The Winchester Model 70 Featherweight And The 6.8 Western Part I

June 9, 2024 – I was thinking, once I announced there would be only one more year of Real Guns®, I would be free to write creatively, and to focus on the things I find of interest. Apparently, I have not been under pressure by “The Man”, or an innate drive for commercial success, so, no change. Although I did get a second motorcycle. Of course you’re tired of reading about motorcycles, but…

I wanted something with about 30 horsepower, as close to 300 pounds as I could get, and as low of a seat height as I could find to fit my freakishly truncated inseam. Damn this Neanderthal body. Proportionally, my trunk is 6’2″-6’4″. From the knees down I am approximately 5’10. Unfortunately, my thighs are 4’11”. Consequently, my inseam is 28″, so only a child’s bicycle or Harley would allow me to flatfoot at a stop.

I had a Harley for awhile, an FXDX Dyna Super Glide Sport. It was a very nice motorcycle, trimmed of excess Harley weight, and with cushy suspension, mostly black. Unfortunately, I could hold the throttle wide open, and eat lunch, while it climbed to 75 MPH. I did love the thumping sound of the long stroke, air cooled twin.

It was a good highway cruiser, but it could have used a set of end tables… and maybe a cup holder. Nope, no sir, not for me, so it went. What I needed was a bike that would keep me living on the edge. Which… at my age, and current proficiency level, does not take much. A day of missing my medication, or riding the Suzuki… which is like wearing a defibrillator under my jacket, with the paddles constantly juiced.

So a CFMoto 300NK was added. It had a low list price, a steeply discounted sale price, and it is mine. Or, at least it will be next Wednesday when I pick it up at the dealer, and I putt-putt my way over these mountain roads.

The theory behind the purchase was that it will be ideal for parking lotproficiency drills, transportation down the hill to Sebago for fishing, and an easy ride to pick up mail… at 100 miles per gallon of gas.

I did chat with Corrina, in advance of… “To be named”‘s arrival, but got nowhere. She was actually a bit salty, and flat out refused to make room in the garage. So I will have to park the car out on the driveway, at least until they have sorted out their sibling differences.

A classic modern rifle… Yes, that word play was intentional

Combining a classic model that was originally introduced in 1952, with a semi recently introduced (2021) 6.8 Western cartridge seemed like an excellent idea. The Winchester Model 70 Featherweight is very close to the original pre ’64 Model 70 Featherweight in design and aesthetics.

I am not going to regurgitate the history of the Winchester Featherweight. You can Real Guns® site search on the key word “featherweight”, and check out the dozen times the model has been reviewed in various chambers. From a spec box standpoint, the subject gun looks like this…

Some things remain the same…

The current bottom metal is a combination of aluminum trigger guard and hinged magazine frame. Both internal magazine box and hinged floorplate are steel. The floorplate bluing matches the rest of the steel parts. A little wipe down gun oil, and a hit with electronic flash, gave it a rainbow cast.

I am sure the aluminum reduces weight, but not by much. I replaced the aluminum with steel pieces on my personal Winchester Model 70 rifles. The change made no functional difference, but the use of blackened aluminum on such nice looking rifles kept me awake at night.

The bolt remains one piece, machined from steel billet. The knob still has a non-slip knurled ring. The safety is three position wing. The controlled round feed, non rotating claw extractor is still present, and the bolt face is slotted for a fixed blade ejector. The bolt jeweling remains a nice touch.

The current wood to metal fit is good. The front recoil lug and rear action fastener location have stabilizing spot glass bedding. The barrel is a close stock fit, but it floats in the barrel channel.

My Model 70s have the old style, Repeating Arms non-adjustable trigger. The current utilizes the Winchester MOA adjustable trigger system, which is a major improvement over the original. Zero creep, zero overtravel. Glue dabs on the adjusting screws.

Slender barrel

The 6.8 Western Featherweight retains the light profile barrel. This one measures 0.558″ at the muzzle. I believe 0.560″ is nominal. The spec weight is 7 lbs 0 oz. This one weighs 7 lbs 1 oz, the difference from spec no more than bore diameter and wood density differences.

The rifle is available is a good number of calibers to accommodate hunting everything from varmints to North American big and dangerous game. Barrel lengths are either 22″ or 24″ as appropriate for the cartridge:

22-250 Rem 22″, 243 Win 22″, 25-06 Rem 22″, 6.5 Creedmoor 22″, 264 Win Mag 24″, 6.5 PRC 24″, 270 Win 22″, 270 WSM 24″, 6.8 Western 24″, 7mm-08 Rem 22″, 308 Win 22″, 30-06 Springfield 22″, 300 WSM 24″,   300 Win Mag 24″, 325 WSM 24″.

So why the interest in the 6.8 Western?

There were two rifles under consideration when I purchased my first centerfire rifle, a Marlin Model 336 30-30 WCF or a Winchester Model 70 in 270 Winchester. Leroy Weber, a friend at the time, convinced me that the 30-30 lever action was the better choice for Eastern hunting, and that the 270 Winchester was only useful in prairie states, and for five hundred yard running shots at antelope. Yes, I know, pronghorn. At any rate, the 270 Winchester was dead to me.

I held Leroy’s untested views until the age of fifty two, even after the events of the mid 1960s, when I headed for a recruiter’s office, and Leroy headed for Canada. In retrospect, he was a bright guy. I may have wandered off topic… just a bit. Yes. Rifle. Winchester…

The 270 WSM is arguably the best of the WSM cartridges. When it was introduced in 2001, I purchased a Winchester Super Shadow for handload development; the homeliest push feed Winchester of all time, paired up with one of the cartridges that stuck forks in the hearts of Remington’s Ultra Magnums, and maybe Remington… the company.

The 270 WSM Super Shadow was accurate, had a lot of reach… Did I mention it was accurate? It was also a soulless lump of weirdly molded plastic and haphazardly finished carbon steel, chambered for a cartridge with an aspect ratio that defies Western European proportion sensibilities.

During the course of that handload exercise and performance review, I compared the 270 WSM to the 270 Weatherby and 270 Winchester. A small, but very impressive group of cartridges. Subsequently, I now like 0.277″ firearms, but it seems the 6.8 Western might be no more than Winchester tearing a page from the 6.5 Creedmoor marketing handbook.

I’m not 6.5 Creedmoor wacky. I was never able to get one to do anything more than the 260 Remington in any measure of performance, and I have never found a short action worth the compromise of cartridge length. A long neck, short case cartridge would not be needed, if manufacturers didn’t insist on stuffing them in an inappropriately short action.

So the 6.8 Western is a challenge to the .270 WSM, and both are Winchester cartridges. The 6.8 Western max pressure is 4481 BAR, approximately 65 KPSI and it has a case capacity of 73.6 grains. The 270 WSM max pressure is 4400 BAR, approximately 63 KPSI, but a case capacity of 78.5 grains.

The case body diameter is the same for both, the shoulder is set back further, and the OAL is longer in the 6.8 Western, so case capacity is reduced. If the 6.8 Western OAL could be increased to seat heavy bullets, 170-175 grain, out further in a short action, why couldn’t the 270 WSM be loaded with heavier bullets seated out further? Mysteries, all requiring resolution, the Part II objective.

So 6.8 Western dies, brass and ammo will be in at the start of the week and the project will advance.