Winchester's Model 70 Extreme Weather SS Part I

The Model 70 Winchester has been with us since 1937. While Winchester manufactured a limited number of Model 70s with stainless steel barrels in the past, notably in 220 Swift and 264 Winchester Magnum, the first all stainless Winchester was introduced in 1992 as… The Model 70 Stainless Rifle. The current Model 70 Extreme Weather Stainless is quite an evolved product. Pictured, left with Burris 3x-15x-50mm scope.

In 2006, the Winchester division of the Olin Corporation entered into a long term agreement with Browning for the manufacture and distribution of Winchester brand rifles and shotguns and production began to move out of the United States. Browning is a wholly owned subsidiary of Belgium’s FN Herstal, which creates a multinational corporation’s economic and logistic reality that would be difficult to ignore.

Materials, process and labor are distributed world wide. Return on  investment and profit, not the politics of flag or labor, determines points of supply and production. In this case, the Winchester Model 70 was moved to the Browning Viana, Portugal facility. In operation for more than thirty years, Viana also produces the A5, Silver, Gold 12 and 20 gauge and Maxus shotguns, the Browning Hi-Power and FN Pistols, the BAR Mark II Safari Rifle, and the BAR ShortTrac and LongTrac rifles. Quite a collection of complex and high quality firearms.

Based upon careful inspection, the subject Winchester Model 70 is of better quality than Model 70 rifles that came out of the New Haven, CT plant during its last 10 years of operation. Even packaging has been improved, with the new Winchester coming out of its carton without little manufacturing handling defects that have become so prevalent with other brands.

The Model 70 Extreme Weather has a Bell and Carlson composite stock that is made with a hand lay-up process that incorporates a variety of composite materials including: fiberglass, aramid fibers, graphite, epoxy gel coats, laminating resins, polyurethane reinforcement, and milled fiberglass. Solid in construction unlike an injection molded piece, an embedded aluminum frame runs from front recoil lug back through the pistol grip to provide stabile mounting for the rifle’s barreled action. The barrel is floated for shot to shot consistency, recoil is damped with a quality Pachmayr® Decelerator® pad.

Above, with the stock and bottom metal pulled, the embedded aluminum frame is clearly visible. The frame provides a stabile mount for the rifles barreled action, but it also adds rigidity to the overall stock. The structure of the stock is rated reliable over a temperature range of -50ºF to + 140ºF.

Flat bedding block meets flat action… That works

Just as though design philosophies have resulted in controlled, versus push feed firearms, there are also the flat versus round bottom receiver philosophies. Mauser, Ruger and Winchester follow the flat path to accuracy while Remington, Savage are round and Weatherby has a little of each.

In this instance the flat bottom receiver mates with the stocks aluminum from and CNC component tolerances keep everything flat and level making for uniform clamping stresses. Additionally, Winchester makes its front recoil lug an integral part of the receiver rather than an extra part sandwiched between barrel and action. Under recoil the piece of greatest mass and security takes the hit and that load is not shared with the barrel shank.

A case for the unpretentious trigger…

The Winchester M.O.A. trigger seems to never get the notice it deserves. Perhaps because it doesn’t have a blade drop safety sticking through the trigger and it operates with no drama. The M.O.A. is a three lever trigger design; trigger, trigger sear and sear. The use of this arrangement yields a 2x mechanical advantage for a lighter, but safer range of pull resistance. A small spring under the trigger sear preloads the trigger and removes pretravel, the slack trigger before it meets sear resistance.

All of the friction load surfaces are polished and hard chromed which eliminates creep… a rough trigger feel as the sear is being released. Additionally, the hard surfaces are durable, so a good feeling trigger does not go away like a trigger job that has been cut and stoned into soft metal under a hardened surface. The M.O.A. trigger is set up for virtually zero overtravel as the trigger release ends with the trigger sear blocked from further travel and the nose of the trigger up against the trigger sear. Should lots and lots of use or personal preference require adjustment, preload, pull and overtravel adjustment, unlike most other manufacturers, Winchester includes detailed and illustrated instruction within each owner’s manual.

No getting pushed around..

The Winchester Model 70 Extreme Weather Stainless Steel is a controlled feed rifle; a cartridge in the magazine is picked up by the bolt face, slipped under the extractor and held as it is guided into the chamber. The extractor, as in a Mauser design, is full length and non-rotating. Ruger utilizes a similar design while Remington, Savage and Weatherby use a push design where the cartridge floats as it is pushed out of the rifle’s magazine, and not retained by the extractor. The theoretical benefit of controlled feed is that even if the rifle were held upside down the cartridge would feed and hesitating when closing the bolt would not possibly result in a jam or misfeed.

When fully engaged, the three position Model 70 safety lifts the firing pin away from the sear and locked the bolt in battery. Set to the middle position, bolt can be cycled to empty the rifle with the safety still engaged. The third position is safety off, or “fire”. All of the bolt’s parts move smoothly, are closely fit and its body is neatly jeweled.

The Winchester Model 70 Extreme Stainless Steel uses a combination of materials on the bottom side. The trigger guard – floorplate frame is cast aluminum. The floorplate, fasteners, magazine box, and magazine spring are steel. The follower is molded poly. They function reliably, the poly follower feeds smoothly and all looks consistent with the balance of the rifle’s fit and finish.

Cold hammer forged barrel… sort of roll out the barrel, but without the singing…

The Extreme Weather SS has a fluted barrel, the kind f barrel every software engineer or engineering student parrot in distain when they try to pass for firearm designers. A fluted barrel is not as rigid as a barrel of flute diameter, but it is lighter. A fluted barrel is stronger than a barrel made to the fluted barrel’s root diameter and it’s increased surface area dissipates heat more rapidly. No, I don’t have any self authored scripting language programs with graphical output to show concurrence with those expressed conclusions, but I do have the word of engineers who design firearms for a living, and the presence of fins on air cooled motorcycle engines for the past 100+ years for concurrence.

Generally speaking, the Model 70 has a good feel. The bolt through is slick, the lock up is solid, the controls are crisp and positive in actuation. The bolt release released the bolt. The floor plate latch unlatches and latches with a touch of the release. The stock feels warm, properly dimensioned and surface tooth makes for a non-slip surface. Scope mounting is easy, hardware is readily available. If I were running Winchester manufacturing, I’d be proud to put this product in customers’ hands.

 There are lots of 7mm cartridges. Pictured, left, 7mm-08 Rem, 7x57mm Mauser, 7mm WSM, 7mm Remington Mag, 7mm Rem Ultra Mag. The 7mm Weatherby should be represented as it is another good 7mm. The big draw is that typical 7mm bullets tend to have a high sectional density and high B.C.. In more practical terms, all of the cartridges are excellent hunting rounds. Depending on the selection, there is coverage from game the size of coyotes and hogs up through moose, elk and big bear.

The 7×57 Mauser has been with us since 1893, the 7mm Remington Mag since 1962. The 7mm Rem Ultra Mag is the most recent addition, 2002. The subject Model 70 is chambered for the 7mm Remington Mag, probably the most popular of the power 7s and the one with the greatest flexibility. We’ll take a break to gather live fire data and then return with Part II.