Sporting Clays Rifle? - Winchester Model 70 Classic LT

In October I finally handled the new Winchester Model 70 Classic LT, which wears a stock designed by the well-known custom rifle builder, David Miller of Tucson.

Essentially, what Miller did was open the grip curve more, reducing the forend's width and depth. He also specified an increased radius on the heel and toe of the buttpad, similar to that seen on international trap and sporting clays guns. The overall result is a nice-handling rifle of classic line and proportion.

My gun, chambered in .270 Win. arrived just in time for an antelope hunt in New Mexico. I mounted Zeiss' excellent Diatal Z 6x42 scope in Talley mounts, which resulted in a very classy-looking rig.

I had just enough time for two range sessions before leaving on the hunt, so I decided to go with factory ammo. Accuracy was a bit disappointing at first, but after relieving the pressure band up at the forend tip to fully float the barrel, Winchester's new Supreme High Velocity 130 gr. moly-coated Power Point bullets started consistently grouping into l 1/4".

What's more, in the LT's 24" barrel the ammo was producing a muzzle velocity of 3,140 fps; that's about 100 fps faster than SAAMI specs for standard 130 gr. 270 Win. loadings. Winchester doesn't claim quite the velocity boost that Hornady and Federal do for their Light Magnum and High Energy lines, respectively, but their High Velocity offerings do offer significant gains over standard performance.

Anyway, this antelope hunt was being filmed for a segment of Mossy Oak's "Hunting the Country" television series to air next fall. We couldn't have asked for a more cooperative pronghorn than the one I shot. Usually it takes days to get the kind of footage where all the elements fall into place: hunter and game are in the same frame, and the shot is a good one. And often it doesn't happen at all. But it did for us that very first morning.

It was the height of the rut and the bucks were really acting crazy. My guide, Stewart Jones of Backcountry Hunts, Ronnie Strickland of Mossy Oak, and I, had managed to stalk to within 350 yards of a buck who was nervously riding herd on the four chippies. While the three of us squatted behind a small juniper bush figuring our next move, the buck suddenly started trotting toward us!

This is pure conjecture on my part, but I think what happened is that this buck couldn't make out exactly what he was seeing, but he was seeing something, and on the chance it was a competitor, he came to investigate.

If you can believe it, he never stopped coming! It took a loud whistle from Stewart to halt the buck at a distance of about 50 yards. I had only one small opening through the juniper that gave me a shot at the buck's neck. I took it. The buck measured a respectable 15". Ronnie got the whole thing on film and the footage is quite remarkable. I can't wait to see it in its final edited form in autumn 2000.

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