Alas, when Winchester redesigned the Model 70 in 1963, it not only incorporated a number of technical changes—some good, some questionable—it also gave the rifle a makeover worthy of a TV game show. Anyone left unoffended by the technical changes was sure to be enraged by the “new” Model 70 on looks alone. Perhaps Winchester tried to do too much all at once—reducing cost, reducing weight, increasing strength, improving accuracy, updating appearance. Later tests by respected writers proved the new Model 70 was stronger and more accurate than the pre-’64, but all the test reports in the world could not offset the effect of the jazzy jeweled bolt, high-gloss stock, white-line spacers, impressed skip-line checkering, alloy floorplate and trigger guard, and the “floating” barrel above the hogged-out channel of the forend.
Winchester may have made the Model 70 cheaper to make, which is good, but it also made it look and feel cheaper, which is not. Four years later, the company tried to repair some of the damage, but the post-’68 versions have not gone down in history, except to isolate the rifle made between 1964 and ’68 as the all-time low.
Between 1968 and 2006, the Winchester company and its factory in New Haven endured tough times, being spun off into a separate firm (U.S. Repeating Arms), with the factory finally closing its doors. It had already experimented and made genuine progress with restoring the Model 70 when it was finally taken over by FN of Belgium and its subsidiary, Browning Arms. And that brings us to today’s Model 70.
As it celebrates its 80th birthday, Browning has returned the Model 70 to its iconic status as the Rifleman’s Rifle.
Where before it read on the barrel Made in New Haven, Conn., it now reads Made in Portugal. Portugal? The rifles are, indeed, assembled in Portugal at a factory owned and operated by Browning as part of FN’s worldwide network of manufacturing facilities. No one has ever questioned Browning quality, which has always been regarded as a cut above everyone else in both craftsmanship and elegance. The world of manufacturing today is global, and Browning is not alone in establishing facilities in low-cost Portugal. There is, for example, no more respected name in optics than Germany’s Leica, and it maintains some of its manufacturing there. What counts is technology and workmanship, not geography. In the case of the Model 70, its hammer-forged barrels are made at the FN facility in South Carolina, its actions come from FN contractor PMW in the United States, and the triggers are the same as those found on Browning rifles. This “M.O.A.” trigger mechanism replaced the highly esteemed original Model 70 trigger after 2007; the original was wonderful, but this one’s better. Browning has always had a European eye for style, and this is now reflected in the Model 70. Most obviously, the stock is almost pure “American classic,” eliminating the Monte Carlo comb, the glossy varnish, and the white spacers. The checkering may be machine-cut, but at least it’s cut, not impressed, and it’s beautifully done.
Testing a pair of .270s—a Super Grade and a Featherweight—showed them to be inherently very accurate, delivering sub-one-inch five-shot groups with some factory ammunition and handloads, and not with others. Who can complain?
Most important aesthetically is that both rifles look and feel like genuine, classic, real rifles: solid and smooth, with effortless functioning that’s a pleasure just to feel beneath your hands. In recent years, this is a sensation that has been delivered only by fine custom rifles—after a lot of work, and with a hefty price tag. Or, occasionally, picking up a factory rifle from an earlier age, like a 1965 Schultz & Larsen, or any Mannlicher-Schönauer from 1903 onward.
The Winchester Model 70, vintage of 2016, has joined that august company. As it celebrates its 80th birthday, Browning has returned the Model 70 to its iconic status as the Rifleman’s Rifle. It is, mechanically and aesthetically, a match for anything being produced today—and much that was produced in years past.
Wieland does not expect to look so good when he hits 80, but then, who does?
