The first series M70's, up until the 1950's when they brought out the FW series- all had lathe cut rifling- and were lead lapped afterwards- took about 11 minutes to machine the rifling-- The FW M70's had the broached rifling, which took less than 1 minute, and those 22" barrels (.308-.243 cal initially)were, along with the aluminum trigger guard and floorplate, the first steps WRA took to reduce mfg. costs on the M70-- Pre-WW2 M70's had better wood grain, checkering, finish than the post WW2 M70's-- one reason- a ton of seasoned walnut went into War production by WRA- 1903's, M-1 Garand and BAR rifles- etc.
I have a 1956 era M70 FW in .308Win--It is a fine weapon, but just doesn't have that "something extra" my oldest M70 (mfg 1939 in 30-06) has- maybe like trying to compare the taste of a fine single malt to that of a blended Scotch-- and taste is, indeed, a subjective quality-- RWTF
