Looking at pre 64's in general, I can sort of understand why the younger guys,or anyone exposed to maybe a "sample of one",asks..."What's so special about them?".....
They certainly aren't fancy...some of the stocks are unsuited to scope use (they were after all invented before scopes became widely popular).Gas handling could have been better,safer, I suppose. And better machining and manufacturing methods are available today....
I guess for me, it has been boiled down to the fact that they have always been very "reliable",dependable, predictable, and generally "user friendly".They have generally worked,fed,extracted, fired,and functioned as they should;no tweaking or pandering to make them function as they were designed to do,or deliver solid if not always fancy,accuracy.
They generally group well and consistently,wood stocks and all;and while they may not always deliver Internet quality groups, they always delivered as much accuracy as most folks are capable of using in the field.And IME if fed modern bullets and components,can group with some of the best custom hunting rifles made today.....I have fired enough bug hole groups with them to know this is true.I have had a Swift that put 3 shots into about 5/8's inch to 3/4's inch.....at 300 yards...and 3-4 300H&H's that stayed sub MOA and threw 10's at the 600 yard line.
You could mount a scope,take them to the range,obtain fine accuracy as they came from the factory,and go hunting.You could count on them to behave and function well,in the field.There were few after market parts required because there was litle else truly better out there to improve on a mostly sound design.
Lots (most)of them were tweaked by hand in some fashion or another because the manufacturing methods of the day required it.
I'm sure some lemons got out of the factory,but compared to some of the problems with some rifles of current manufacture that I hear of, read about,and have experienced myself.....you just NEVER heard these problems discussed or encountered with pre 64's.They were just non-issues IME and that is spread out over 40-50 of them...I've lost count...
I never heard of anyone sending one back to the factory because it didn't work, or function, or shoot....or silly talk about such absurd stuff as "manufactureres warranty"(a con job if ever I heard of one),because it simply wasn't needed....when you bought a pre 64, you didn't buy a warranty, you bought a rifle that worked and did what it was supposed to as it came from the factory, the first time...you didn't need any warranty.
The number of these old rifles stil providing dependable field performance,some of which were made 70+ years ago, is enough testimony to their durability and trustworthiness.
Rant over.....
