Model 70 Super Grade '06

[J.E. Walker]

This one is the current model - three or so years old. They are free-floating the barrels now and the trigger is really good-though it seems to be the item most often replaced. It's easy to shoot off-hand and 180 grain bullets in the 2700 fps range are pretty comfortable. I find that I can hit with it better off hand than with my ARs -even with the extra blast and recoil.

The Caldwell Lead Sled seems to take bout 1/2 -inch off the best groups I get from a light plastic cradle rest.

 

[jgh4445]

Cool. Pretty rifle. I have a Super Grade in 25-06. Supposedly it was one of the last ones made in either GA. or SC, can't remember where they made them, Ga. I think. Mine is a tack driver too.

 

[johnnydollar]

Very nice rifle. Looks like a shooter, too.

 

[J.E. Walker]

the scope is a leupold 6x42 fixed power. It seemed like The Right Thing To Do though I'm not sure that fixed power scopes still have any advantages over the modern variables.

 

[Sunray]

180 grain bullets in the 2700 fps range are max loads. You work up to that? Try a 165.
Fixed magnification scopes do tend to be a bit lighter weight wise. Most shooters set a variable on one 'X' and leave it there anyway.

 

[jmr40]

180's at 2700 fps is a pretty mild load comparable to most factory ammo. 2800-2850 is entirely possible from a 22" barrel, closer to 2900 fps from longer barrels. With the right powder. He is about 1.3 gr over max with that powder per my sources. But the velocity is just about where it should be so he might not be over in THAT rifle. It obviously works.

That is a nice rifle, I like it.

 

[back40]

good looking rifle, and nice choice on the glass. i'm liking fixed powers more and more these days.

 

[J.E. Walker]

Matter of fact. 49.5 grains of 4062 is in the 2600 + range and showed wider extreme spread and larger groups. Velocities across the 2700 fps range are the published factory standard though some Hornady loads are in the 2800 fps range as are some handbook loads with various powders. The load I quoted is maximum in some handbooks a few grains over in others and completely, internet experts to the contrary notwithstanding, safe in my rifle Speer has consistently listed it as the maximum load since 1958- a time when they listed a significantly higher charge of IMR 4350 than is currently recommended.
I have found several tractable loads in the mid to high 2700 fps range using IMR 4350 and Ramshot Hunter-which seems to max out at over 2800fps . One handbook lists the maximum charge of IMF 4350 as 56 grains while the IMR referecne says not to exceed 56.5. There is a difference of about 20 fps between those two charges making the average of 2777 fps not worth the extra .5-grain of powder and whatever extra pressure attaches particularly since the extreme velocity spreads are very similar.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I wish you could get that rifle with the old-style Model 70 trigger as an option.

I have a custom '03 Springfield in .35 Brown-Whelen that is a great rifle, but it has a Mashburn trigger -- an enclosed trigger mechanism like that on the current Model 70s. I have had that trigger freeze up on me while hunting in fog and drizzle in the Rockies. Ever since then, when the weather gets damp and cold, I take my pre-64 Model 79. Its trigger has never failed me.

 

[merrill]

I have a Winchester model 70 Black Shadow I bought at a pawn shop. I floated the barrel and bedded the stock and adjusted the trigger. I would not want a lighter trigger. It shoots about 1/2 in. @ 100yds. from a Lead Sled, but it isn't nearly as pretty as J.E. Walker's. Compared to his, mine is downright ugly.