I have a son who, unfortunately, has the wrong [left] master eye. At the tender age of 11 he is showing himself to be a very good marksman. ;)

I would like to get him a good quality bolt action hunting rifle. After quite some consideration, I have decided that an excellent chambering for this rifle would be the 6.5x55 Swede.

The only manufacturer who cataloges a left hand bolt action in 6.5x55 is Winchester. It is a very nice looking rifle that lists for around $2,500.00. :eek:

I have a chance to get a used controlled feed M70 in 30.06 for $325.00. I would like to rechamber this rifle to the 6.5x55. Now for the questions:

The cartridge head of the 6.5x55 is .480 as opposed to the standard .470. Will this cause problems? If so, is it a difficult job to enlarge the Model 70 bolt face by .01"? Would doing so hinder feeding or extraction?

Thank you all very much for your opinions or comments.

I just checked my push-feed .30-06 Model 70, and the bolt face opening measures 0.487". It fed a 6.5x55 cartridge loaded with a 120gr. Ballistic Tip like it was greased. The 6.5 case would not go all the way into the chamber, but it certainly went far enough that I'd be comfortable attempting the rebarrel job as you describe.

The 6.5 brass I have is Remington, by the way.

You kinda mixed me up there. You started out talkin about a rifle for a lefty. ( My grandsons got that problem too) Then you jump to rechambering a controled rnd. feed Win. Is this Mod.70 a lefty? And as Mike said,It's a rebarreling job. Also, I have 6.5x55 brass by Rem.,Win., P.M.C. and Norma and NONE of it is as large at the base as the BOOKs say it is supposed to be. It'll feed. Pepe Ray

Thank you for your help on this. It looks like this will be a straight rebarrel job.

Pepe - yes, the M70 I am looking at is a left hand, one of the first left hand controlled feed that they made. It comes with an old Weaver 3×9 40mm in see through mounts that I will replace with low mounts. It has quite a bit of use, but doesn’t look like it was abused. The stock is banged in places, but I will be cutting that down anyhow.

The bolt face and case head actual dimensions were very helpful. Again, thank you very much.

<<< Back into lurk mode >>>

i also am cross dominant (right handed, left master eye). i trained myself to use my right eye and shoot right handed because i could not afford a lefty. it is now easier than shooting left handed (however i can shoot either right- or left handed with about the same accuracy). shooting an autoloader is a lot less painfull right handed because the brass isn't bouncing off your snout.
shooting a handgun tho, i like to use the weaver position so i can use my left eye.

monty

ARRRRRRGH!!!

You're talking of converting a prized pre-'64 Model 70!!!! SACRILEGE!!!!

Just kidding - wanted to stir the blood of all the real purists out there! :D

Would suggest instead of cutting the stock down, that you save it and buy a replacement stock either from Boyd's (usually around $100) or some other stock maker that have them "ready-fit". People with busted stocks on their pre-'64s will pay more for the old one you have than what the replacement you whittle on will be worth, by far. If you go with a synthetic stock such as Ramline, they have removable spacers in the butt to allow shortening without a lot of work.

Also, BE SURE to save the original barrel! It will have great value too, on the trade market.

kdub:

It is not a Pre-64. IIRC, Winchester didn’t make left hand Model 70's until after the great push feed experiment.

This one is from the late 70's or early 80's - not particularly valuable, except to a left eyed kid. To him it is extremely valuable.

Why doesn’t any American manufacturer make a good quality rimfire in a left hand bolt action? I saw the new Remington in last month’s American Rifleman. The author went out of his way to point out that there was no left hand available. In rimfires, you jump from Savage to Anschutz with nothing in between.

I guess life isn’t always fair.

<<< Off Soapbox >>>

Alex,

I agree with Monty. I used to shoot lefty, until the first or second time that I qualified with an M16. I had a spent brass case strike the old removeable piece of junk brass deflector, and it ended up under my T-shirt. It scalded me enough that I finished the rest of the table rightie, and have been shooting that way ever since.

For me, it was sure worth it, not enough left handed guns out there to keep my interest.

Good luck to you and your boy.

Steve