Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Winchester 70 - any pre64 experts?

What did your use to strip it? I have tried a few thing, but never have been satisfied with the results. I always end up having to do just a touch of sand and it makes me crazy.

750 won't buy much these days. Even tho it has been cut it sure beats the cheapo plastic crap...I have several and the pad is an improvement. Just don't look at it as a collector piece. Look at it as a nice old usable quality made rifle..

I inherited a pre war 70, cal. .270. 1939 action, 1940 barrel, IIRC. What's wrong with it? The two previous owners USED it. It has been padded. The rear receiver bridge was drilled with one hole for a scope base. It is not a collector, but a darn fine shooter. The finish is thin, but there is no rust on it. I'm thinking of putting a nice scope on it and giving it to my grandson. He may not use it, but he has no need to sell it.

Big thanks for this link BSA - I will indeed try to get this front sight!

Thanks for the comments. Sorry I�ve been out of the loop with work, etc. I used basic �Premium� stripper one gets at the local hardware. The hard shiny finish the PO had used just bubbled right up and a small plastic scraper took most of it right off. The checkering was full of a dark brown paint-like material and I used an small old nylon gun brush (think toothbrush) and carefully scrubbed out the cuts. The wood grain seemed to have retained some original stain so I taped the checkering and did a minimal sanding job with 350 paper and small school eraser. I like the existing dings and scrapes - someone went to the trouble of putting that history there so why should I try to remove it?

After I rubbed a couple of oil coats I used an oil based pore filler just once. Now have about 9/10 coats of linseed (boiled) applied and at some point will switch to Lin-Speed to finish up. Not perfect but to my eye the stock is developing some character.

I�ve also carefully removed the small spots of bedding material that was used and found little holes drilled (I guess to get the material to stick to the wood). I�m going to make a few measurements and clean these areas bit more and try to bed the action even though I really don�t know what i�m doing. I�ll try to get a few more pictures up. I�m wondering if someone may have recut the checkering outline?

Very nice job.

Excellent work good sir. It's comforting to know there are anti-bubbas out there that work to properly restore old classics.

Dang that is turning into a truly fine looking rifle. I figure you where using something nasty to strip it. The on a and only time I like the stripper I used was when it was the really toxic, make you crazy or sterile if your not careful stuff. All the other less stringent ones just don't work, the poly finish just laughed at them and kept right on going.

Very nice work Gus. Looking damn good!!

GusB, did you buy that front sight. Looks like someone won the auction at $9.51. That was a pretty good buy...

George, not to let the cat out of the bag, when are you going to show us some pics of your new 300H&H? A range report would be awesome as well!!!

Got it BSA - thanks again for the heads-up. Also got the 2 rear sights someone else had for sale:
"...is a Lyman type 16 folding rear sight for a late mod. 70 with monte carlo stock made after 1954..."

Picture wasn't great on the Lyman so I'm hoping it works out.

Looking good Gus ,should be a nice rifle when you are done.

Lyman made the 16A for the featherweights (1955-1963) and the 16B for the standard wts (1954-1963). They are basically the same sight except the leaf is taller on the 16A. This isn't because of the change to a montecarlo stock (like some guys think), but to make up the difference in height, because the fwt doesn't have the barrel boss

Great info BSA.

Ebay can be a funny thing. Not knowing how a Lyman 16B folding sight goes together I looked at a blurred photo (see last image below) thinking the misaligned ears must be loose screws and an adjustment. But the guy was actually selling a bent sight someone had banged so hard it would not even fold open anymore. He even sent both sights loose in a plain paper envelope that was all torn up in the mail when it arrived. Banged out the pin, pulled the 16B apart and did some body work, straightened it a bit - not perfect but I�ll use it to protect the dovetail cut in the barrel for a while until another comes along. The Lyman 6 that came with the �deal� looks good - now I just need a .375 H&H to go with it.

Hoping for better luck with the 103C that�s on it�s way from a different seller.

Gus, it looks like with a little more massaging on that right ear you can straighten it out better. Pretty clean looking sight otherwise. Sucks about the poor packaging and sight being bent though. Did you contact the seller?

Thanks BSA. It's close now, vertical adjustment works, flips up/down, finish suffered where I hammered on it, hit it with a felt tip marker on that corner. Didn't contact the seller because I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I will question anything he's got up in future but won't do the negative feedback thing. Life's too short

Almost ready to bed the action before adding more finish to the stock. Should have the front sight in a few days.

Cool, I look forward to seeing the finished product. Looks like you are doing it right and taking your time with it.

Green gun full Brownell�s Acraglas. Hope it comes back apart.

Well, at least it's gift wrapped for st pattys day