WinchesterOwners.com

Hi I would like to say hi to everyone here . Here is my new Model 70 Super Grade in 7mm Rem Mag. i just love it .The workmen ship is better then great.

You did good. The furniture is dazzling.

redryder wrote:You did good. The furniture is dazzling.

Its 1970 Harden cherry wood lol.

I have never seen a Super Grade Winchester Model 70 that wasn't great. As to the joke about it being Harden Cherry.....being a supplier for Harden Mills and one of the few Black Cherry gunstock blank suppliers I would say that Black Cherry is very uncommon on gunstocks. My friend Jack O'Connor thought it was very suited to gunstocks and one of his Sugar Maple stocked Model 70s was from one of our blanks. Recent Shot Show Special Model 70 Maple stocks may have been our blanks. They were originally sent to Winchester for a featherweight maple model that never happened. Personally I like the tiger striping on any gunstock I select (also called fiddleback). Most of mine are American Black Walnut, Claro Walnut,
or English Walnut grown in the Rhone River valley in France.

Looking forward to the pictures DaveyJ...

Jimmitch:

That is one SWEET Model 70!

Congrats!


Mike T.

Jim,

Perhaps you thought I was referring to the house furniture by using "Furniture". Was referring to the wood on your 70.

Hey jimmitch,

As a tongue in cheek reply - You should be ashamed of having that rifle. It is far too ugly to show to anyone!!! YOU had better send it to me so I can hide it from viewing eyes....

Seriously though, IT IS BEAUTIFUL! You are to be VERY proud to have it. Thanks for sharing the photos.

Walt

Yep, if I were to get another Winchester Model 70, I would get a Super Grade Chambered in 30-06. That round is as common as dirt. I love my 300 WSM, its got enough power to drop anything in Central PA with one round. If my shooting ever improves I should be able to drop anything with one well placed round from a 30-06. 300 WSM ammo is not exactly a target practice round.


Cheers!


Mike T.

An An excellent example of a rifle with stock work really done 'right'! That in materials and execution. These newer generation Winchester 70 Super Grades can reflect some truly beautiful guns. Then too, the great 7mm Rem Mag. Highly prejudiced toward this cartridge itself, it swept the field in 1962 and has held its own crown now for over a half century in the 7mm mag category. A winning combination in a fine rifle.

I have several nice pre-64 Super Grades and I do beg to differ with the above comment that the pre-64 super Grade iterations compare in beauty with some of these later generation in terms of gunstocks. Of my pre-64 Super Grades only one is really in this same ‘striking’ category that many of the 'new generation' post 1991 SG models exhibit. Even then, that pre-64 example is a quasi-Super Grade. Actually, I believe a Custom Shop edition of a Super Grade since it's mated with a .338 Win Mag chambering with SN AFTER the Super Grades disappeared from the pre-64 Winchester line up. That was in the early sixties as their production cost outpaced their saleability.

Going back even to the Model 54 era, the Super Grade as envisioned and produced by Winchester was marketed as several clicks above the standard model. I'd call that SG iteration "handsome" and especially the first design without Monte Carlo offerings, 'classically handsome'. Ye only when ordered with extra grade wood, could that vintage compare with some of the new editions.

In that pre-64 era, Winchester still intended the Super Grade concept as essentially field guns. Nowadays, I’d be especially hesitant to take any of the SGs on extended field excursions. Many of the earlier ones too valuable. The later ones too ‘pretty’ for any routine hazards of day to day field use.

My take.

Iskra:

I agree with your Post. I have been looking at the prices of Pre 64 SG and they are certainly too expensive to take out in the field, much less "extended field excursions". Being that I am not in the tax bracket required to buy a Pre 64, I would be looking for a New Haven model, before the plant closed in 2006. My goal would be to buy a high quality rifle that I can actually afford. My recent purchase of a Model 70 Classic in SS and Composite stock was purchased specifically to hunt in the ever changing weather in central PA. I can't be concerned with rain that turns to snow, wind, and other uncomfortable weather situation when my purpose is to concentrate on game. I am very particular about my equipment, but it doesn't do me too much good sitting in a gun cabinet all the time.


Cheers!


Mike T.

I have purposely used the Super Grade .243 Shot Show Special Winchester Model 70 rifle in as hostile settings as possible. Snow, Ice, rain, etc.. In comparison I have also done that (weather permitting..that is BAD enough) with a new Model 70 Ultimate Shadow SS .243. My take on it is the two rifles are very weather tolerant. It is usually the people that give in. Scratches show MORE on the synthetic stocks than on the wood stocked rifle. I have the photos (very detailed) to prove that. On the other hand most would look at scratches on a synthetic stock and say "I don't care". I have seen some very old Super Grade Winchesters. They were not as select wood on the stocks and that is fact.

DaveyJ

I am not all that concerned about scratches and marks on my Model 70 Composite stock. I didn't buy it to shine it. I take care of my equipment, but rifles I use at the Range and in the field are going to have some signs of use no matter how careful I am with the rifle.


Cheers!


Mike T.

AN ADDENDUM APOLOGY!
Somehow in my original post immediately above, I'd submitted a draft rather than a 'final' post. Confusing, poor grammar and more than a few places nonsensical! I no longer have the original final edition, but have quickly edited the above post to form a cogent restatement.
I do apologize for the many errors and the waste of member's time in trying to interpret virtual nonsense! An embarrassed take!

redryder wrote:Jim,

Perhaps you thought I was referring to the house furniture by using "Furniture". Was referring to the wood on your 70.

Thanks redryer now I get it. I shot a nice buck with it at 200 yards, it dropped him like a rock.Now I need to take it out west for a nice elk .

Post a photo of your hunting trophy in our hunting sub forum jimmitch !!

This is my Tiger Striped Super Grade Model 70 .243 Shot Show Special. This rifle is wonderfully accurate!
The workmanship is truly amazing for the price. The action is super smooth. This is the quality current Model 70s are capable of being!

DaveyJ wrote:This is my Tiger Striped Super Grade Model 70 .243 Shot Show Special. This rifle is wonderfully accurate!
The workmanship is truly amazing for the price. The action is super smooth. This is the quality current Model 70s are capable of being!

Your SG shown here certainly ranks among the most spectacular, read that as beautiful, tiger striping I've seen. Congrats on a truly beautifully stocked gun! But just a point of clarification please, concerning your "shot show special" context. Was this a 'one off' rifle or one of a special genre? Recent show, recent acquisition? I think it merits an 'acquisition moment' story!

Thanks for sharing and...
My take

To Iskra: This was a Shot Show Special for 2014. The day of the Shot Show I was told about that by Joe and Rick at the Winchester Call Center in Utah. I immediately called the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery Maine and asked if they had put in an order for that rifle. I did say I was after a tiger striped American Walnut stock. Since I had NEVER seen a Super grade Winchester Model 70 with less than a phenomenal Stock I decided that whatever they sent to Kittery, and it was to come with a 22" barrel which my friend Jack O'Connor preferred for a Hunting Rifle (title of his 1970 book) which he sent to me when I had been drafted into the US Army, I'd be pleased with whatever I got. Then I waited and finally found out the rifle was in. I went and picked it up in Kittery for my 70th Birthday Present to myself... I already had been sent some photos of the rifle. It will shoot quite a few rounds and stay RIGHT on target. It though is my heaviest Model 70 Winchester. Even heavier than a .243 with a 24" barrel that was made in 1987. I have subjected that rifle purposely to some adverse weather. The rifle could get scratched but there are none yet and I have refinished any of my wooden stock Winchesters and feel a hand rubbed oil finish rework is an easy project.....but that is "winter" work here!

This is a coyote (62 pounds with a very nice coat I shot at 5:30am last early winter. This was the .243 Super Grade Shot show special .243 with the tiger striped stock. It has a Leupold 3x9 VX II scope on it. One shot at about 125 yards. I do use these wooden stocked rifles pretty heavy and will just sand the stock and put a hand rubbed oil finish if it comes to that. No marks on the stock as yet. It also is amazingly accurate. This rifle was built by Winchester FN Hershel in 2014. It is fairly heavy though for a 22 inch barrel rifle, part of the reason is a very dense stock.

DaveyJ wrote:This is my Tiger Striped Super Grade Model 70 .243 Shot Show Special. This rifle is wonderfully accurate!
The workmanship is truly amazing for the price. The action is super smooth. This is the quality current Model 70s are capable of being!

That's a great looking Super Grade for sure, Davey.The workmanship on these new Super Grades is just great for the price .I love mine, it shoots out to 400 and 500 hundred yards .I can't wait for the new season to start.

To jimmitch.......your 7mm Rem Magnum Super grade looks awesome. It seems to have a really complex burled grain which is great. I find these rifles very capable of shooting out to 500 yards. I also am certain that any slight stock finish problems could be totally reversed by sanding the stock and putting on a hand rubbed oil finish like the Birchwood Casey Finish. I can even adjust the color with that finish. Always better to leave the factory stock finish until you want to fix it since it is very durable and requires very low maintenance. The hand rubbed finishes do require a little more work. My friend Jack O'Connor totally preferred the hand rubbed finishes. Your Super grade and mine though came with a modern finish that looks great and requires less work to keep it that way. Experts like Chuck Hawks are very critical of molded stocks as they new don't look that good and over time do not hold up as well as many think they will. I shy away from the 7mm Rem Magnum due to recoil but it is one of the best magnums available anywhere.