif les inchester's Model 70 bolt-action rifle gets way too much attention for a reason: precision inspired Winchester to advertise MOA accuracy. A new M.O.A. trigger system designed to eliminate creep, take up and over-travel via a 2:1 mechanical advantage emboldened them to make that claim, as did hammer- forged barrels and epoxy-bedded, flat-bottom receivers that attach via a front receiver bolt through the flat behind the recoil lug. This location permits bedding pressure to be applied level with the bed, leaving the barrel truly and consistently free-floating. The upshot is a walnut stocked rifle with the consistency and stability of one bedded in handlaid fiberglass. The M70 is such an American classic that another American sporting icon, Cabela's, chose it as one of its limited edition rifles (500) in celebrating its 50th anniversary last year. With upgraded walnut, shadowline cheekpiece, ebony forearm tip, one-inch red Decelerator recoil pad and glossy blued finish, the rifle is a beauty reminiscent of (but better than) the classic M70 look of 1961, the year Cabela's started. Specially engraved bottom metal includes a gold inlay of the Cabela's logo. Even though the official anniversary year has passed, a few of these rifles remain in inventory and can be viewed on line or at select Cabela's retail stores. This year Winchester itself is celebrating an anniversary – the 75th year since the first Model 70 was made. As you might imagine, they're marketing a 75th Anniversary Super Grade M70 decked out with fancy walnut stock, SPOR TIN G CL ASSICS 56 By Ron Spomer