Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Which Winchesters had fancy wood

Other than the higher end 21's, which post WWII Winchesters had fancy wood

Better grades of walnut were reserved for M70 Super Grade rifles....

Along with Pigeon, Diamond, Presentation Grades in some shotguns.

Here is a Super Grade you will not run into very often.


http://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...o-12-gauge-over-308.cfm?gun_id=100823469

Nice Presentation Grade wood here.

http://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/56/605

Pigeon Grade.


http://www.kevinsguns.com/product-p/11312.htm

I have two Pre64 M70 SG's and the wood isn't anything to brag about in either one of them.

A lot of model 70 Super Grades had plain grain wood. I have owned Standards and Featherweights with highly figured wood.

The model 12's, 42's, and 21's are all over the place with wood and not just considering different grades of guns.

The Wins with the plainest wood across the board are the rimfires and model 24 shotguns.

These are just my observations. I'll take an early to mid 50's gun for wood.

Winchester good factory wood, for the most part, was always on the overly dark side. With few exceptions, never could get excited about most of it.

I've had a few early Winchesters with the dark wood and it usually is the stain they put in the finish. Winchester, like most manufacturers use a colored finish to maintain consistent colors to their line and some of these finishes will darken substantially over time.

I've had a number of Winchesters that the finish had gone dark, especially the rimfires and Pre 64 Model 70's. Where appropriate- usually a damaged stock or refinished one, I have stripped the original finish and found beautiful wood underneath, though some of it is very straight grain.

In the Supergrades, the lighter calibers seemed to have great looking grain, but I've heard from several people that the heavier recoiling rifles in Supergrades got straight grained wood for additional strength. If you look at the early rifles, the grain runs like textbook examples through the wrist and from front to back on the heavy recoiling rifles.

Bob

Here are two Super Grades a 300 H&H and a 220 Swift. Not dark and not fancy.

Honestly in their rifle line ,the only way Winchester consistently delivered fancy wood on a gun was if it was special ordered at extra coat. Even "Deluxe" or "Super" grades that had some special features like grip caps ,forend tips and checkering,still had plain wood.

In the early 90s Winchester put some very pretty wood stocks on their sporter Mod 70s. I almost bought one in .338, but the wood was so nice I thought I would be afraid to scratch it so bought a synthetic stocked one instead.

All my SC Baco' Super Grades look like these or better. Just a couple of the herd below............oh, and Made in America


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http://s98.photobucket.com/user/SS30ANV/media/MyJOC0016_zps2242daa3.jpg.html]

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http://s98.photobucket.com/user/SS30ANV/media/458CabelasM70_zps6f38e999.png.html]

http://s98.photobucket.com/user/SS30ANV/media/3rd257a_zps5ac46181.jpg.html]

I agree, the BACO's did have some beautiful stocks. I had a 2008 limited edition fwt that was very nice as well...

...and the Custom Shop offerings..

Like this .358 STA's stock:



And this one on a Custom Shop .264WM:

Redneck, very nice rifles there! Are those yours? That 358STA caught my eye, as I have a 416RM like that, but with striped wood (fiddleback?).

Mine... Both unfired, in the box, with papers..etc.. They only made 90 of those .358 STWs..