Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Winchester 59

Picked up a beater WinLite today and think I can get it running to use as a lightweight pheasant gun along with my battery of Browning DoubleAutos. Major parts are all there as far as internals go and I have the floating chamber. I'm missing the barrel and the forend screw so I'll be needing both of those. The butt has a couple pretty size able chips missing at the rear where the buttplate was busted to bits. I may trim it off a half inch to get rid of the chips and fit a pad to it to extend the LOP for my swanlike wingspan. The forend has a long crack running down the middle but it's tight so I'll epoxy it and refinish. Should be a fun project and not too much work.

Anyone have a barrel lying around in the corner of their junk room or gunshop they'd part with? Any of you fellas have any experience with one of these?

I shot quail with a young man a couple years ago who used one his grandpa had given him, his had a 26" IC barrel and he was pretty salty behind it. Other than that I've never seen one in action.

yep. the receivers are prone to cracking by not watching the wear on the main recoil spring in the stock. as it wears ,the bolt will slam back and crack the handle channel or the rear of the receiver.
the correct bbl for that gun is a fiberglass bbl. all 59's were plain bbls and the muzzles tended to unravel. the 59 was americas first screw in choke bbl. it was called the winlite system and came with ic/mo/full with ported chokes. a wrench was needed to put them on.
your forearm cracked because the owner left it tight after shooting. as the metal heats, it expands and the wood doesnt. so the forearm loosened. owner tighten it. but when the gun cools, the forearm gets crushed like in a vise. it got hot again, tightened it again, and so on...until it just gave up and cracked.
always store a 59 with a loose forearm bolt. many when hunting, would loosen it immediately after firing too.
ebay usually has a 59 bbl around. might want to check: gunpartscorp, corsons bbls in az, popperts gun parts, or bobs gun parts in ark.

btw,,,i use to collect d.autos. even had a 1 of 1 pigeon grade d.auto. i sold them all but kept a red one. nice guns to carry.

My Double Autos are high brass murder on pheasant if I'm behind the gun. I have a Dragon black 26" IC with vent rib and a Velvet grey 28" plain choked M. The grey one is a lightweight DA and the black is marked Twelvette. I had the chance to grab a green one for $500 last winter but the barrel had some rust and the wood was cracked. Should have bought it anyway but Christmas had me a little strapped for cash.

I'll keep my eye on eBay for a 59 barrel. I'd thought about putting a 50 barrel and forend on it but that would sort of ruin the scheme of things, likely make it handle better though.

the 59 and 50 forearms are not the same as you know. you can put a 50 bbl on a 59 and there will side slop on the 59 forearm.
but, dont put a 50 forearm on the 59 with a 59 bbl. it wont go.
best to stick with 59 on 59 and 50 on 50 to avoid potential mix ups. and too...59 parts and 50 parts are not all the same either. bolt dimesions and bolt weights are different.
good luck, keep us posted.

I love mine as my chuckar gun! I hope you get it all together. DO what bobski says. These guns are a bit different.

Kid, Do you have the aluminum buffer tube that holds the stock on? You really can't cut the stock very short, as to many things have to happen inside the stock. You will need the flat washer and the bent tension washer. They go into hole in stock, flat first then tension. They go in front of the round aluminum buffer tube that screws on the extension on rear of receiver. My dad made a tool years ago that would fit into stock and engage the cuts in the rear of the buffer tube. Like a spanner wrench. A long pair of needle nose pliers may work, but not well. Screw buffer tube in until tight. Don't forget that the inertia rod must go into aluminum first, through rear extension then is held by bolt pin that goes through cut outs in bolt. Bolt pin must go through slides on each side of bolt, and inertia rod. This may take a little time to line up. Use the small hole on left side of receiver as your guide. When you get it just right it will almost fall in. Insert trigger group WITH HAMMER COCKED. Then your recoil spring can be inserted over rear of inertia rod then pushed in and held by buffer plug screw. Turn the plug in a few rounds until you can pull bolt to rear and it will hold open. Tighten plug until it stops. Back off 2 and 1/2 turns. There should be just a little play with bolt all the rearward. If not let buffer plug out to the next small holes at top of buffer tube. Insert buffer plug locking pin, it must hold buffer plug and fit into small holes in both sides of aluminum buffer. You may need to adjust buffer plug a little bit until everything lines up. Bobski gave you some very good info about the 50/59. I am 65 and used a 50 for years as my duck gun. It was heavy but deadly with IC or Mod using #5 lead over decoys. But those were years gone by. Since these guns only hold 3 rounds you never had to plug one. Used 59's and FWT 50's on quail with IC. I have put steel 50 barrels on 59 and FWT model 50's. You will need 50 forend, a 50 take down bolt,with washers and bolt keeper. Remember that a 50 take down bolt threads into the threaded lug on bottom of 50 barrels. I have been using 50 IC and Mod barrels on a FWT 50 receiver. You can do the same thing with a 59 receiver With the heavy weight in the stock, a steel 50 barrel kind of balances a 59 or 50FWT gun out. If you want to put a 59 barrel on a standard steel frame 50 it will be way butt heavy,on a FWT 50 not so bad but it can be done. You will need 59 forend, 59 take down screw with washer and keeper, and the aluminum magazine plug on end of mag will need to be drilled and tapped to 59 take down screw threads. Just remember 59 take down bolt screws into magazine plug, and 50 take down bolts screw into threaded barrel lug. I have 5 or 6 of these guns in various configurations. Not too many things I haven't done with these guns. I am 65 years old, and 59 and FWT 50's were my quail guns. Standard 50 was duck gun when we could use lead. Hell, I still use 59's and FWT 50 on ducks. I use Kent Tungsten Matrix. It is the closest thing to lead and it will not hurt a fixed choke. Yes, they are expensive, but they kill, and the price makes you a better more patient hunter. Give me a shout if I can be of help. As Bobski said, try Gun Parts Corp if you get serious about a fixer upper.

Regards,
G2

Thanks for the info Gramps. I have everything aside from the barrel and the screw that holds it in. I have a long length of pull and will only need to trim about 3/8" off the butt to clean up the chipped area before I fit a pad, should work out okay like that. Think I'll stick one of the Galazan repro Winchester pads on it to look somewhat period correct.

I'm still on the scout for a barrel, but I haven't been looking too hard. I'm not going to get to do any pheasant hunting this year, new baby on the way, so it's not a real pressing project. I just couldn't pass it up for the price and someday I'll get to launch some high brass 5s out of it at some roosters. It'll be tough to put my Double Autos down for a day, can't seem to miss with either of them, but I bet it sees some miles in the uplands if I get it running.