Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Price Check M/54 .22 Hornet..........

Price check on this week's purchase of a Winchester M/54 .22 Hornet with Lyman A5 scope correctly mounted. Everything is in 97% original condition, no alterations of any kind. It is a later model with the Townsend Whelen designed stock. Bore is pristine, shows no evidence of being fired very much. Likely sighted in and put away for decades, sold recently at an estate auction.

What did you pay for it? I'd say that's the market

to me scope does not have a lot of value , but the rifle has value this is a very vague price range $900.00 - $1500.00 maybe more ? if it was a model 70 the value would be more.

Pictures, condition?

DF

BTT, condition described in post.

One sold a couple of weeks ago at a flea market for 1800, dont know details

Your description doesn’t mean much!

Thank You iskra for being a better man than I.

The .22 Hornet was a late comer in chambering and only the latter era Model 54 iterations were available in it. Many parts are of course unique and "functionality" an important aspect of valuation. "Selling, under premise of typical vague description and "getting what's represented" Is not much assurance add context of commercial "transactor" with no access to ammo, etc, Little assurance possible. The only scope installation possibilities of which I'm familiar preserving originality, Iterations placing the scope aft aperture forward of bolt operation interference. Scopes as a genre were yet "newfangled" in mainstream American shooters interests and wallets in mid Depression Years.

Below my Model 54 in 22 Hornet, acquired for me as "good deal + oddity". The 'other shoe' as impractical of weight & bulk, noted function hazards, lack of easy ammo source and no special use to me. Men said to climb mountains "because they're there!" So I bought this rifle with the fine, as practical Lyman Model 48.

I'm, like many collectors, with 'foibles'. The Model 54 Hornet is a foible rifle and as with near era scope, originals as fragile, non-durable, cloudy optics and Rube Goldberg mount...! I have my share of "impractical guns". No apologies for "individual tastes"; mine or others! Just the 'heads up' of nine decades since short mainstream production and lots of time & space for problems arising.

Good Luck & Best!
John

The Lyman A5 has plenty of value. Minimum $500 these days, more if in sparkly condition. I assume it's mounted via the factory receiver ring holes + rear sight dovetail? If period-vintage external adjustment target/hunting scopes (Fecker, Unertl, Lyman) are employed on the M54 there's no need to modify the bolt handle, it's how the factory intended their use with scopes.

The Whelen-designed stock was the only stock presented on the M54 Hornet, which was intro'ed in 1933 and discontinued 1936.

I paid $2K for a pristine one with a correctly mounted pristine Lyman Junior Targetspot 8x on it four years ago and figured I got a pretty good deal. Such scopes are now selling for $500-700, slightly more than when I bought the rifle.

Mine's quite accurate - 3 shots 1/2", 5 into 3/4" typically.

My rifle is a mirror image of that posted by Gnoahhh, I got mine for what I feel is a real deal $1,150. OTD.

The suffix "A" in my M-54 Hornet SN indicates some small changes that worked later in the M-70. One
was the gas escape at the barrel -receiver ring. Mine came from an uncle. He used it successfully
on at least one whitetail buck. (Shot placement.)One of the sight options on this 22 H is a G&H sidemount with Lyman Alaskan.
I have this M-54 and aM-54 20 in barrel NRA Short Rifle-in 270WCF. It is mentioned in the M-54 book by Bichrest.
Previous values on the M-54 Hornet are correct.

My Winchester Hornet story. 1965. I was young, wanted a .222 Remington. Hock shop on Larimer Street, Denver, had a Model 70 in .22 Hornet for $75. I passed because I wanted a .222 Remington.

I have a similar story. A year or two after that I wanted a .22 autoloader in the worst way but the local gun shop had a dandy used M52 Winchester on the rack for roughly the same money. I passed on the autoloader!

You did extremely well on that deal, IMHO! Finding 54’s unmolested is very difficult and that optic adds value. Congratulations.

good for you and a good price,Pete53