REVIEWS
Winchester M70 Super Shadow
Winchester's new Super Shadow rifle features a unique Controlled Round Push Feed bolt system.
|
|
| Action: | CRPF bolt-action repeater |
|---|---|
| Caliber: | .300 WSM as tested, .270 WSM and 7mm WSM, .243 and .223 WSSM available |
| Capacity: | 3+1 |
| Barrel length: | 24 inches |
| Weight: | 6 3/4 pounds |
| Stock: | Synthetic |
| Price: | $543 |
Specifications
Controlled-round-feed bolt systems grasp a cartridge from the magazine and carry it into the chamber; most of these systems are based on the old Mauser claw-extractor design. A push-feed system simply slides the cartridge loose from the magazine and into the chamber. Both systems have their fans and their detractors.
Push-feed fans tout that theirs is an easier system to make accurate and you can single-feed cartridges into the chamber; the push-feeds are also less costly. Claw fans are very serious about the outstanding ability of a controlled-feed system to extract any spent cartridge under any circumstance; they wouldn't have it any other way on big-bore rifles. These are all valid points depending on what you want or need in a rifle action. But Winchester has recently come up with a way to win over both sides: Controlled Round Push Feed (CRPF). That may be a mouthful—but it's not an oxymoron.
CRPF actions built on Winchester's existing two-lug bolt design feature a uniquely distinctive bolt head with an oversized extractor that, once the cartridge is pushed clear of the magazine, grasps the case head and then cradles it all the way into the chamber. You can single feed cartridges or load from the magazine. Winchester is marketing it as "The best of both worlds," and perhaps it is. CRPF is available this year on three different rifles: the Super Shadow, the Super Shadow Super Short and the Winchester Coyote. I've recently tested the Super Shadow, and it seems to be a pretty good system.
Along with the CRPF system, the Super Shadow features a standard Winchester-type three-position safety, a low-luster matte-blue finish (really black and shadowy) and a 24-inch barrel.
Then comes the stock. The guys here call me the "Walnut Hater" due to my outwardly obvious preference for synthetic. But while I don't generally like the "plastic" injection-molded stocks that come on today's rifles, preferring instead high-quality hand-laid fiberglass examples, the Super Shadow's stock features a unique design that's growing on me. It's wild, modern, and perfectly comfortable. Its swirly lateral designs along the cheekpiece don't offer much, but its overall narrowness and oval-dot texture on the grip and fore-end sure do. It feels slender and beefy all at once. It also features a very supple recoil pad--something long overdue on Model 70s.
My particular test sample, chambered in .300 WSM, shot as well as some rifles and not as well as some others—this perhaps due to its eight-pound trigger-pull weight—about the heaviest I've seen on a Model 70. I shot it with four different loads including Winchester's Supreme 180-grain Fail Safes and 150-grain Ballistic Silvertips, and Federal's Premium 180-grain Nosler Partitions and 150-grain Ballistic Tip loads. With the exception of the Partition offering, I did get the rifle to shoot a handful of three-shot groups less than an inch and a quarter. But it took all the concentration I had to pull it off.
Generally, the rifle was an inch-and-a-halfer--not all that impressive, but not all that bad either. And it would be unfair to write off the Super Shadow concept on one eight-pound trigger. (It's a standard Model 70 model, so you can have your gunsmith set 'em where you like 'em.)
Aside from that, the test rifle functioned well. One of the unique aspects of the CRPF system is that it ejects softly or sharply, depending on you. If you don't want to fling empty brass into the next county—perhaps you want to save it for handloading—you can gently eject it into your hand or onto the shooting bench. If you're in need for a quick follow-up shot, yank the bolt back and the brass will flip away farther than you need it to.
If there's one thing I don't like about this new rifle, it's the lack of bottom metal. There is none. It's not that I'm intent on badmouthing polymer triggerguards and floorplates—they're as rugged as all get-out. I just like steel—always have, probably always will. That's just me—polymer to a point. Having said that, I think the CRPF action is a natural melding of two existing designs, and the Super Shadow is a fine platform on which to introduce it.
© 2009 Intermedia Outdoors. All rights reserved.
