Model 70 300 wsm Classic Stainless rebarrel

[Fishmaster196]

Mark Penrod
Kevin Weaver
LRI
Hill Country Rifles

All those are outfits with extensive experience working on m70’s. The latest and greatest tacticool flat brimmed bruhs with fat carbon barrels and a fancy Instagram presence are not what you want for a M70 job. Anyone suggesting a prefit for a M70 knows not of what they speak!

SDHNTR,
You are right. A classic should remain a classic with the proper barrel contour. Plus it will be easier to stock.
When I talked with LRI they advised that they had stainless barrels made for them. Not sure what company though. The barrel guy told me and it wasn’t a company that I had heard of.

 

[WeiserBucks]

SDHNTR,
You are right. A classic should remain a classic with the proper barrel contour. Plus it will be easier to stock.
When I talked with LRI they advised that they had stainless barrels made for them. Not sure what company though. The barrel guy told me and it wasn’t a company that I had heard of.

LRI keeps K&P barrels in stock and can get custom orders from them very quickly. K&P are cut rifled and as accurate as anything else that I've ever used.

 

[SDHNTR]

LRI keeps K&P barrels in stock and can get custom orders from them very quickly. K&P are cut rifled and as accurate as anything else that I've ever used.

This is right. They use a lot of K&P. They are good barrels and local to LRI. I have one and it’s excellent. You should have no worries.

 

[cacklercrazy]

I have worked on the trigger. It’s actually not bad and pretty easy to adjust. It’s set at 2.5 lbs. using my trigger scale.

There are several things that seem to empack Accuracy ,trigger, stock and bedding, barrel and ammo. Also floor plate screws and trigger guard screws. I mess with all of them on my 270. Ammo wasn't an issue until I had to switch to copper in it. It seems to like the barnes lrx stuff.

 

[LRI_Chad]

Greetings folks.

A friend saw us mentioned here and knows that "Winny's" are a pet favorite of mine, so he invited me to try and help.

We work on quite a few M70's and I've yet to see where a barrel fitted to one will install on another without additional work. In a pushfeed action format, a smith only has to be observant of 3 fundamental things when fitting up a barrel for safe and proper functionality.

• Breech-to-bolt clearance
• Headspace
• Thread fit between barrel tennon and receiver bore

(I'm ignoring the setup work regarding chambering, crowning, engraving, and fluting because I'm not trying to teach a machining class here)


M70's are no different. However, adding an extractor paw relief cut complicates things because now a clocking variable is introduced. There are a few things that influence this:

• Clock position of the lead thread on the receiver
• Distance from receiver face to lug abutments
• Distance from the bolt face to the bolt lugs

It requires almost nothing for a barrel to +/- clock on a receiver, resulting in a gun that won't function. It would be very tough to offer prefit barrels for this platform because you're attempting to fit a part to a constantly moving target.

The only way I would even attempt this would be to have a large inventory of M70 receivers run through the blueprinting/accurizing process I developed on my 5-axis milling center. That machine and the routines used does offer some "magic wand" capability, but it's an invasive procedure. The OEM 1" thread pitch is tossed out the window. I start over and enlarge the receiver ring to 1-1/16-18. The probing routine I wrote has the trig functions embedded in the program so that the machine will automatically identify and correct alignment errors as part of the fundamental setup. I also made the work holding to simultaneously fix peripheral errors like scope base hole alignment.



This all must be predicated by correcting the basic need to register off of a qualified surface. The bottom surface of an M70 is the polar opposite of precise. The castings are typically very rough, and the lump in the trigger mortise ruins any hope of the receiver clamping in the fixture in an unbiased manner.

Step one is to rework the lower side so that it'll sit "flat" in the Op2 workholding.

 

[LRI_Chad]

Continued...

K&P barrels were mentioned, so I'll try and help there as well. Ken Johnson is well-known in the 50-caliber bench rest community. We met almost a decade ago, and I have no issue endorsing his product. We buy more "sticks" from Kenny than just about anyone. I won't tell you that they shoot better than other brands, but I will say that they don't shoot any worse. I have sponsored national points leaders in the PRS series with K&P barrels. They are also on the vast majority of my rifles.

In the rare event of a problem (it has happened), you call me, send it back, and the problem gets solved. Neither Ken nor I have the time or patience to play the finger-pointing blame game so typical in this trade. The bottom line here is you (the client) have a chair to sit in when the music stops.


K&P Barrels are single-point cut rifled. You'll typically see a 75-150fps jump in velocity after the first 100 rounds. They are available in carbon or stainless. Carbon wrapping is not an option.

Current lead times when ordered from us are 4-5 weeks for a blank.


Happy to help.

 

[Wrench]

I have worked on the trigger. It’s actually not bad and pretty easy to adjust. It’s set at 2.5 lbs. using my trigger scale.

If you get the surfacescorrect and the spring replaced with lighter rate...they can be pretty impressive and still m70 bomb proof.

 

[Fishmaster196]

Continued...

K&P barrels were mentioned, so I'll try and help there as well. Ken Johnson is well-known in the 50-caliber bench rest community. We met almost a decade ago, and I have no issue endorsing his product. We buy more "sticks" from Kenny than just about anyone. I won't tell you that they shoot better than other brands, but I will say that they don't shoot any worse. I have sponsored national points leaders in the PRS series with K&P barrels. They are also on the vast majority of my rifles.

In the rare event of a problem (it has happened), you call me, send it back, and the problem gets solved. Neither Ken nor I have the time or patience to play the finger-pointing blame game so typical in this trade. The bottom line here is you (the client) have a chair to sit in when the music stops.


K&P Barrels are single-point cut rifled. You'll typically see a 75-150fps jump in velocity after the first 100 rounds. They are available in carbon or stainless. Carbon wrapping is not an option.

Current lead times when ordered from us are 4-5 weeks for a blank.


Happy to help.

LRI_Chad
Thank you for your response and explanation. You can expect my order next week!
Also I talked with two people at your shop the other day by phone. Both were very professional, friendly and helpful.
Thanks again!
Bob W.

 

[Unckebob]

Continued...

K&P barrels were mentioned, so I'll try and help there as well. Ken Johnson is well-known in the 50-caliber bench rest community. We met almost a decade ago, and I have no issue endorsing his product. We buy more "sticks" from Kenny than just about anyone. I won't tell you that they shoot better than other brands, but I will say that they don't shoot any worse. I have sponsored national points leaders in the PRS series with K&P barrels. They are also on the vast majority of my rifles.

In the rare event of a problem (it has happened), you call me, send it back, and the problem gets solved. Neither Ken nor I have the time or patience to play the finger-pointing blame game so typical in this trade. The bottom line here is you (the client) have a chair to sit in when the music stops.


K&P Barrels are single-point cut rifled. You'll typically see a 75-150fps jump in velocity after the first 100 rounds. They are available in carbon or stainless. Carbon wrapping is not an option.

Current lead times when ordered from us are 4-5 weeks for a blank.


Happy to help.

I hope this is not a stupid question (I am not mechanically inclined). Would it be fair to conclude that it would be that a push feed M70 action has more accuracy potential (as well as cheaper and easier to accomplish) than the controlled round feed version?

 

[SDHNTR]

I hope this is not a stupid question (I am not mechanically inclined). Would it be fair to conclude that it would be that a push feed M70 action has more accuracy potential (as well as cheaper and easier to accomplish) than the controlled round feed version?

Not necessarily, and maybe.

 

[Akblazer45]

I love the 300 wsm. I think it fits just about every North American hunt other than big bears. I also have a 300 wsm in a CA Ridgeline that I load for.
The Model 70 that I have in 300 wsm will shoot moa most of the time… then when I think I have it figured out…Not!
The Model 70 Stainless Classic is basically the first big game rifle I ever bought for myself. I’m attached to it and really want it to shoot!

I have a 2005 kimber 300wsm and it’s been my do all. When I first moved to AK I thought it would be to small for grizz. Then I saw everyone using 308s up here lol. It’s crazy I’ve seen more 308s kill grizz than anything. Probably a lot different on the coast though.

 

[LRI_Chad]

I hope this is not a stupid question (I am not mechanically inclined). Would it be fair to conclude that it would be that a push feed M70 action has more accuracy potential (as well as cheaper and easier to accomplish) than the controlled round feed version?

I don't think this is a bad thing to ask at all.

I've never seen where one action holds more accuracy potential than other when it comes to the extraction strategy used on the bolt. The better control round feed actions machine a cam feature in the slot directly behind the bolt face where the extractor registers and transfers the load from pulling the case to the bolt.

The cam will exert some pressure and push the extractor off the case rim to release the shell pressure when the bolt is in battery. The idea is to avoid inducing a side load on the case as it sits in the chamber, promoting better cartridge alignment. It's a small thing, basically "splitting hairs" in an effort to make things as good as possible and make a selling point when comparing brand X to Y.

The argument that has floated around for decades on a push feed is that the constant pressure exerted by the ejector pin promotes the case to sit "cockeyed" in the chamber. I think there are enough hard-hitting Remington-style actions that dismiss this as just another topic for the gun community to fuss over.

My personal choice is to always go to a CRF receiver when possible/applicable. When correctly set up, the ability to align the cartridge to the chamber before it ever enters the breech ring just makes things better. The added surface area purchase on the rim by the extractor paw just makes the whole thing that much more robust.

Hope this helps.