Show us your Win 70,Pre 64 !

[Nessmuck]

Looking at getting A Model 70 Win. Pre 64 Not sure about the cal., maybe 308.. I will be target shooting and hunting White Tail Deer with it. How good are these guns ?? Let's hear your comments..Also is a Pre 64 much better than the new one ?? Thanks !! Pics won't hurt either !!!

 

[gregintenn]

This is a featherweight in 243 Win. It'll print pretty tight cloverleaf 100 yard groups with factory Remington 100 grain ammo.

Here's a newer featherweight in 280 Rem. It won't shoot 1 hole groups, but it ain't bad.

 

[30-30remchester]

Well lets see, I have collected, shot, studied and examined this model for 45 years. Are they any good?? No other American bolt sporting rifle has ever been built that can compete. There are books and magazine articles that praise this model. Those that doubt this have little knowledge of construction. To us collectors all pre 64 model 70's are not created equal. Pre wars are to die for. So few remain that have not been tampered with. Transitional models are my particular thing. I also have affection for guns built before 1953. After this I have little interest. Others like the featherweights. Are they the best ever? No, but they are dang close. They have a few things I would have made beefier, but have never seen one of these fail. The pre 64 model 70 Winchester in 30-06 was proposed as Alaska's state gun. Do you have any specific questions?

 

[Nessmuck]

What calibers would be inexpensive to shoot at the range without too much recoil and a good deer round ???

 

[OIF2]

Here's a couple or so.
Bob

'49 transition standard, .30-06. About NIB




My battered '52 .270. It wears an old Lyman 4X that's still clear and bright. My killer.


Latest addition. An American-made (2008) FN Supergrade in 7x57mm. Not bad.

 

[30-30remchester]

Here's a couple or so.
Bob

'49 transition standard, .30-06. About NIB




My battered '52 .270. It wears an old Lyman 4X that's still clear and bright. My killer.

Really like your 1952 model. Your is starting to get some character. It is nice to see a gun that has some battle scars. The 1949 model is too late to be a transitional. A nice looking rifle though.

 

[OIF2]

Really like your 1952 model. Your is starting to get some character. It is nice to see a gun that has some battle scars. The 1949 model is too late to be a transitional. A nice looking rifle though.

I think it is...depends on the features, like a cloverleaf tang, markings, D&T rear bridge, etc. Transitionals ran up to late '49.
Bob

 

[suckersrus]

Please feel free to correct my facts if I'm wrong.


Winchester first chambered the Model 70 in 308 Winchester in 1952, (I think in December).

Winchester first chambered the Model 70 FeatherWeight in 1952, (I think in December).

I was born in December 1952.

Here is my 1952 Model 70 FeatherWeight in 308 Winchester.
It will be left to my grandsons.

 

[30-30remchester]

I think it is...depends on the features, like a cloverleaf tang, markings, D&T rear bridge, etc. Transitionals ran up to late '49.
Bob

The great thing about these forums is the learning that can be had. Rule's book states transitionals ended in mid 1948 at serial number @ 87,000. Does yours have the cloverleaf tang? It appears your stock pistol grip is flat rather than bulbous of the transitionals. In the era your rifle was manufactured was right in the window between type 2 and type 3 guns. There are some known examples of transitionals with type 3 safeties. Is your sear hole round or square. Man I love studying old Winchesters.

 

[rburg]

I don't have pictures, don't know how to post if I did. And I'm happy with that. I've only got 2 Model 70s. The first I found at a gun show maybe 15 or 20 years ago. We'd been tending our tables and wandering the show all weekend. As often happens, we ignore the stuff in our island, the tables next to us. It was getting late on Sunday, and a lot of tables were getting broken down and stuff put away. As I was passing thru the opening we had to the show, I noticed a strange looking old rifle. I asked the guys I'd been BSing with all weekend if I could see it. Sure, they said, and I could even get a special one time price, since money is easier to haul home than a nasty old rifle. Turns out it was a Model 70 in .30-06. Made real early, with a serial up about 2700. First month, second year I think.

Better still, it had a scope. A BalVar 8, the scope of my dreams in my youth. Every month I try to get the mail before my father. Because in it was the American Rifleman. The ad I always looked at was the BalVar 8. So now I owned the M70 and the best scope God had ever had made. I was rich I tell you.

Then Something even better happened. A few years after my first M70 my gun show partner called me at work. It was Christmas eve, afternoon. He was on his way to eastern KY to visit his daughter. But he stopped at one of our favorite gun shops and found a gun. So he told me to leave work and bust it down there. I told him that I couldn't. I was the bad guy that kept 100 hard working folk noses at the grinding stones. So I asked him what was so great that I needed it. He said it was just one of those old Winchesters I liked so much, an early one. I told him I already had an early one, so he said this was earlier. I said how early, and he said pretty near the beginning, #202. Yep, he was right as always. So he said no worries, he'd already put it on layaway for me. He was a good negotiator, he got it for me for $700. He did that other times, too. He knew what I needed as well as I did.

I'd advise the OP here to consider .30-06. The .308s aren't nearly as plentiful. You've got a lot of competition. Or maybe a 1950s vintage .270.

 

[alwslate]

I'm not a mod 70 expert by any means but I do own one. It's an early
Featherweight with the aluminum butt plate in .308. For economical
shooting at a range and Whitetail hunting the .308 would be my first
choice with the 30-06 second. I've owned it for several years and it
mostly just sits in my gun safe but it's the kind of gun you hate to
sell just because.

 

[Wyo]

Looking at getting A Model 70 Win. Pre 64 Not sure about the cal., maybe 308.. I will be target shooting and hunting White Tail Deer with it. How good are these guns ?? Let's hear your comments.

I have a mid-50's Target in .30/06 and that rifle will hold 1" at 200 yds. all day long with 200 grain Sierra Matchkings. I'd call that pretty good. I also own and have owned quite a few others, mostly Standard rifles, and I've never owned one that wouldn't shoot to an inch or better at 100 yds. if I held my tongue just right! I think the pre-64 M70 is the finest bolt action production sporting rifle that ever came to market. Period!

 

[RIDE-RED 350r]

Nessmuck: You asked if the pre-64's are that much better than current production... That I cannot tell you.

But what I can tell you is that I recently bought a new FN M70 Supergrade and it is as fine a rifle as ever I laid hands on.

I am not a m70 historian by any stretch either, but I have learned that it seems that the years to be avoided are 1964 till the late 60's-early 70's. Winchester did respond to the outcry from the 1964 debaucle and began to try to turn things around.

Mt brother has a pre-64, a '71 XTR, a late New Haven Sporter, and an FN Featherweight. I can't tell you which is his favorite, heck..I don't think he could tell you either.

If you want a pre-64 by all means go for it. You won't be dissapointed. But do not discount the current FN made M70's as junk, because they are far from it.

 

[David LaPell]

This is a Model 70 Featherweight I am caretaking for, I think made in '59 if I recall. It's in .308 and the owner had the Lyman receiver on it. I have permission to use and carried around a couple of times this year. It does ok with my handloads. Good brush gun with the sight combo it has on it right now.

 

[30-30remchester]

The OP asked if the pre 64's were better than the newer models. For us die hard Winchester men the answer is not only yes but hell yes. There are actually quite a few difference between the later and earlier pre 64's. And quite a few more difference between pre 64's and later production rifles. It all boils down to construction. Reading early Winchester internal memos, you get the feel that quality was paramount. As an example, the milled ventilated rib on early Winchester model 12's was so over engineered and so expensive to make, Winchester didn't turn a profit on them. But that was of no concern, they wanted the best period. The same is true with most pre war Winchesters. They strived for the best. A current competitor that builds a fine rifle ( I wont mention their name but their name starts with a R), has its bolts built in 3 pieces. The lugs are welded onto a pipe with the bolt handle welded onto the pipe. This is all done to speed production and lower costs. Pre 64's bolts start as a 9 pound billet of steel and after many milling operations is transformed into a one piece bolt and handle combination. A very expensive process, but the best ever built. Every part of the early Winchesters had such dedication to quality. The post 64's controlled feed guns have superb machining, above the pre 64's simply because all older guns were built by hand and man, while the newer models are CNC machined to tighter tolerances. However shortcuts were made in Winchester quality starting in 1952 to most models as they were now competing with companies who had learned how to use casting and stamped steel parts in their construction. Thus lowering their prices significantly, and taking a large share of the market. Winchester had no recourse but to start cutting corners and trying to speed production. The same is true with the newer guns. The are very nice guns but not in the same class as the early Winchester.

 

[Drm50]

Pre 64 M-70 Winchester

At one time I owned 22 pre 64/ m-70s. My largest was 375 H&H
smallest was 220 Swift. I had several 30/06 and 270s. There is
a book I read once, I forget the title, about the old Winchester
Company and how their guns were made. I was a dry read but
gave reason why they were so good. Basically they were semi
hand made. The only 2 that I was not pleased with were both
264s,they would not come close to accuracy of the 300Win or
300 H&H. I have a 308fw that I bought off guy who had sporting
goods store in 1950s unfired NIB, gun made in 1956. The 30 cals
were my favorites.

 

[Nessmuck]

Now a birth year (1956) M70 .308 would be a fine gift to myself !!!!

 

[bmcgilvray]

Three pre-64 Winchester Model 70s live around here. A .220 Swift from 1937, .257 Roberts from 1947, and a .30-06 from 1953. The .220 Swift and .257 Roberts were purchased from the original owner who bought each of them new. The .30-06 is my old favorite hunting rifle. We're eating on a deer taken with it a few weeks back.

A late 1980s-early 1990s Model 70 Super Express .375 H&H Magnum is standing with them in this photo.

 

[Fishinfool]

Here is my 1950's model 70 featherweight, in .308. 4x steel tubed Weaver in swing away mounts. Old vs New quality? A friend of mine just bought a new model 70 Super Grade in 30-06, and I'll tell you, its a very nice rifle, if a little heavy...

Larry