picked up this 1953 Winchester model 63 the other day.

what a joy and pleasure to shoot and own this masterpiece of craftsmanship... and a tang site is icing on the cake.

Great find. One of the under appreciated guns. Few people appreciate the quality Winchester strived for back in the day. The machining work was never matched by any of the other gun companies. All milled steel and walnut. I do love early Winchesters.

I had a good run of old classics last week. i'll post up another Winchester here in a bit.

I bought a Taurus knockoff of the Model 63 over 10 years ago. Metalwork and finish were excellent but the wood was a little crude. I refinished it, and I doubt most could distinguish between the Taurus and a Model 63 from more than a couple of feet away. Shoots good too. I always wanted a 63, but the Taurus is an acceptable substitute. I don't know if they are still made or not. The Marble tang sight is a very nice touch. I mounted a red dot sight on my Taurus.

I've had one for years. Accurate and dependable. Wins top line
22 semi. If I remember right, it cost more than a 1894 when
still made.

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That's a good looking 63 HARDWIRE, they are a quality made rifle. I like your peep sight. My 63 I think is also about a 1953 model it's supposed to be factory scoped. There is no way to prove it because it can't be lettered. However, it has no dovetails cut in the barrel for iron sights. It's one of my nicer rifles.

wow... that looks collector grade.

actually, I haven't even cleaned mine yet. just straight out the door and into the woods. no telling how long its sat without being fired.

[QUOTE=wundudnee;139145659]That's a good looking 63 HARDWIRE, they are a quality made rifle. I like your peep sight. My 63 I think is also about a 1953 model it's supposed to be factory scoped. There is no way to prove it because it can't be lettered. However, it has no dovetails cut in the barrel for iron sights. It's one of my nicer rifles.

Since I saw that exact same M 63 rifle with no barrel cuts for iron sights with a scope mount base installed while working in the gunshop in Reno about 1960, I have to hazard a guess that it is a custom version of Winchester's work coming out of the factory. A customer brought it in for scope installation and sighting-in. Since I was the one that took the rifles to the range and sighted them in for the customers, I got to shoot it. As I remember the customer selected a German made scope with that really thick post and thin cross hair that they favored at the time. I couldn't get the 'best' target sight acquisition with that scope, so couldn't get the best groups in the world. I would have really liked to had one myself, but knew full well that I wasn't going to pay more for a 22 LR rifle than I would have for a high power rifle. Besides, my Dad owned one and I knew I would own it someday. My Dad never took care of his guns the way I would have liked him to, but he babied that M 63 and it still looks terrific today. It is my wife's favorite 22 LR rifle with which to use on the spinner targets at the range.

IMHO, the Winchester M 61 and M 63 are the epitome of firearms manufacturing and design. We will never again see mass produced firearms made in the USA with all the qualities those two rifles offered the public.

I have a W63 about the same vintage as Hardware's. Not quite as good condition, but acceptable (to me) as an original reliable shooter. I really like the tang sight on Hardware's W63. I might want to see if I can find one for mine. Is it a Lyman? Do you know the model number?

Beautiful examples all of a well made rifle. Too bad they are chambered for an obsolete cartridge.

Dan

I'm sorry, I don't know. the sight is unmarked.

apparently its either a lyman or a marble. but theres different screw patterns for the same model type sight to fit different rifles

I'm sure somebody here will know.

ive long wanted a .351SLR... if ammunition was available id have one.

those were commonly used by law enforcement in the 30's

The 03 is chambered for obsolete 22 auto, 63 is 22 LR. The other
two rifles in this series fire obsolete cartridges. The first model
fired 32. & 35 Win Self Loading, 2nd model went to 351 & 401
win. The 351 saw some popularity among law enforcement, and
prison guard use. I have owned all of them at one time or another. My last was 351, ammo so hard to get I gave up on them. Never used one of mine to hunt, but did shoot a deer
with one back in 60s. I reckon I would be a close cousin to a
357 for power.

My fatal attempt at humor. It seems around here that 22lr is obsolete.

Dan

Great score on a quality made rifle. Can be had if one really keeps their eyes open and looks hard enough.

Nice catch. I had a few in my days but they always had issues like extra holes. Great gun.

" The 351 saw some popularity among law enforcement, and
prison guard use. I have owned all of them at one time or another. My last was 351, ammo so hard to get I gave up on them."

I remember before the time of the AR, many police agencies and prisons used either the Winchester SLRs (usually in .351) or the Remington Model 8/81 semi-auto rifles, usually in .30 Remington caliber - basically a rimless .30-30 Winchester.

It's not too difficult to make usable ammunition for the .351s from .357 Magnum brass, but .357 Maximum brass is even better. Most of the .351s I have seen will have some sort of police or prison markings on them. Unusual to find one that is any better condition than "well used."

63's are fine rifles.
Not the easiest to take apart to pieces and put back together but after a couple you get used to them.
You need a spanner to take the stock off/on and a piece of rod of the right dia to put the op-rod back on with it's spring.
The carbines are rare, should be the first few years production IIRC.

Firing pin can get jammed in the forward position from peening, crud or the small screw on the side of the bolt twisted in too far sometimes. Can cause the gun to double or more as it slam fires. Not good. Breaks extractor and makes Gold Badge Club unhappy.

If you take the butt stock off, be ready to catch the tiny coil spring and plunger that is captive in the bottom rear edge of the recv'r and will fall free. The spring and plunger is what gives the safety it's 'snap' and the stock being on the gun is the only thing that holds it in place. Very often gone on guns that have been 'worked on'.

When I did some work for a couple dealers/collectors, I was sent a Win R&D Dept Mod63 to work on that had been converted to .22short.
Swiss cheesed bolt rails to lighten the heavy bolt. Light weight bolt spring and hammer spring. Modified cartridge stop for the 22short.
The latter looked rather crude but it worked OK after some fitting.
The bbl was 22short chambered and a rollmarked address Win bbl. The caliber was hand stamped.
Got it too work OK w/ HS Shorts. Don't know what W's idea was. Maybe a gallery gun at the time it was put together.
Lots of strange stuff from the Winchester factory when it closed up.

From the dim recesses of my memory, I seem to remember seeing some M63s being used as shooting gallery guns, but I don't know how that could be. I am not aware of any of them being factory-made to handle .22 Short ammunition, and that was what the galleries used - .22 Short frangible bullet loads.

Back in the mid 1950s, I remember Remington selling flat packs of the .22 Short frangible bullet rounds (I think maybe 28 rounds per pack), They called them Remington "Rockets." I fired some at the time. I don't think the idea caught on as they were not on the market for long. Today, if you can find one of the original "Rocket" packets, they go for about $30 on the ammo collectors market. They were also sold under the Peters brand by another name, but I don't remember what it was.

there was Winchester "kant-splash" and remington "spatter-less" also. I haven't seen any that was affordable. its pretty much a collector display item only.

Model 63 was the rifle I learned to shoot with. As luck would have it I have it in my safe, along one I bought at an auction.

Winchester 63, Colt Woodsman Sport, you are certainly shopping in the right places!!

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PTLAPTA!

Nice! Good shooters, too.

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Even older, even crankier....