Winchester Model 70 250-3000 SAV

[Charger442]

After many years of looking, I finally was able to bring home a Pre-64 , 1946, Winchester Model 70 in the very rare and exceptional 250-3000. This gun isn't perfect, drilled bridge, cut down barrel to "carbine length" but I do love this gun and how handy it is . I have not shot it yet, as I have had to swap around a few of my scope blocks.

Thanks to @RTH1800 for the Fecker 7x . It's perfect at 16" for this "short" gun. I have a couple unertls I might swap on later, but the 15x is too much for this. The gun also had a paur of weaver bases installed and I found a nice Weaver V8 that would match nicely. Ok, Here's the pictures.

 

[bpd459]

Greetings,
That is a perfect, clean working rifle.
john

 

[Skunk]

Beautiful piece of wood. Outstanding all around!

 

[RTH1800]

Lovely! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Charger442]

Greetings,
That is a perfect, clean working rifle.
john

Not "perfect" but good enough for me. I've seen 50 examples of this rifle over the last 15-20 years. I missed out on a very nice one maybe 15 years ago but most since then have been swiss cheesed on the action and then the prices have skyrocketed. This example suites me well

 

[Aftermath]

That's a real nice looking rifle!

 

[camocorvette]

That looks beautiful. I'll have to look up the 250-3000 cartridge as I've never seen one. Was that a precursor to the 300 savage or just another cartridge?

 

[Downtown]

Once had a Savage Model 99 in 250 Savage. Great whitetail cartridge. Piece of useless trivia, it was the parent cartridge of the 22-250 Remington.

 

[RTH1800]

Similar but basically unrelated. Both fit the mod 99 Savage and short action bolt rifles like the Savage 1920 and Kurtz Mauser.
Both great cartridges.

 

[Charger442]

That looks beautiful. I'll have to look up the 250-3000 cartridge as I've never seen one. Was that a precursor to the 300 savage or just another cartridge?

It was the first wildcat cartridge, it took the 30-06 and necked down to .257 and was the first cartridge to break 3000 fps, thus the .250-3000 designation.

It was an 87 grain bullet doing 3000 fps.

And yes Savage put it in the model 1920 and the model 99. It's an incredible deer cartridge, I've personally killed a big bodied deer out to 350 yards. But no exit.

Edit- the 300 savage was derived from the 250 savage, about 5 years after the 250s inception

 

[camocorvette]

That's awesome to learn. Thank you!

 

[RTH1800]

The .250 does not share the sharp shoulder straight body and short neck of the 300 Savage. It’s similar in length and case head diameter only.

The 300 Savage was generations ahead of its time.

 

[Charger442]

The .250 does not share the sharp shoulder straight body and short neck of the 300 Savage. It’s similar in length and case head diameter only.

The 300 Savage was generations ahead of its time.

I fixed the typo in my post

 

[Downtown]

I believe Newton used the 30-06 as the parent case for the 250.

.250-3000 Savage - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[sirhrmechanic]

That is just sexy... don't change a thing!

Yup... been altered. So what. Alterations are period. So while it makes the gun something less in the eyes of purists, it makes the gun useful in the field at levels that 'purists' won't appreciate.

Shoot the heck out of it! It's everything cool about a pre-64... cool caliber. Cool modifications. Gorgeous condition. Field gun x 1000!

Great score and congrats!!! Do let us know how it shoots. I bet it shoots holes in holes!

Sirhr

 

[sirhrmechanic]

I believe Newton used the 30-06 as the parent case for the 250.

.250-3000 Savage - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Hell Isaac Newton probably used it to study gravity!

It's one of the really cool early wildcats. Not sure it's the 'first.' But is certainly one of the precursors to the early days of wildcatting.

It's an utterly stunning rifle at every level. That optic is fantastic, too!

You could not have done better, @Charger442 . A stunning gun and one anyone here would be proud to own!

Sirhr

 

[Charger442]

That is just sexy... don't change a thing!

Yup... been altered. So what. Alterations are period. So while it makes the gun something less in the eyes of purists, it makes the gun useful in the field at levels that 'purists' won't appreciate.

Shoot the heck out of it! It's everything cool about a pre-64... cool caliber. Cool modifications. Gorgeous condition. Field gun x 1000!

Great score and congrats!!! Do let us know how it shoots. I bet it shoots holes in holes!

Sirhr

Will definitely let everyone know how it shoots, maybe today.

I patched the bore, not very dirty. Just like most hunting rifles of its day, if it saw 10 rounds a year, that was a lot of shooting.


I figured all y'all would enjoy seeing this. Its a nice compliment to my custom M70 A&M rifle in .257 Roberts.

Next quest will be a decent example in 220 swift

 

[Charger442]

Shooting update: not the groups I was hoping for. But not awful .Softest shooting 250 I've ever shot, going to clean the barrel good, try another scope maybe to rule that out. Was a decent headwind which could have hurt me. Ammo was new production Hornady 100 grain interlock. Group is to the right of node.

 

[RTH1800]

That rifle has a 1/14 twist and will not shoot 100 grain spitzers accurately. 87 grain bullets will tighten it right up.

 

[RTH1800]

Remember they were thought of as groundhog rifles.

 

[Charger442]

That rifle has a 1/14 twist and will not shoot 100 grain spitzers accurately. 87 grain bullets will tighten it right up.

Good call on the twist rate