John,

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge on these rifles. I just pulled my grandfather's out of the safe to look it over. It is marked as a Model 69 and not a 69A as I had misremembered. It's probably a fairly early example since it does cock on closing and does have a cocking knob that also functions as a safety. It does have a rear peep sight and a hooded bead front sight. I also looked at both 5 round magazines, I had mistakenly thought that there were 3. One is definately for shorts with a shorter follower and spacer at the front of the magazine. Both are stamped with the Winchester name and patent dates on the baseplates.

I have a 4 year old daughter and I had long thought about teaching her to shoot with this rifle. I am starting to reconsider that though. To close the bolt on mine does take an effort and I'm not sure that she has the hand strength to do it on her own. I've probably got 2 more years until I need to make that decision. As much as I would like to, I don't think she's ready for a trip to the range yet.

Thanks again for sharing.

Frank