Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors pre 64 featherweight

Friend of mines husband died a couple years a go, she found several guns in the crawlspace. She gave them to me, most interesting is a pre 64 featherweight in 308. Action/stock are in very good condition, but barrel has severe rust on exterior. Curious as to how difficult it would be to convert magazine/re-barrel to 30 06. A 308 on a long action doesn't interest me. If not feasible might re-barrel to 358win.
Also received a Winchester mod50 12 gauge in good condition,
Remington copy of browning A5 light rust on all metal
nicely done Springfield sporter in 30 06 good condition
Winchester 12 gauge single shot good condition

Pre64win.com

Call those guys. They do excellent work on all things Pre 64 Winchester. They will have a barrel for you as well.

It's up to you, but I would not f it up, by trying to turn it into something it isn't.

Your M70, your choice...but to butcher one of the best sporting arms ever made over a half inch of action length? Not me.

Agree with not changing it to 06, just looked closer and can see it would be a major project. Was able to remove rust from barrel, surprised to see no pitting. Now considering replacing barrel with a used pre 64 barrel from pre64winchester.com or just refinishing existing barrel. ultimate would be to find a 358win original barrel but doubt that would be feasible. Could re-barrel to 358 or 338fed but would prefer to keep it original.

Pictures would help. Bad rust means different things to different people.

I know the whereabouts of an original 358 Win. Fwt barrel

Needle in a haystack.

Now I’d follow up on that.

I have a JESS bored .358 Win. Started out as a shot out Pre-64 FWT .243.

Fitting an original .358 FWT barrel would be about as good as one could do with this gun, IMO.

Price an original .358 Win FWT in good condition.

DF

Very expensive, they only made roughly 2,000 of them. From 1955-1957.

BSA,

If the OP could snag that .358 Win barrel without taking out a mortgage, that would be a very interesting option. If the gun’s in good shape, just the barrel rusted, that combo could get pretty valuable. It wouldn’t be as pricy as one correctly numbered to a collector, but what a hunting piece it would be.

I’m a .358 Win fan, have seen it in action as many here have. It Whacks’em way above its weight class, is easy to load for and brass can be easily made from .308, even .243.

Yeah, I necked up a bunch of .243 used brass, split only 3 cases. Virgin brass usually does better, but this is what I had when my .358 Win was still a .243.

And as reported before, I really like the 178 gr. Shock Hammer. Deadly and accurate over a max load of RL-7.

DF

Very good, very expensive.

Better have your checkbook handy.

DF

I agree. It would be cool. I know you've had good luck with yours. More than likely, that barrel would screw right on and be good. My smith used to tell me that if the barrel came from the same decade (50's barrel on a 50's receiver, 60's barrel on a 60's receiver) they would headspace without much issue.

To me it would depend on price of that barrel and what the finished product would be worth. Gotta make dollars and sense.

DF

Very true. Personally, I'd shoot and see first. I'm cheap and would also cold blue it and just use it, if it shoots well. I've seen some ragged rifles shoot damn well.

Agree, BSA.

And if it didn’t shoot well enough and if that original .358 Win barrel was too pricy, JESS will bore it to .338 or .358 for around $300. It was $250 when he did mine. And it shoots great.

DF

Thanks for all the suggestions, lots of options to consider.

I always wanted to change by shooter grade 270 FW to a 35 Whelen or 338-06.

It's a shame to mess with any 270 fwt, because they didn't make as many of them. 30-06, mess with it until your hearts content. Also, "shooter grade" could mean anything. A guy cutting the stock to put on a pachmayr decelerator turns said rifle into a "shooter grade". I'd break someone's arm, if they messed with my "shooter grade" 270 fwt. You just don't run across them often enough IMHO..

Yeah, agree. Gotta be careful knowing what Pre-64’s to mess with, which ones to leave along.

And if in doubt, ask.

DF

Cleaned the bore and discovered it is in perfect condition, obviously fired very little. Mounted the old Lyman peep took it to the range shot great, though need to change to higher front sight. Now thinking will keep it and cerakote barrel. Will make a great rainy/snowy day deer rifle for AK rain forest hunts.

I have a beat-up pre-64FW in .308 (cracked stock, carry wear, scratches) with a great bore too. It shoots wonderfully. I grab it every time for nasty weather hunts. She is a meat-maker!

Sounds like a good solution without a mortgage.

I kinda like fiber optic front sights, although a white post with your peep would be nice.

Pictures when done.

DF

Sounds like something one of my buddies did. One of his buddies sold him a 1953 308 fwt that was in rough condition, but it shot lights out. He brought the rifle to me, asking what he could do with it to suit his needs better. He was having issues with the low comb stock. Sight alignment through a scope was troublesome at best. I thought he was full of it, until I shot the rifle and he was right. The rifle was hard to get behind. I told him I'd put a Mcmillan on it, and that's what we did. It is now his favorite rifle. He hunts the Oregon coast with it. He sent me a video of the elk he shot with it last year. This is how it looked before I did anything to it:

The front sight had been sweated off and a lot of the bluing was missing from the barrel^^^ He only paid $250 for the rifle. I thought it he said $500, back in 2009, but now his story has changed to $250. Still not sure about that one???

Anyway, after putting it in the Mcmillan he picked out and rebluing the barrel, this is how it looks:


That rifle shoots cloverleaf groups with the loads I worked up for him. He has no intention of changing the barrel, even though I've seen some really nice 1953 barrels on ebay for decent prices. He says he wants to keep it as it is.

Good work. Nice project.

That McM sure has better comb height.

Yeah, bottom line on a barrel is at the range.

DF

Thanks DF. Yeah, I hear some people complain about that particular Mcmillan stock, being too low. My buddy has a fat face, don't tell him I said that, so it works very well for him. Luckily I had a couple hunters edge/hunters compact stocks for him to try out. Definitely one of my favorite stocks as well. It made a heck of a difference with his rifle. You can see the difference on utah708's stock template.

The OP said he was going to make his an all weather hunting rifle, I imagine a stock like that on an ultimate "all weather" hunting rifle.

Mine was a bulged barreled 308. Got an original pre 64 chambering in a non original rifle, but I have it.

Agree on the Hunters Edge. I have several.

DF

I’d do, and did a JES rebore paying a premium for an original 358 barrel. Mine came back from JES this summer and it’s shooting great. I’ve killed 3 pigs with it so far and it’s definitely a thumper with a Hunter’s Supply 246 grain gas checked LFN bullet at just north of 2100 fps. The load is very economical yet very effective so far. That chunk of lead likes to penetrate.

If you want a high stepping, higher priced load, try the Shock Hammer 178 gr. over TAC, X-Term or RL-7, the latter being my fav.

My JES .358 Win is a shooter.

DF

I’ve got a 338 Fed that I load with premium bullets for elk. For slugging around the creek bottom and thickets at the ranch, that cast bullet I’ve been loading leaves me satisfied. Should kill any deer or pig I find in those situations.

Cool thread.

What about different POI for the different type loads.

I thought about having different scopes sighted for various types of .358 Win ammo, pistol bullets, cast, full power hunting, etc.

But my Pre-64 receiver was an tad off true so I used Signature rings with eccentric inserts to correct for that. I wanted my scope to be near optical center when sighted in. Those rings aren’t the easiest to swap on and off, so gave up on that idea.

I think JES drilled it true, bore seemed centered. Maybe the receiver wasn’t originally drilled and tapped fully concentric. Anyway Signature rings made it right.

DF

For now, I’ve got it in an original Monte Carlo stock. I mounted a Vari-X3HD 1.5-5x20 in Leupold QR rings on it. My 246 grain load hits pretty close to a cast 180 load I started with. Now I’m just shooting the 246 LFNGC for now. It’s no problem to shoot accurately at least to a couple hundred yards and it hits hard.
I’m keeping an eye out for an original low comb stock to put it in. I originally intended to mount a peep sight on it and that’s still on my radar.
Had no issue mounting the scope or getting sighted in.

JES bored .358 Win (Pre-64 FWT .243 originally), Bushnell 4200 in Weaver rings. I refinished the stock, re-cut the checkering.

Final version: Trijicon 3-9x40 in Signature rings. Trigger adjusted to a near perfect 3#'s. Hard to beat in a tree stand, hunting WT's.

DF

That's a sweet rifle DF..

I’ve got the same rifle. Just a lot more beat up. Haha.

Well, that one looks a lot better now than when I got it.

DF

Really interested in your 308. I am unable to PM yet if you don’t mind will you give me a call. Eric 904-449-3066

You brought that rifle back to life. Cool on you buddy. As for your scope mounting holes being drilled off on the receiver, I've had a bunch of pre 64's and have always gotten lucky there. Thankfully they have all been spot on. Checked with the proper alignment tools. I have had a couple classics that were slightly askew. Mainly the 7 digit classics. Generally those guys back in the day took great pride in craftsmanship. Unlike these days, where they let a computer do all the work. Wondering how many different sets of mounts you tried. Looks like you are using the cheap weaver aluminums on that rifle. I like the Leupold QRW/PRW mounts or the Warnes that I modify because they are steel and a little lower than the weavers. A different set of mounts may not have fixed the issue, but if the weavers were out of spec, it would have caused an alignment issue as well. I've actually seen that before.

Also wondering what route the OP went with his rifle. A good follow up is always appreciated. Like Scotty said, this is a great thread.

Thanks for those kind words, BSA.

I did wrestle with mounting scopes on that one. Signature off set inserts saved the day. I had never used them before.

They’re impressive.

I thought of having different QD set ups for all the kinda loads you can do with the .358W. But after all the trouble to get here, I’m off of that idea, sticking with the 178 Shock Hammer/RL-7 load. I have too many rifles to do other stuff.

This one’s does a job on WT’s and hogs. Will keep it there.

DF

Thirty years ago I sent a shot out .30-06 standard weight M/70 to Randall Redman for him to rebore to .35 Whelen. It is a great shooter and has been my whitetail rifle ever since being rebored, it shoots everything very well, cast, jacketed and pistol bullets.

I planned to have dedicated QD scopes for each category of loads for my .358 Win.

How do you handle the different Whelen loads you mention? Do you re-sight your scope every time you shoot a different type load? POI is gonna be different, lead or jacketed pistol bullets vs. full house hunting loads.

DF

I'm not gunwizard, but I'd like to comment on this re-zeroing issue. Some of you guys know to dial to the bullet hole, some of you don't, but it's a very good practice and technique to learn. You can be dialed in with just a couple shots. Something to be considered here, when switching from load to load. My buddy who is a SWAT member didn't even know how to do this, so don't feel bad if you don't. But also, don't be afraid to learn this method. You'll waste less components and time and thank me later...

I learned from my .50 cal bud. It works well and, as you say, is pretty fast when you know how.

I was wanting dedicated QD scopes so I wouldn’t have to change zero. Lazy, I guess. But that method works.

DF

Excellent!