I have thrown out terminology that I clearly did not fully understand and used it to generalise a potential problem that I saw in certain brands. Went to the gunsmith that diagnosed that problem many years ago, and did he spoke again about stretch, but this time, having been slightly more educated by this forum, I made a point of listening very clearly. He spoke about headspace problems, receiver stretch, lug setback and the like. he also said this is not subject to certain brands but to all brands and also depends on the shooter's handling and other conditions like faulty reloading etc I am not a gunsmith nor an expert reloader. The term I used "stretch", was definitely the wrong definition for what I thought I was talking about. Instead, it implies certain things that are, for the moment, beyond my understanding.
I confess, I love the M70, and used a notion that I did not fully understand to discredit another brand in the same class. I will not throw terms around anymore. I hope people can enlighten me because I am trying to grasp things, but for the life of me, WHERE TO BEGIN!? Perhaps having hunted all my life I picked up my own perceptions of what makes a good rifle, not to say I have'nt had adequete field experience. To me rifles that feel good in my hands, with smoother sounding actions with a solid feel over time are the best. The Cz's, Brno's etc that I used, for me, started to have a loose feeling when working the bolt to rechamber. When I pulled the bolt all the way back, over time the play at the back became very much, too much for me to feel comfortable about not seeking professional guidance. It also started to rattle around when closed, more and more. Once I "over pulled" the bolt for a follow up shot and it got stuck that way, almost as though if I had pulled a bit harder it would come out. When I switched between those and the Win M70 -back then I used a few calibres in pre 64- my perception of that 'play" and "rattle" in comparison to the other rifles that i used which i knew were of the same age and had been used at the same rate, was much less. In fact it seemed that the Win M70 had a more quality feel. There are various reasons for this, one being that I never owned any of the M70's, perhaps I did something wrong when handling the rifles I used. In any case, the stretch thing applies to those who know more about it than me.
I still say go for the M70.
