Roi,

Glad to hear of your good experience with the M70. It gives me hope that, one day, I will be able to get mine to work properly. I plan on shooting it this weekend; it would be nice if it turns out to be reasonably accurate and pleasant to shoot.

Thanks for the advice on the extra power spring. It further confirms my hypothesis that the gunsmith is wrong: an extra power spring is not the answer, but it is the follower that is the problem. I took a look at Brownells and they offer two follower options that may be of use to me, so I may be giving one of those a try in the near future. I also looked at a used Griffin & Howe in 375 H&H that was for sale at Gander Mountain (~$4300, ouch!). It was built on a push feed M70 action and had a very different follower than mine (a simple “step” profile, as opposed to mine which has a fairly complicated contour to it). I realize this may be an apples to oranges comparison, but my follower just doesn’t look right at all.

-Jon