Range time today

About 5 Year’s ago I inherited some rifles and gear from my wife’s step dad.
One rifle is a pre 64 Winchester 270 topped with a 4X Field & Stream Hy-Score that I had not shot until today. I had some reloads from my FIL that were marked as 54 grains of 4350 with a 130 grain Hornady on top. I had pulled apart most of his reloads but since these were identified well I decided to try them. I really wanted to just have the brass to measure afterward and that was my main goal.
I was a little surprised by the results especially given the fact that there were 4-5 different headstamps lumped together in the box of 50. I took five shots at the 100 bench and here are the results.

Camo

Surprises often lie hidden in old firearms and ammunition. Looks as if you may have found such a surprise, and it is a pleasant one. You may have a shooter on your hands.

Dr Mike, I agree.
This was my FIL’s hunting rifle and even though he reloaded I am sure that he was satisfied with groups like this. It will be interesting to see if I can improve them. I am also thinking about swapping out the F&S 4 power for an older vari-x II in 3x9 but not sure if I should change it or not.

Camo

I also took a vintage Savage 30-06 out today for the first time. It was my wife’s dad’s rifle. He was killed in a mining accident when my wife was two. Her uncle passed this rifle to her a few years back. I used shells that I keep for fouling shots only so I was not expecting much. Again wanted to get brass to set up dies. This 3 shot pattern is what I expected at 100 yards, especially since I am pretty sure that I had both eyes shut on the first shot... :mrgreen:
I have no idea how many years it has been since this rifle has seen action.

Camo

Ya' just can't tell until you do the bench work. It could be a shooter with the right ammunition. It does sound as if someone has a sense of history in placing these rifles in your hands so that they remain in the family. Who knows? Perhaps you wife will want to pull the trigger on one or both of these rifles.

You are correct. I pretty much use Remington brass in my other 30-06 so I have put brass of a different flavor on my Christmas list. I have two sets of dies so can have a separate set for both rifles too.
Then I have another older Leupold 3x9 looking for a new home so this rifle might get an upgrade also. It will be a fun project and I am looking forward to setting these up for my grown sons to use and will pass them on to them someday. Of my six hunting rifles the newest ones are from the 1970’s but most are much older. Gotta love old rifles...

Camo

Very nice. Who’d of guessed a M70 270 Win would shoot so danged well! Congrats on that one.

I’d bet that 06 will be great once you throw some good loads at it. Way to go. Very cool.

It is always nice to get pleasant surprises :wink:. A real good cleaning using Wipeout and some good old load building & you will likely have a couple more fine shooting rifles .
Looking foreword to a few more range reports with photos I hope!
Blessings,
Dan

Great to inherit any guns and especially old, good ones!

That top group for an assortment of brass, is impressive! That rifle I bet will be a good one. Who knows the other one could be a tack driver as well. Either way it's always nice to bring old family guns back into action.

The '06? My thoughts are I'd rather try to shrink a triangle than a big horizontal or vertical string, or two close and the third out in left field.... I'll bet you get it done!!
EE2

I just got a bag of new Winchester brass for the 30-06 (Early Christmas gift) and have a few bags of 165 grain partitions to load up. It should be fun to see what I can do with it.
The 270 I will tweak a bit and see what happens but it might be pretty close already.
Camo

Camohunter - that .270 Win group looks pretty doggone good. Yes, there's one flyer, but who knows? That could be attributed to many things. The four clustered together... That's real nice.

Those old Model 70's were typically built to rather high standards, and could be bedded and the trigger worked on a bit to make them even more accurate. The .270 itself is no slouch! It's one heck of a cartridge despite being older than most of the trees in our National Forests...

I think that if it was my project, I'd give that .270 a thorough cleaning & overall exam. Tighten up anything that's loose. Consider bedding the action and a couple inches of barrel, then free-floating the rest. Tune the trigger to roughly 3# and crisp. Make sure all the scope mounts & rings are secure.

Then I might just load up some more of those 130's, or Nosler 130's, over a similar charge of powder, in quality new brass...

Am hopeful that you'll see NO flyers and excellent accuracy. That should be one heck of a great rifle!

Guy

Guy, all very good suggestions thank you.
I did not have a spotting scope and could not see where the rifle was hitting during the 5 shots. I would have liked to know which one was the flier. I shot these 5 shells because they were necked down 30-06 headstamps and I don’t like mismatched caliber headstamps, especially when I have both calibers. I was very surprised when I walked up to the target board and saw the group. Now I am excited to see if I can make it even better. I have 40 odd used and 20 new brass marked as Herters and have read that this brass is pretty good. I will see what it can do.
The 30-06 will be fun a fun project too, and should match up well with a 50+ year old Vari-x II

Camo

Mr O"Connor liked the 270 for a reason. Guys suggestions would be right on the money IMHO... just for fun. Hard to beat a 130 grain anything that shoots that well. Bet that was fun to "discover". CL

A Winchester Model 70 in 270 win is about as classic as it gets. I’ve missed my 270 every since I got rid of it, maybe one day I can round up another.


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