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

Wow that's a lot of green

Better than turning your hands blue huh buddy...

Maybe better off with blue hands. The blue Brownells release stuff works really well. In future I�m staying away from green guns. The green tape (3M) was fine everywhere but one small piece of tape on the barrel seemed to have a couple of small spots in the bluing that either reacted with something on the tape or the tape itself (upsetting). Overkill anyway, didn�t have much squeeze-out with the Acraglas. Gun came apart with some effort - bed looks good. I�ll clean things up and get a few more pictures up.

Here are a couple of suggestions, for a finish that is really easy to work with and looks correct for pre'64 Winchesters go to Timberluxe's website and check out their finish and stain. I am working on a M/52 Sporter stock that had been refinished and lacked the proper pre'64 Winchester red brown color. An application of Timberluxe stain and two applications of their finish and the stock is looking like it never had been refinished. One of the beauties of Timberluxe is that it is not necessary to strip the old finish, it will penetrate right thru the original. Their websited has a nice video explaining the process and downloadable instructions. Suggestion number two deals with glass bedding, as long as you use release agent per instructions only the edges of the barrel channel are the only area that I tape. For a nice smooth job sith the bedding, I attach a vibratory engraving tool to the barrel for the first 30 minutes or so after I place the metal into the stock. If you don't have an engraver and electric shaver will do. If the metal is hard to remove from the stock, STOP I cannot overemphacise this. Forcing things will nearly always result in a damaged stock. Find a chest freezer big enough to accomodate your rifle and freeze it for 8 hours or so. this will shrink the metal just enough that it should come out of the stock without damage to the stock. Another trick that sometimes "encourages" the metal to be freed from the bedding is to have a helper tap on the metal with a soft mallet while you apply pressure. What you are looking for is a woodpecker like tapping, not anything heavy handed.

Good info gunwizard. I'll have to check into the timberluxe finish. Sounds interesting and somewhat easy. As far as the bedding goes, I don't use any tape unless I'm using it to center the barreled action in the stock and it also works well for adding clearance for a free float. Many ways to skin a cat, however, I've just never seen that much tape on a bedding job myself..

Gus, there's a pretty good Winchester model 70 glass bedding thread on this forum. You should check it out.

Can't wait to see your finished project.

Here is a few pics of the 1949 stock project.

All I tape is the stock. Here it is all buttered up with Accraglass gel mixed with the stock dust from sanding. I bedded the entire action, tang and magazine well completely:



This is all I tape on metal. One layer on the front and sides of recoil lug. I use hardwood carnuba paste wax as release agent:



Wow does that look ugly all pressed and screwed together with stockmaker screws



I use a popsicle stick cut at a flat tip and scrape the excess off 10 minutes after screws are tightened:



And 24 hours later when I pulled her apart, took the tape off:



It always is a little nerveracking when you press the stock in when it is full of epoxy.

Many ways to skin the cat. As long as you end up with a great shooting rifle, that's all that's important...Hornet, have you ever experimented with free floating a std wt? The one like you picture with the sight boss...

No I haven't actually. Not in the pre 64's at least. I have free floated all my classics. All my pre 64's seem to like a tight forearm. I am in the process of fitting a brand new stock to my 338 Alaskan, maybe I will play with the idea of floating it. It seemed to like very light tension compared to really clamping it down in the original stock.

Sorry about the photo quality - it�s dark in the garage right now. In the photo with the recoil area you can see where the PO hogged out the barrel base area - trying to float everything back to the action I guess. I think putting a little support in the area next to where the barrel threads to the action is better. The PO had �balanced� the action at three places with 3 little nails, two is the recoil area and one back at the tang with a little epoxy at those locations. Kind of crazy and the action was not even setting straight. Now I have a full bed of support that runs around the magazine to the back of the tang area and everything snaps into place tight and straight, with a blob of support at the 30-06 stamp under the barrel. Only real hitch was the bolt release hit some bedding material that needed to be removed. Otherwise seems really solid and I can�t wait to see how it does at the range.

Looking good Gus. Let us know how she shoots..

More Ebay blues. Guy had 3 front sights for sale, 2 nice and 1 crapola with a broken bead. I bid/bought the 2 nice front sights, someone else bought the broken one for $1.58. Sure enough, the guy sends me one good sight I bought and the broken one. I imagine the �$1.58� guy has my other good sight now. This time I�ve contacted the seller�

On the plus side the good one seems usable...
UPDATE:Seller on ebay got back to me and did the decent thing

Bedded, back together and range ready. Alignment of the barrel/action to the the stock seems much better too. Could use some more finish work on the stock and want to replace the recoil pad at some point. Iron sights seem to line up OK. Hope to get out this week.

Gus, I think it looks great!!!!! I like the scope, mounts, new sights, and your stock refinish. You cleaned that rifle up very well. And to think, guys were saying not to buy this rifle. I'm glad you listened to some of us that were saying BUY IT!!!!! Good thread buddy. Thanks for sharing..

Thanks for the positive feedback BSA (and the link to the front sight) - I'm waiting to see how it's shoots before I call it a slam dunk I also appreciate all the other comments and opinions, helpful to get it from all angles.

Now to find a front sight hood. Any opinions on what to replace the recoil pad with - I want either red or black? Maybe one of those grind-to-fit red Winchester solid rubber reproductions?

The red Winchester reproduction pads won't add any extra value to the rifle over say a red pachmayr. I think the pachmayr, however, will soak up a little more recoil and look just as good as the reproduction pad. Because of this, my vote is for the pachmayr.

Not much of a range report but here goes. I had replaced the scope after the stock refinish and glass bedding in more or less the same same place so I didn�t really expect it to be anywhere close. My son forgot to bring his spotting scope down so that left us with only my small Nikon binoculars. Started on the 25 yard range but my setup wasn�t even steady enough for even a rough bore-sight - fired 3 rounds (1st) that were closer than expected. Then jumped to the 50 yard target and fired 3 more (target 2nd). At this point (6 rounds) hadn�t touched the scope adjustments. Moved to the 100 yard range and couldn�t see much of anything with the little binoculars. So just played around a little at 100 yards without any adjustments to the scope - saved for another day when we can actually see the hits, etc. The Remington ammo seemed more accurate, the Federal stuff hitting lower and less consistent, but I should know more next time around.

The action seemed to work well. Loaded from the magazine without a hitch. Once or twice the brass did not seem to eject with the authority it should� most of the time it seemed OK. Any advice on how far the brass should eject and testing the extractor, etc.? Just had t-shirt on and I was a little surprised at the the recoil a few times, but maybe I�m just getting old. That black Pachmayr replacement I�m planning on may turn out to be more than cosmetic after all (on the bench anyway). Don�t really know enough to have a valid judgement but I was happy with the gun overall, my shooting skills being the main problem. I�ll try for a more controlled environment next time at the range.

Also found a front sight hood (see last photo) on eBay. Might look for original sling swivels or may leave them alone for a while.

Put the front sight hood on today and finished cleaning the 30-06. Went to adjust the scope variable back to the lower range and realized it would not turn. Looked like it was jammed into the tube/ring mount and I started thinking about recoil - the scope moving in the rings. You can see how much the tube moved in the photograph (compared to previous posts). The rings still seemed tight so I began to evenly loosen them to free the power adjustment ring and get it away from the mount. I had those off for the bedding job and had carefully put them back but was trying not to over tighten the rings on the tube - thought I had them pretty tight. Right in the middle of this process, I suddenly realized the front ring base mount (down on the receiver's tapped holes) was completely loose. The mounts had been tight and I had left them on when I pulled the scope. Those screws I had never touched, thinking they had been in place for years and didn�t want to over torque - guess I should have checked them. So for those later shots at the range at 100 yards (above) the scope must have been bouncing around all over the place. The rear bridge receiver mount was still tight.

Might leave the scope off for the next round to check the iron sights. Are the plug screws with stops from Brownells appropriate? Maybe going forward I should pick up some Torx screws, etc. for the mounts�

A trick that I have used for years to prevent scope movement in the rings is to wrap one turn of double stick tape around the scope in the location of the rings. Prior to doing this you want to make sure the crosshairs are square and there is sufficient eye relief. If these are good to go, put a piece of masking tape on one ring and on the scope and make a reference mark with a pencil. This will assure you retain squareness and eye relief when you re-assemble with the double stick tape. Some prefer powdered rosin for this job, but after having tried both I prefer the doublestick tape. Before you apply the tape be sure to clean the scope and inside of the rings with a good de-greaser.

Thanks gunswizard. In my �scope mounting ignorance� I may have even had a light film of oil on the tube, much less degreased and taped! I�ll try to get everything together following your advice.