A couple of years later, Winchester was smarting from the bad press and hostile customer reaction. The stock underwent some improvements, returning to cut checkering and a more satin-like finish. But the new guys at Winchester could not help themselves, and in an effort to make the rifle more attractive without spending much money, added a Bakelite fore-end tip and grip cap set off with an oh-so-stylish white spacer made of plastic. My first center-fire rifle was one of these Model 70s, and within a year I had restocked it in a piece of hard, black Missouri walnut from the old Reinhart Fajen company. It may not be the artisan-like work of Al Biesen, but it looked—and remains so today—a heck of a lot better than the original piece of firewood. My restocking job included a full-length glass bedding job that significantly improved the rifle’s accuracy.

Twenty years ago United States Repeating Arms Co. (USRAC), a company that was licensed to use the Winchester name from Olin at the time—finally got the message. Riflemen wanted the original Model 70 with its controlled-round-feed system. They wanted satin-finished walnut with cut checkering. USRAC gave them all that and more, calling it the Model 70 Classic. One feature retained from the bump-and-run guns was the anti-binding device machined into the left lug. The onset of Computer Numeric Control machining centers is what allowed the Model 70 Classic to be reintroduced at a competitive price. USRAC retained the bump-and-run Model 70s for the budget-minded shooter, but the Classic and its variants were what shooters and hunters wanted.

Other variants on the Classic soon followed. The Featherweight shaved a few ounces off the Classic with its whippy barrel and a trimmed-down stock. USRAC reintroduced the Super Grade with its highly polished metalwork, an upgraded floorplate assembly and nicer wood. I have one chambered in .338 Win. Mag., and it’s as beautiful as it is effective on elk. Eventually USRAC had to jump on the stainless steel and synthetic stock bandwagons.

In 2001, USRAC introduced the .300 WSM, and it generated a great deal of interest. Toward the end of 2001, the company came up with the .270 and 7 mm WSM cartridges, set to be introduced at the 2002 SHOT Show.

Five years later USRAC closed the doors on the New Haven, Conn., facility, after producing Winchester rifles and shotguns for more than 140 years. The word was there would be no more Winchester guns. Aficionados like me went into mourning and began to rent our clothing. The day of the announcement I called my friend Scott Grange at Browning/USRAC and tried to buy a dozen rifles right then and there. Too late, I was told, “They’re all gone,” he said. I did manage to find a stainless-barreled and laminate-stocked .270 Win. Turns out it is a tack driver, and now I often choose it for whitetails on my place.

But you can’t keep a good man—or in this case, rifle—down. Two years after the New Haven plant went into mothballs, FN Herstal announced that it would start building a third generation of Model 70s at its Colombia, S.C., facility. The current crop of Model 70s are pretty faithful to most of the design concepts. Of course, they simply had to mess with something, so they jettisoned the remarkably simple and rugged adjustable trigger that has served so well for more than 70 years. It has been replaced with the M.O.A. Trigger with claims of zero take-up, zero creep and zero overtravel. It’s not really a bad trigger, but it’s not as easy to work with as the original Model 70 fire-control mechanism.

Today, we are blessed with a plethora of fine hunting bolt-action rifles—Savage, Remington, Kimber, NULA, as well as countless custom and semi-custom builders produce collectively the finest rifles in the world. Virtually all of them trace their roots back to the ’98 Mauser. I have examples of most of them, but clearly the most represented of them is the Winchester Model 70 with seven examples from .270 Win. to .375 H&H. One of the most famous snipers, Carlos Hathcock used a Model 70 with a barrel so worn it would barely keep its shot in 3 inches at 100 yards.

The term “The Rifleman’s Rifle” was introduced in 1952 by a Winchester marketing representative., but the name stuck. The Winchester Model 70 is the Rifleman’s Rifle.