Winchester (FN) Model 70 in .243

[deerhuntersc]

I'm looking at purchasing a Win. (FN) Model 70 Featherweight in .243 Win. The rifle will be for my wife and will be used primarily to hunt whitetails with factory ammunition.

My primary concern is with the slower twist rate in the Winchester (compared to say a Rem. 700) and how well it will handle 100 grain flat-base bullets.

If anyone has had any experience with the Model 70 in .243 (or used lighter weight bullets for whitetail deer) I would greatly appreciate any feedback or advice. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[joed]

I have a featherweight in .243 that I bought last year. It has shot Winchester 100 gr bullets just fine though I don't normally shoot that weight.

 

[viking499]

What is the twist of the FN? Of the 700?

 

[sappyg]

I have an early production CF featherweight in 243. It must be close to 20 years old now. IIRC they rifle twist is 1/9.
It has stabilized everything from 70 gr-100 gr and is very accurate. It does not like 105 gr. bullets at all.

 

[viking499]

I have a Winny from 1968. Believe it is a 1:10 twist. It really likes 100 grain bullets. Will also shoot 55 grain bullets with great accuracy.

 

[deerhuntersc]

Viking: FN 1 in 10", Rem. 1 in 9 1/8"

 

[Abel]

100 gr works fine in a 10".

 

[viking499]

The Winchester will handle the 100 grain bullets just fine.

My son has a cheap Savage that we picked up on he used rack. I believe it is 9ish twist. It also handles the 100's just fine.

Most 243's will handle 100's. it is just that some will handle heavier and some will handle lighter.

The FN will be fine. Pick it up and post pictures for us.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

1 in 9 1/8th inches is plenty of twist for the 243...

 

[Gtscotty]

I own the exact rifle you're considering. I do think the 1 in 10 twist made the rifle a little more difficult to develop a heavy bullet deer load for. My rifle quite blatantly prefers lighter bullets, it was a snap to develop loads for 70gr Speers and 85 gr Sierra HPBT (supposedly a great deer bullet). The 95 gr Ballistic Tip load I worked up for deer took more experimenting, but it was totally worth it. I get right around 3,000 fps with 0.7 to 0.8 in 5 shot groups.

The 95 gr BT was supposedly developed by one of Nosler's senior ballisticians to be the quintessential 6 mm deer bullet. Both of the deer I shot this year with that load had lots of internal damage and quarter sized exit wounds.

I'd say go for it, it is a slick handling, sweet shooting deer rifle.

I must admit, when I first got the rifle I tried a few different varieties of factory 100 gr hunting ammo with poor results. I sent the rifle back to Winchester thinking there might be something wrong with it. When I got the rifle back from Winchester, there was no note, or explanation of what they had done, there were only 3 targets with a <0.75" group on each one. I noticed that the groups were shot with Federal 80 gr Power-Shok, and that is what turned me on to trying lighter bullets, after I did, the rifle really started to shine.