tobpnr:
Quote:
I wasn't debating the government's choice to replace the Model 70 with the 700...and don't know the history behind it.
I'm sure there's a story there, no doubt with $$$ and politics playing the usual role
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Here's the story including $$$ and politics......
Most of the USMC and US Army snipers were also high power competitors. They all knew the merits of Winchester actions' reliability, ease of field maintenance as well as operation in rapid fire superiority over Remingtons. None of them I've talked with liked Remington actions based on their observed shortcommings of them. GySgt Carlos Hathcock told me at an Interservice Rifle Match in Quantico, VA, he thought the Winchester actions with a Remington barrel put in them as that would be the best combination of commercial parts for both accuracy and reliability. Both ground-pounding services gave up on Remington actions for magnums used in long range matches, too, except for those few that had flat bottom/side sleeves epoxied on them.
But Winchester was in financial straits back then. And the flag officers concerned with the dollar bills and political issues did not want any company about ready to go bankrupt to be their choice. So Remington got the contract to supply actions and one or two custom shops supplied the barrels.
If one sees what the accuracy specs for sniper rifles were back then, they'd probably figure out that most any action and barrel could shoot that well. Then the history of each is also interesting; Remington 7XX rifles are decended from the M1917 Enfield, Winchester 70 rifles decended from the M1903 Springfield that used several Mauser 98 features which royalties were paid for to use them.