Yesterday I spent the afternoon shooting my two Winchester M70 Classic Safari Express rifles. One is a .458 Win. Mag. and the other a .375 H&H.

These are genuinely fine rifles. In making these, USRA offered a gift to the sporting community. What a shame they are now a part of history.

In the photo above you see the .458 over the .375.

In this view the .375 is on top.

The .458 sports a vintage Lyman All-American 4x with post reticle.

The .375 has a brand new Leupold VX3 1.75-6. Both scopes are in Warne QD mounts, as the irons are to be functional.

I shot the .375 at 100 and 200 yards. It is quite accurate with my load of 77.0 grains Win 760, CCI 250, Hornady 300 grain RN Interlock. They clocked 2513 fps.

The .458 was shot at 100 yards. I was using a load of 71.0 IMR 3031, CCI 250, Remington 405 grain bullet. This is the bullet intended for the .45/70. I have a bulk supply of 500, so I thought a few loaded for sight-in loads would be a good try-out load. They yielded 2231 fps - not a light load. This would be fine for our white tail deer, but for anything more robust I would certainly go to a bullet made for the .458. Accuracy was really good.

Again, I simply can't help but lament the passing of these fine rifles. Although of fairly recent manufacture, they genuinely deserve the label "Classic." I'm glad I had a camera handy to snap these impromptu photos.

Curl