Model 70 super grade maple or walnut featherweight

Can't decide between the super grade maple model 70 winchester in 6.8 western or the featherweight.model 70 featherweight.That maple is sure pretty and weighs 8 pounds or do I go with the featherweight walnut at 7 pounds. Decisions, decisions, decisions.....

Maple.

Calling the Maple a "Super Grade" should be criminal! Just tell it like it is, people won't pay for Super Grade quality walnut anymore. I love my model 70 SG's but they are a tad heavy.

Walnut

There is only one right answer: Buy both!!!

BTW, I don't think the lower pic is of a featherweight. Doesn't have the Schnabel forend.

Walnut

I would spend my money on a nice pre-64 Model 70

All I know is they are calling it super grade AAA maple and it sure is pretty.

I dearly love quilted and tiger maple on fine furniture and flinters and walnut on centerline firearms.

I'm a sucker for a featherweight. To me that maple looks cheap....

I like the walnut best but end of day your money up to you

Agree those are both super grades


This, I'm a huge winchester fan and have several but none of the newer ones since they left Connecticut

Of course they are trying to sell guns but....
[Quote]For me to say that the current production Model 70 is a better rifle than the original pre-64 will likely be regarded as sacrilege by some. But the current model blends the best features of the original pre-64, with the anti-bind feature of the later post-64, and puts them together in a rifle that is arguably better made, better finished, and with quality control second to none.[Quote]

Plus you can't get a pre 64 in 6.8 western

I agree on that. Curley Maple should look like this…

Yeah that's true, that 6.8 and the nosler calibers have some impressive ballistics. I jumped on the 325 wsm train when it came out and finding ammo is a nightmare, hopefully that doesn't happen to these new calibers a few years down the road.

Personally, I like the look of the walnut much better.
The checkering stands out better on the maple though but that may just be in the photo.

Blonde guns don’t do it for me,…..but then again ,Iam not the one buying it

Lol....that gun is sure purdy to me....

Yes, I know that they are calling it a SG but they are NOTHING like the old ones. How much are they? Around $1500?

Both are beautiful, but it's hard to beat a good synthetic stock for hunting in weather, and rough country. You won't cry over plastic if you scratch it.

$1,500 for just the stock?

A Super Grade should be high-grade walnut.

Lol....Them scratches are just beauty marks to me.

JMO but blond maple says pool cue to me.

Un-stained curly maple should be illegal!

The whole rifle.

There's a scene in the movie The Highwaymen, where a gun store clerk asks Texas Marshall Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) which gun(s) he wants. He answers, "All of them."

That's how I feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jevEf3U7Kws

A Winchester super grade AAA model 70 winchester in 6.8 western is running at $1800.

RECEIVER – Steel; Polished blued
BARREL – Hammer forged steel; Polished blued finish; Free-floating; Target crown
ACTION – M.O.A. Trigger System; Pre-64 action; Three-Position Safety; Controlled Round Feed; Controlled ejection
STOCK – Gloss finish AAAA Maple; Ebony forearm tip; Shadowline cheekpiece
FEATURES – “Super Grade” engraved hinged floorplate; Jeweled bolt body; Knurled bolt handle; Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad; Sling swivel studs

Item Number
535218299
UPC
048702022326
Action Length
Short Action
Caliber
6.8 Western
Barrel Length
24"
Overall Length
44 1/4"
Length of Pull
13 3/4"
Drop at Comb
1/2"
Drop at Heel
1/2"
Weight
8 lbs 0 oz
Magazine Capacity
3
Twist Rate
8"
Barrel Finish
High Gloss
Stock Finish
Gloss
Wood Grade
AAAA
Receiver Finish
High Gloss
Chamber Finish
Polished
Barrel Material
Steel
Barrel Contour
Sporter
Stock Material
Maple
Recoil Pad
Pachmayr Decelerato

I handled one of the maple Super Grades a few years back. It sure was eye catching. I'd like to see one in birdseye. I'm old fashioned and love walnut and blued steel but that maple makes my heart flutter. It also gives me a twitch in my right arm that takes it toward my wallet.

I like the darker wood. Seem like walnut will be stronger also.

The featherweight is running at $1,100.

Barrels made today are consistently more accurate. In 1963 and older model 70's some rifles were tack drivers and some just adequate. Modern machining is almost unbelievably more precise. A newhouse 3 was a coyote catching machine in 1930 but a modern duke is a better trap performance wise. Those old model 70's were/are a marvel but just like with the old newhouse, improvements have been made.

In the military learned oz. make pounds, pounds mean pain. Add on scope, mounts, swivels, sling and ammo then figure the weight. But that is military thinking however the older you get the more you feel it even getting it to the shoulder. Me never bought a gun for looks its all about performance and durability. You never mentioned the price difference?? What would that be just out of curiosity??

I have a soft spot for walnut but if i found the right deal maple is very nice too.

Agreed. Put some aqua fortis on it and apply some heat. Make that curl pop.



You fellas have better cameras than I do...



Mike

Maple super grade 6.8 western around $1,800 and the walnut featherweight 6.8 western around $1,100

Top one top one top one .

According to the charts maple is stronger than walnut it’s also a little heavier.

One thing I didn’t see mentioned, is recoil, that cartridge with 175gr bullets is going to be comparable to a 300 Winchester short mag. Be a shame to have to put a muzzle break on the featherweight.
I like both walnut and maple but the maple stock in the picture is a poor example of 4A (unequal figure, left vs right).
Ammunition Will be an issue. Plan accordingly. Just ask anyone that owns a RSAUM 7mm or 300 lol
Good luck and congratulations on the new rifle witch ever you choose. Hope it shoots clover leafs.

The top one is not even close to $700 prettier than the Walnut. Plus the walnut is lighter, seems like a no-brainer to me.

Curly Maple done right….

Follow your Gut

Walnut 👌🏽

Sounds like your talking about the sub-par m70 that produced post 64. Unless you order a gun from the custom shop, new guns are mass produced with parts sourced from all over the world. Although the technology is absolutely better now its not being applied to production firearms. The pre 64s were hand fited and "built", which you can still get today but you'll pay a premium. Never heard of accuracy issues maybe operator error, load issue, or shot out? After all the pre 64 was Hathcocks weapon of choice and its impressive what they back then with terrible optics. So I guess as with anything else performance is only as good as the users abilities.

Snyde, your living in fantasy land. With proper machining hand fitting is not needed. Hand fitting is not as accurate as CNC. Not even close. It was the best they had in 1963 but this is 2022.

Both those guns are beautiful Bruce.Time to flip a coin!

I agree cnc is more accurate and technology has advanced. My opinion is the pre 64s are much higher quality than run of the mill mass produced modern firearms and the prices reflect that. Alot of hand fitting and machining is still done on custom high end firearms for accuracy. But at the end of the day it's up to the shooter, if you were closer we could have a friendly competition, my pre 64 vs your new m70.

A good buddy of mine, sadly now deceased, was a huge fan of pre-64 M70s and owned several of them. He brought a .300 H&H on an Idaho bear hunt a few years back. I handled it and, to my surprise given the reputation of the early M70s, I found it clunky and very heavy. I would not own one, at least not in that caliber, but then I am 5'8" and he was about 6'4". The weight didn't bother him at all and the rifle fit him much better.

I have read that the "rifleman's rifle" reputation of the pre-64s was based more on the functional reliability of the controlled feed action rather than accuracy, and that accuracy was mediocre at best in comparison with quality bolt guns of modern manufacture. This was some gun writer's opinion, not something that I have experience with, but I believe it to be true given the improvements made in recent decades. The new M70 also has the controlled feed action plus the advantage of recent improvements in accuracy.

Prices reflect collector value. Old newhouses are pricey too.

I like the walnut SG featherweight...in fact I bought one a few years back in 7x57 ...
I have older model 70 featherweight rifles , but never knew they made super grade featherweights ..
When I found one in a gun store , I traded in a ruger #1 to get it ...had to have it .. :-)
Very nice rifle ....great wood ..shot a buck with it last year ...

Lightweight in walnut would be my choice. Maple is pretty but I like darker wood and the cost difference nails it. Like them both though.

Bottom gun would be my choice.

This is how I see it

Don't worry they seem to gain a pound a year when you pass 70 been my experience.

Thanks.Plan on having a few thousand rounds.

Choices, choices

I have the same rifle and love it.

Danny I respectfully disagree. You speak of what you don’t know. If CNC is more accurate then why aren’t benchrest rifles built using this technology? They aren’t you know. They are built one at a time using a precision lathe that has been leveled and squared with a machinist level. The actions are built one at a time on precision milling machines one at a time using the same extremely accurate .0001” measuring instruments. All of this “hand “ fitting is the reason why a Stolle Panda benchrest action will cost twice as much as the complete m70 super grade. Given your position, ask yourself why CNC. mass production rifles are not used in the rarefied atmosphere of benchrest competition. Because they aren’t even close! Why are the best BR bbls “hand lapped “?

Really liking this gun.Now time to save my pennies.

Could they machine accurately to ten thousands of an inch in 63? On a production line? I may not of used the right words, (I am no machinist) but those old model 70 's were not consistently accurate. Some were very accurate and some only usable. I will quit arguing now about it.

X2! They don't make them like they used to!

Lol.....if I find one in 6.8 western I will buy it.

Heck you could have another gun for the difference no doubt in my mind walnut and lighter to carry and on the pocket book.