Calling all Winchester 63 experts...

Just got back from the Phoenix gun show today, the proud owner of a Winchester Model 63 .22 semiauto. I began to check out its manufacture date by the serial number; here's the chart I used.



So far so good. I fully expected a 1958 manufacture date, as I knew that was the year they began grooving the receivers for scopes; 10,000 were so grooved; mine was grooved.

But here is the serial number, marked in two places underneath:



Now this is not one of the later-manufactured Japanese Winchesters - these were all marked "made in Japan" on the barrel, and the loading port is differently configured. From pictures I've seen, there is also no little screw in back of the extractor on the bolt on the Japanese guns.

Here are the barrel markings on my gun:




Here are some other pictures, of the gun and various features; the barrel length is the standard 23 inches:









The buttplate is definitely ferric - it attracts a magnet -



My opinion, and it is only that, is that Winchester omitted the digits "17" in front of my 4-digit number. Perhaps they initiated this practice when they grooved the receivers, as the guns could be easily traced to 1958 by that feature alone; they simply used a new 4 digit series as a cost-saving measure.

I would welcome opinions/comments from those more knowledgeable on the Winchester 63 - particularly from those who have grooved receiver guns. Thanks for your help!

John

Win 63
According to your chart mine was made in 1952. My rifle has A on end of
Serial no. Also mine has straight stock. Got this gun of owners heirs years
ago. I know that it has never been tampered with, it's stock. You can see
that it's not a 03 stock.

Hi John, nice 63. Grove or no grove I'd be grovin on it.

Pictures make it difficult to get a good look. I see a couple of perhaps pits close to the S/N. Are they blued over?

Perhaps a smith or Winchester grooved it for a scope? Are there any tell tale marks that might indicate a scope was used?

The stock finish still has the Winchester black filler in it. Does it have a varnish or oil finish?

Have you gone to any of the Winchester forums?

Nice rifle, I'd love to have it's twin.

Hope you find out, I love a mystery more than a new in the box gun. Can't wait to hear your updates.

Read in a 63 forum that a grooved 63 in 23" is worth 20% more than a similar condition non grooved. Be back if I find anything else.

I gleaned this from the Winchester collectors forums. Bert appears tpo be the gentleman to contact. WRAC historian and board member.
http://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-rifles/Model+63+Question/

John: Some of the manufactures will replace an non-repairable model of a currently produced rifle/pistol with a new rifle/pistol, but use the old original serial number. Do you think there was any chance in this instance of that happening along about 1958? You really scored with this purchase. You should shoot the heck out of it. They are a real pleasure to shoot and are usually very accurate.

My first 22 rifle was a Model 63 that my Dad gave me on my 12th birthday. I used to ride to the desert from our city house with it across my motor scooter's handlebars. No one thought a thing of that back in 1953/54. I took it to college with me and kept it in my unlocked dorm room closet. Try that today. I foolishly sold it to finance the purchase of my first Remington Model 700. ......................

The recv'r is reblued. The frame and TG #'s are pre-war.
The frame may have been grooved during the refinish. Not a real hard job with a decent mill and a dovetail cutter. A lot of them have been done.

Butt stock is the pre-war style and it has been sanded down too. Noticable most along the tangs. But also around the butt plate.

The butt plate has file cut checkering. I've not seen that on a '63,,though it may be a very early style.
The standard butt plate checkering was die stamped when the plate is formed. A reverse image actually. You can see it on Drm50's 63.
My guess is that the original butt plate had it's impressed checkering pattern filed/belt sanded off (pitted surface perhaps like the recv'r). Then to mimic the Winchester look as best they could they checkered it criss cross with a checkering file.

I can't really think of much of anything that was drasticly different through the years of production on them. They did use a plastic forend cap at one point but that was near the end of production. Wouldn't apply here.

The bbl may be dated (yr) on the bottom at the breech end being a pre-war. But you'll have to remove the forend cap w/plunger rod, forend wood,,then the recoil spring and guide bolt (under compression) just to look at it. If you've never taken one apart, be careful of the spring tension and there are a couple of tricks to get it back together even from this point of disassembly.

I'd simply look at it as a nice shooter M63. Don't worry about the collector thing.

Clean it, take it out and have fun with it.

added:
The bbl address (left) is the older style single line. Later guns like one from the 50's will have a 2 line address and it is rolled closer up to recv'r on that side.
I think your gun is D&T for a tang peep sight. That was a pre-war thing. Maybe a few post war early production guns had it as they used up frames. But by the late 50's no one wanted a tang sight. That was the reason for the jump to a grooved rcv'r.
I have a 63 smooth top in the '54-'55 mfg range (136,xxx?) and it doesn't have the tang peep D&T. Another 63 grooved top around 180,xxx,,no D&T either.
One more smooth top post war around here but I can't recall the ser# range,,don't know where I put the thing either. I know it's not D&T'd though.
Should find it and finish the stock work on it and engrave it.

I think it's evident now that what I have is a re-finished early Model 63, made in the second year of production (1935). What threw me off was the grooved receiver - as has been pointed out, that could have been accomplished later, perhaps as part of the re-finishing process in order to update it. There is no evidence from marks in the grooves that it has ever had a scope attached to it.

My 1939 Winchester catalog shows that the rifle at that time was rated for use with Super Speed ammo - so I think the present barrel markings show that the barrel is a later 23", probably from the late 30s or early 40s. The original, 1935, was probably a 20". I'm not going to attempt to disassemble it so far as to see any date stamp on the bottom of the barrel.

As I got it, it had a Lyman aftermarket front sight, which looked way out of place to me. I found a Model 69A front sight in my spare parts kit that was used on a lot of Winchester 22s. A few minutes' work restored the original Winchester configuration.

I took the opportunity to take it down this morning. It showed evidence of some use - hadn't been thoroughly cleaned, with a lot of firing residue in the breech area. I scrubbed and lubed the barrel, and the bore now sparkles with no pits. I also cleaned and lubed the action, and everything works slick and checks out perfectly. I think it will make a nice little shooter that looks, except for the scope grooves, almost as nice as when it left the factory in 1935.

John

Un freakin' believable!!!
What a great thread on the 63. Man one can learn some stuff on this here forum!!
Thanks for a very educational thread!