Van Orden was successful in selling the arms to many clients, including the U.S. Coast Guard, which purchased 10 of the rifles in June 1954. Van Orden’s rifles also enjoyed some measure of success on the target range, as Marine Col. Walter Walsh won the 1952 National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, with one of the “Van Orden Snipers.”

The success of the Model 70 on the rifle range attracted renewed interest from the U.S. Army as evidenced by a Feb. 2, 1955, memo from the Office of the Chief of Ordnance to the Chief of Army Field Forces, which stated: “It is requested that this office be furnished [with] your comments and recommendations relative to procurement of cal. .30-06 Winchester Model 70 National Match Rifles equipped with a medium heavy barrel for use during the 1955 National Matches.” The recipient of the memo replied on Feb. 7, 1955: “The total number of weapons required for the 1955 Matches is 204.” It has been confirmed that the U.S. Army purchased in excess of 200 Model 70 rifles between 1954 and 1959, mainly from Van Orden’s firm. They were intended primarily as match rifles and were not procured for use as sniper rifles.

Likewise, many of the 300-plus Model 70 rifles purchased by the Marine Corps during World War II remained in inventory and, except for the handful diverted for unofficial sniping use, continued to be used by Marine marksmen for match use throughout the 1950s. Many of these were subsequently rebuilt between circa 1956 and 1963, primarily at the Marine Corps’ “Match Rebuild Shop” in Albany, Ga. This rebuild work varied but generally consisted of replacing the original “sporter” barrels with heavier 24- or 26-inch barrels and replacing the stocks as necessary, often with new target stocks procured from Winchester. The metal was reblued as required. Thus, the Model 70 remained in the military’s inventory, albeit as a match rifle, until the escalation of the war in Vietnam, which resulted in a renewed emphasis on accurate sniper rifles.

A July 1967 American Rifleman article by Frank G. McGuire, “Snipers—Specialists in Warfare,” reported: “The 8X telescopic sight was chosen in World War II when it was teamed with the ’03 rifle. These scopes now used in Vietnam are the same scopes on newer rifles. Some of the snipers now in Vietnam were not yet born when the telescopic sights they use were employed in a different war. ‘In the early 1940’s,’ says a Marine Corps spokesman, ‘we were advised that a Unertl 8X scope on the Winchester Model 70 was the best sniping combination, but the ’03 was available in quantity, so we used it.’”

The Model 70 rifles sent to Vietnam for use as sniping arms were from the stocks originally procured for Marine Corps match use, chiefly from George Van Orden. This was confirmed in McGuire’s article: “The rifle team of the 3rd Marine Division had been using the Model 70 with the heavy barrel and the heavy Marksman stock. … When the need arose for more Model 70s the rifles procured by Brig. Gen. Van Orden, including Smith’s championship-winning rifle, were shipped to Vietnam as supplemental equipment.”

Peter Senich gave additional details regarding the use of the Model 70 sniper rifle in Vietnam in his excellent book “The One-Round War.” “Glass-bedded and accurized by Marine Corps Rifle Team Equipment Armorers (RTE), the Model 70s fired .30-06 M72 match ammunition having a 173-grain, boat-tailed bullet. In some cases, Douglas barrels were fitted to the Winchester actions to attain optimum accuracy. A limited number of 3X to 9X variable power ‘Marine Scopes’ of Japanese manufacture saw early use, but target mount, 8 power Unertl telescopes, unchanged basically from those first adopted in 1941, were fitted to the Model 70s as were many of the original World War II Unertl contract scopes, which had survived official obsolescence and the post-Korean War surplus sell-off. … While the USMC used the Model 70 to greatest advantage during this period, a limited number were also employed by Army personnel for sniping, and Model 70s with silencers mounted on them were utilized for covert operations in Southeast Asia.”

James O. E. Norell’s article “A Century Of USMC Sniper Rifles” related some interesting information by retired USMC Maj. Edward J.“Jim” Land, Jr., regarding the Model 70 rifles that were used by the Marines in Vietnam circa 1966: “Land first scrounged 12 Model 70 sporting rifles that had been procured by Special Services for deer hunting at Camp Pendleton. Through the PX system in Okinawa, Land’s NCOs bought mounts, rings and scopes. The second lot of rifles used by Land and his teams in Vietnam were also Winchester Model 70 target guns in .30-’06 Sprg. that had been originally purchased [as] ‘across-the course’ bolt guns for the National Matches. They were mothballed after NRA changed match rules to limit service personnel to shooting service rifles. … ”

Despite its excellence as a precision rifle, the Model 70 was never fully embraced by the U.S. military as a standardized sniper arm. Nevertheless, Winchester Model 70s teamed with the Unertl scopes were superb sniping arms, certainly better than anything else in the military’s inventory at the time. The Model 70s began to be replaced by Remington Model 700 rifles, which were later standardized by the Marine Corps as the “M40.” The Model 70’s suitability as a sniping rifle during the Vietnam War should be unquestioned, as the most famous and revered sniper of the war, Carlos Hathcock, used the rifle with remarkable effectiveness.

The Winchester Model 70 represented perhaps the epitome of the bolt-action sporting rifle. The rifle’s inherent accuracy was ideally suited as a sniping rifle. For those wondering why the military did not continue using the Model 70 and abandoned it in favor of the Remington Model 700, McGuire gave a cogent synopsis of the reasoning behind this decision: “[For Vietnam], the Marines wanted a bolt-action rifle with a medium-heavy barrel and a sporter stock. There was no real reason to stay with Winchester because the Model 70s used by the Marines were not the latest production models anyway, and no advantage would be gained as far as standardization of equipment was concerned.” By the late 1960s, the Winchester Model 70 sniper rifles were in the process of being phased out by the new Remington Model 700s.

As events transpired, the Model 70s pressed into service as sniping arms, especially during the Vietnam War, were really never meant to be more than a stop-gap or interim measure until a standardized sniper rifle could be procured. This is yet another example of the truism that a great civilian firearm does not always equate to a great military rifle.