Well the new STW is no longer a "virgin"

[WildRose]

I recently purchased from another member here a Winchester Mod 70 Sharpshooter Classic Sportsman in 7mm STW. I was sure I paid too much for it (for my budget) but I had to have it and he needed the money.

My little brother kidnapped it upon arrival and I didn't get it till this last weekend, almost just in time for our Texas deer season to be winding down so I was afraid it'd be relegated to coyote duty since this is my busiest time of year for work and the deer hunting, what little time is left was on the back burner.

Well I'd made my mind up I was going to take it out this evening if I got my chores done in time and of course chores ran late so I couldn't get to my spot where I've been watching my two biggest bucks.

Actually I had a shot at one of them (almost) on Wednesday but he proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt he didn't live long enough to grow that rack by being stupid. We were driving in and spotted him at about four hundred yards through the trees and he moved off rather slowly, stopping frequently, but never giving me a shot by always keeping a few trees between us. Got to watch him for a full ten minutes and in the whole time never had less than six trees between us. He finally moved off in the heavy brush and that was that.

Well tonight of course chores ran late and I was frustrated but decided to walk over just before dark and see if I could catch a herd of does moving through the CRP/trees to my neighbors wheat field.

Well one more disappointment. I'd walked no more than 200yds and could see deer in the field ALREADY! My neighbors hunt hard and so these deer have had lots of pressure and are very spooky. I managed to work up to a spot 670yds from the fence but I'm in very tall grass, almost waist high, no shooting sticks and the bipod is useless.

Needless to say the frustration is mounting... .

Well I manage to get to a small 2.5" mesquite that's forked where I could get a comfortable rest on my knees and the little doe in the field didn't bust me.

I wait, dark is coming fast and she's on the wrong side of the fence and frankly not worth shooting since she's a little yearling fawn.

I wait, finally I see the herd coming and they are in a wad. 18 deer grazing along at a pretty good clip trying to find a good place to cross which fortunately was limited by the drifted snow. We only got about 3" out of the recent storm but of course it came with 20-40 winds and made impressive drifts along the fences.

I pick out one in the herd as the biggest and am considering pulling the trigger when I noticed it's a really big bodied buck with a horrible little 8pt basket rack and I Think to myself, well I've got two buck tags and he's not worth one of them.

Next pops out a really nice doe right behind him who's obviously not feeding fawns so I decide to give it a shot in spite of the 15mph wind, no decent rest, and waning daylight.

She gives me a perfect profile so I put it on her shoulders and give it a ride.

Man I'm in love with this rifle. The brake is so efficient, I actually see the trace, watch the impact/exit and see her dirt dead before she even hits the ground. The 154gr SST really did the job and without a though I slam another round in "just in case" and watch, she doesn't even twitch.

I start to get up and realize the rest of the deer haven't moved over 40 yards and are still trying figure out what happened. With the distance and wind the never heard the shot so I square up on another nice doe who's looking at me almost stright on and put it right above the sternum and let it fly. She does a complete half gainer and lands dirt dead with three legs straight up and the third stright out due to the broken shoulder.

Again I work the action and sure enough the buck has run over to the first doe and is looking at her like "Hey Edna you ok"....

Yep, perfect profile straight through both shoulders and he never twitches.

3 shots, three dead deer, all in under 30 seconds at between 670-710yds and I'm pretty happy with the new rifle.

Sorry it was so dark by the time I got there so no great "field pics" but man that was one of the best and most exciting deer hunts I've had in many years.

Rifle is the M70 Classic Sharpshooter Sportsman, Shneider 26" bbl 7mm STW, Conley precision 154gr SST's at 3200FPS with the Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50.

Did I mention I'm in love with this rifle?

 

[ADMIN]

Very nice!

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Wow great story, My blood was pumping. I think I have been in that situation before my self. I saw it coming when you said they didn't move. That buck you were not going to shoot met his end because of adrenalin. But dam it makes for one awesome story, I was there. Congrats

 

[runshort]

Wildrose

Sounds like great end of the year hunt.
Thanks for sharing.
About what does your rig weigh.

 

[etisll40]

God that must have been thrilling, so much great shooting and in succession and exactly what you wanted to do. The rifle did pretty good too.

Congratulations, that makes my year.

Great story to remember for years to come.

 

[milo-2]

Wildrose,
Good story, good shooting.
The barrel is H-S Precision, I told you it would shoot. Hate to say it but those are first kills with it, I bought it for elk hunting, just forgot to go.
Glad you enjoy it, makes me feel a little better about selling it.
Miles

 

[7stw]

Wild Rose, I have that same rifle, and it is truly a jewel. I don't know which of the two most recent " acquisitions" in the STW are my favorites, the custom gun, or that Custom Sharpshooter. That Schneider barrel is one of the sweetest barrels I own. Very accurate, and cleans with two or three passes with a wet patch. And it shoot nearly anything that I stick in it's throat!!
Great story there my friend. Nice shooting!
P / S , 26 it is on the barrel length! Thanks .
PSS, read the WHOLE story again, and it gave me goosebumps. That's a badass Hombre there Bro'. No surprise though.

 

[WildRose]

Wildrose,
Good story, good shooting.
The barrel is H-S Precision, I told you it would shoot. Hate to say it but those are first kills with it, I bought it for elk hunting, just forgot to go.
Glad you enjoy it, makes me feel a little better about selling it.
Miles

Milo you and I talked about it and you knew I was really stretching to get that deal done and while I wasn't nervous about dealing with you at all, the money and timing did make me sweat. Man am I glad the wife helped to talk me into it.

Are you sure the barrel is H-S? Everything I can find on the Sharpshooters tells me they all had the Shneider ultra match barrels on them and that each of them was true "Custom Rifle" rather than what you get when you buy something out of the "remington custom shop" which generally means nothing more than fancy ingraving and a much higher price.

To be honest it makes little difference to me if it is actually a stove pipe or someone's old tail pipe. The damned thing just shoots amazingly well and that Muzzle brake is just unreal. Even with these hot loads the recoil is like that of the .243 or less. I'm going to have to start a thread to see if anyone recognizes it and can Identify it's maker so I can try and get some more just like it. It's even suprisingly easy on the ears.

Thank you again for letting me give this rifle a good home. I will cherish it as will the person I plan to pass it onto when I'm done with it.

 

[WildRose]

Wildrose

Sounds like great end of the year hunt.
Thanks for sharing.
About what does your rig weigh.

I haven't put it on the scale but my bet is that scoped it's right around 8lbs, it's really a pleasure to carry.

I made an offhand shot with it on a 250yds running coyote with it this morning which considering how bad my left shoulder is tells you it's not overly heavy at all and extremely well balanced and right now I'm working with half of my left bicep detached due to a recent injury and I don't have time to get it fixed until at least April since this is my busy season.

I'd have never been able to pull off that shot this morning with one of the Sendero's that's for sure.

 

[7stw]

Milo you and I talked about it and you knew I was really stretching to get that deal done and while I wasn't nervous about dealing with you at all, the money and timing did make me sweat. Man am I glad the wife helped to talk me into it.

Are you sure the barrel is H-S? Everything I can find on the Sharpshooters tells me they all had the Shneider ultra match barrels on them and that each of them was true "Custom Rifle" rather than what you get when you buy something out of the "remington custom shop" which generally means nothing more than fancy ingraving and a much higher price.

To be honest it makes little difference to me if it is actually a stove pipe or someone's old tail pipe. The damned thing just shoots amazingly well and that Muzzle brake is just unreal. Even with these hot loads the recoil is like that of the .243 or less. I'm going to have to start a thread to see if anyone recognizes it and can Identify it's maker so I can try and get some more just like it. It's even suprisingly easy on the ears.

Thank you again for letting me give this rifle a good home. I will cherish it as will the person I plan to pass it onto when I'm done with it.

Wild Rose, I was told the same thing about mine from the dealer that I bought mine from. Mine has a bedded McMillan stock, blueprinted action, and a Schneider Barrel. And I think that the trigger is not a factory one, but do not know it's maker. But I do know that it is a sweet shooter, and had little to no wear when I bought it. The original owner became I'll shortly after purchasing it. It sat in his cabinet for years, " unloved", then he sold it to the gun shop that he worked at. Now, I own it, and it is one of my prized possessions.

 

[7stw]

Wild Rose, apparently, there were a couple of variations in the Custom Sharpshooter. I just saw one on GB that was listed as HS precision barreled. The stock on the one I saw is different from mine. When I first got mine, I did see one on GB that was identical to mine, and it was listing the Schneider barrel, and McMillan stock, as mine has. So maybe yours is HS. Who cares, those deer certainly don't care for it either way. Really love the story.

 

[Broz]

Nice job and great shooting! Whackin-N-Stackin!! gun)

Jeff

 

[WildRose]

Wild Rose, I have that same rifle, and it is truly a jewel. I don't know which of the two most recent " acquisitions" in the STW are my favorites, the custom gun, or that Custom Sharpshooter. That Schneider barrel is one of the sweetest barrels I own. Very accurate, and cleans with two or three passes with a wet patch. And it shoot nearly anything that I stick in it's throat!!
Great story there my friend. Nice shooting!
P / S , 26 it is on the barrel length! Thanks .
PSS, read the WHOLE story again, and it gave me goosebumps. That's a badass Hombre there Bro'. No surprise though.

I thought I saw you mention it on the STW thread. Is your's the "Classic Laredo"? Those have a slightly heavier barrel don't they?

I've got a buddy that's a real collector of M-70's and he and I are planning several "Model 70 Only Hunts" over the next few years. He owns some just absolute works of art in his collection as well and has about 25 of them in just about every caliber they were ever produced in I think including some of the African monster killers.

 

[WildRose]

Wild Rose, apparently, there were a couple of variations in the Custom Sharpshooter. I just saw one on GB that was listed as HS precision barreled. The stock on the one I saw is different from mine. When I first got mine, I did see one on GB that was identical to mine, and it was listing the Schneider barrel, and McMillan stock, as mine has. So maybe yours is HS. Who cares, those deer certainly don't care for it either way. Really love the story.

Yes there are several different versions out there including some tactical sniper variations.

It makes no difference to me really who made what, the sum of the parts is very near perfection in terms of function, I just like knowing what I have HA! gun)