Question on .375 H&H rifle

[Erik7181]

Im looking at the Winchester 70 in .375 H&H.
My question is, right out of the box what does the rifle need to be Dangerious game ready? I.E. trigger job, bolt polish anything?

 

[mdwest]

I’d take my M70 375 H&H on a DG hunt tomorrow...

It’s 100% a factory gun.. I’ve not had any work done on it at all...

 

[BeeMaa]

A steady diet of ammo with proper practice.

 

[Bullthrower338]

As with anything built by human hands you will get good ones and the occasional lemon. Put the rifle through it’s paces to make sure there isn’t any gremlins and to build your confidence in the rifle. Take her hunting

 

[Ridgewalker]

Should work well out of the box, but test everything especially extraction and quick follow up shots from sticks and off-hand. Verify the bolt picks up the next round as fast as you can do it.
Not only testing the rifle, but to train your muscle memory that this is an extra long bolt stroke and not a 308 or 30-06 length.
Best of luck with an excellent rifle! Now we need to read a report on your DG hunt!

 

[greyfox]

About 20 boxes of ammo, off hand and off sticks. Work the action like your life depends on it. That'll answer any questions you may have about the rifle.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I’d take my M70 375 H&H on a DG hunt tomorrow...

It’s 100% a factory gun.. I’ve not had any work done on it at all...

+1, mine has not seen a gunsmith. Very accurate out of the box and functional. I will say mine prefers loads to be crimped. Uncrimped and with a slow moving bolt, rounds would occasionally hang up feeding into the chamber. Fixed by cycling bolt at a normal rate, or simply crimp them as I do for hunting anyway.

Recently developed a load for @AZ KJ's M70. His works perfectly with no adjustments necessary save for tightening the action screws.

 

[TTundra]

Im looking at the Winchester 70 in .375 H&H.
My question is, right out of the box what does the rifle need to be Dangerious game ready? I.E. trigger job, bolt polish anything?

Not wanting to turn this into a CRF vs. Push debate, but if I were buying a used or NOS M70 in 375H&H, the first check mark on my list would be making sure its a CRF. Winchester made the M70 in 375H&H in both, and if I were buying one today for DG, I'd buy a CRF model. I still see quite a bit of the 375H&H push fed m70 around at shows and on the racks.

If buying new production, a non issue.

 

[Von S.]

OK Eric,

There is a mountain of stuff that could be done to your new rifle that may make it shoot better, but seeing that you don't know how it shoots yet let's give it some thought.

I imagine that you will want a scope mounted. Many is the fella who squirts water out of their blubber glands right below their eyes that guns like a Weatherby 5 because they don't come with iron sites, but then they (1) mount the scope with mounts and rings that would take a troop of eagle scouts ,2 days to get off with a cutting torch or (2) the get the scope sighted in ,but never took a shoot with the iron sites and head into the field, or the guy at the big box store sells them mounts that are too high and forget seeing the iron sites anyway. Get the right qd set up and mount correctly.

If you are not going to shoot past 300 yards and " click " your life away with the turrets I suggest that you just don't have them at all. Yea! I know, they look cool but they stick out and bang into things.

I have many guns, actually it's a whole lot of guns. And for each one of those guns I have one load for each. And though that may sound weird to some when I grab a box of ammo for a specific game a corresponding rifle is already sighted in and ready to go.

So just start out buying a box of ammo that is designed for what you want to kill and shoot the weapon and go from there.

 

[Stubert]

I have a new model 70 Alaskan in .375. It is accurate, good looking, and functions fine. Mine wears a Leupold vx3 2.5-8 mounted on Leupold QR rings, they have been trouble free so far. My only complaint is that I would have liked a barrel mounted sling swivel.

 

[bruce moulds]

many rifles, even in this day and age, come out of the box with a trigger that can only be described as effective safety catch.
adjustment of the trigger to something that actually works is a personal thing, but is worth doing before firing a shot.
proper stress free bedding might need to be done, but firing the rifle on paper first will decide this.
bruce.

 

[Edge]

No complaints with a M70 Alaskan I purchased last year. Feeds everything I have put in the magazine without a hitch from soft points to flat point solids.

It only hold three in the magazine, you can fit a fourth in the chamber if you hold the three down and force the extractor over the rim. I don’t know if this will cause an issue after repeated use or not.

Accuracy is fine, I have been able to tweak my hand loads and they will print MOA.

Thinking a bigger caliber in the near future and it may be another M70.

 

[Erik7181]

Yeah I will most likely have it bedded before I shoot it

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Yeah I will most likely have it bedded before I shoot it

I would suggest you shoot it first and see if truly needed.

 

[Erik7181]

How would I know if it needs it?
I was going to do it to protec the stock

 

[sierraone]

I have or had both, old push feed and new crf. No difference IMO. Find you one bullet if you reload, or one factory round if not (may have an exception for buffalo). Then shoot and shoot and shoot with your chosen scope. Everything you shoot if you do your part will fall dead to one shot. Unless you end up with a rare lemon as Bullthrower 338 mentions, the rifle will never have to see a smith except maybe to mount a scope.

 

[Von S.]

How would I know if it needs it?
I was going to do it to protec the stock

Protect the stock from what?

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

How would I know if it needs it?
I was going to do it to protec the stock

If it shoots well you don't need it for accuracy. But it's a fair point on protecting the stock. I just hate fixing something that isn't broke.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Protect the stock from what?

I'd presume slipping between action and stock that slams the action particularly into the tang.

 

[Von S.]

I'd presume slipping between action and stock that slams the action particularly into the tang.

Really Phil? Ok!

For a very long time pretty much well all stocks from big factory guns have had their stocks .made without any assistance from a human. Complete computer control and machining. Machining so perfect that you can't slip a weezer hair between the surfaces.

I have had people who have wanted to have epoxy over extremely precise full length action aluminium bedding frames as if somehow that could make things better.

The truth be known is that there are damned few rifles in the past 25 years that weren't inletted with a perfection that I could never achieve and for the most part there are damned few who even know how to do it correctly to begin with.

Of course their is the friend who is a jet engine mechanic who can bed anything, because after all , they just don't let just anyone work on jet engines....right?

And eventually after the accountant and the jet engine mechanic get done and they now can't get the steel away from the wood and they stand there scratching each others asses and lamenting how maybe it was that second bottle of 25 year old might be where things started to go wrong they see me and I look at them and say, "you boys did a good job gluing that action in there" it is then and only then that they should have listened to me 2 weeks ago when I told them that bedding it was a waste of money in a rifle that will never fire a killing shot over 100 yards and I turned down free and easy money.

Ya gotta love it!