Winchester STEALTH

[FatBoy...]

I shoot a Stealth in 308. It's proved to be a fine rifle for the money. Out of the box it shot .700", .997" and 1.042 with HSM 168's. That was the first time I shot a scoped rifle in some time, and the groups were break in groups. My particular rifle doesn't like Fed GM2, but shoots BHA Match 175's into an average of about 3/4moa over 200 rounds.

With Win cases(or old BH Starline)weighing in the 156gr area, 4*.2gr Varget, 175SMK and a WLR primer set at an OAL of 2.827" (Mag fed, another plus for the winch is the long mag box) I have an average of .62" over 65+ 5 shot groups with some in the .3's and some in the 1.2's. At 1K my best score with these loads was a 191, but I can't read wind so take that with a gr of salt. At 100 yards it shoots 165gr Nosler Ballistic tips into .6" with IMR 4064. I shoot all groups off a harris La1 bipod and a sand sock, so they could most likley be improved with a better rest.

The only trouble I've had out of the rifle is the safety was sticking on fire. I've heard from other stealth and SPR owners that have had similar problems. Winchester fixed the problem free of charge. It cleans up in about 15 minutes and I only have to clean for copper about once every 250 rounds.

It's heavy compared to the PSS's, but after reading about some of the rifles on this board, I'd think that you guys would laugh off 14+ lbs.

My particular rifle had the crown recut to a stepped tactical, it is bedded in Marine Tex and the trigger was polished and set it 3.5lbs. GA Precision did the work, and it is excellent. It wears a Badger 20moa base, Badger Max 50 rings and a Leupold VariX III M3LR.

The only thing I've noticed lately that I don't like is that this particular rifle DOES NOT like Lapua brass. In 400 rounds I haven't found a load that will shoot as consistant as those in Win cases.

I've got 951 rounds down the pipe today and IMHO for $567, saying this rifle is a bargain is an understatement.

FatBoy...

[ 05-05-2002: Message edited by: FatBoy... ]

 

[Ian M]

Chris,
We shot the Stealth again today and it continues to push 0.5". Looks like we get better groups when the Harris sits on a small piece of closed-cell foam, this is from a concrete bench and I suspect we are getting some bounce or something.

Today the best load was 45.0 of Varget with 168 Nosler J4's, in fact that is about what most of our loads are with Varget.

The Stealth is a heck of a rifle - just too bad that they get out of the factory with safeties that don't function and stock bolts that are ready to fall out. 200 rounds in two days and the rifle is starting to shoot very well.

The guys are paying about 1000 bucks for the Stealth up here, but that is with Canadian dollars...
Thanks for the info.
ian

 

[Ian M]

Three acquaintances recently bought Win. M-70 Stealths, two in .308 Win and a .22-250. I have had the opportunity to check them over as they came out of the box, and to shoot them a bit. Still not finished but I can honestly say that the accuracy of these rifles is excellent.
The .22-250 is shooting one holers in the range of .3 to .5 for five at 100 yards with 55 Sierras and Varget. We broke in a .308 yesterday and after about 75 rounds we shot a couple of groups with Federal 168 Gold Medal match. One group had 4 rounds in 0.120" with one right out of the group to make it 0.436" My friend is just getting into this game and I think he choked after the first three shots just made the hole blacker. He shanked the fourth round but got the last shot back into the group.
Out of the box, these rifles will not shoot like that. Triggers were 7.5, 7.0 and 6.5 with enough creep and overtravel to make shooting next to impossible. I find M-70 triggers very easy to work with, prefer them over most designs. Easy to get to 2.5-3 pounds, almost no creep or o'travel and they stay there.
My biggest gripe is the fact that ALL of the stock bolts were finger tight only (barely snugged) - this is very common with most American made brands these days. How in hell a rifle is expected to shoot with loose stock bolts I can not figure, but someone obviously doesn't give a ****.
I replaced the cheezy new-style stock bolts with B-Squares, ground them to fit properly and torqued the suckers to 65 in/lb. One big difference in these short actions is the fact that the rear trigger guard bolt no longer goes all the up through the tang, there is no hole straight through the tang like the pushfeeds and long actions.
All in all these rifles are proving to be extremely accurate - the potential is there if you work on them. I would be interested to hear pros and cons from anyone else who is shooting a Stealth.

 

[Ian M]

Up-date on the Stealth. My friend just worked on some loads and his Stealth shot five shots inside 0.35" at 100 yards. Looks like 45 gr. Varget is going to be the load. This rifle is shooting very well, about 300 rounds through it and it is pretty close to a 1/2 minute shooter if we do our part.

We took the rifle out to 700 yards and it overlapped four bullet splats, maybe 4 - 5 inches max and the wind got the last shot out to about 10 inches. Easily minute of whitetal chest. Shot several excellent groups at 700 yards. We are using a large piece (42"x27") of 1/2 inch steel plate hanging on a 2"x4" frame, re-paint it white after each ten shots. Also have a sheet 30x30 of 0.375" plate that is working fine. I hope to get some 1/4" plate and try it as the .308's aren't doing any damage to the heavier plates - .300 Win. mag barrely makes a dimple with 190 match.

 

[JS13.5]

Ian: I shoot a Stealth in .223 and it loves 69 gr SMKs. It'll dump them into .4s and sometimes less. I'm still testing various powders, but the Stealth is tops for the money. It carries a Leupold 4.5-14x40 in Badgers.