Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors The (almost) perfect pre-64 .30-06

A nice looking tree stand rifle. Not my cup of tea though. It sure wouldn't look like that after a season of elk hunting here in the mountains.

Nyrifleman: Thanks for the link to that elegant custom Model 70.
It truly is a work of art.
I prefer 25" or longer barrels on my Hunting Rifles!
The last custom made Big Game Hunting Rifle I had made was built on a Transition Model, pre-64 Winchester Model 70 action.
Its in caliber 280 Remington and it is VERY stable afield with the extra mass and its free velocity improvements with the longer (heavier barrel).
I was surprised to see in the sellers description that Wisners now offers "checkered bolt stops" for the old Model 70's - I am sure the sellers meant to say "checkered bolt release".
The pictures indeed show a very handsome checkered bolt release on that 30/06.
Stunning Rifle in my opinion - worth $7,000.00, that is the question!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

The right Winchester guy with the correct change would never blink an eye at 7K, same way with Echols mod 70's, 15K, no problem! Im still saving up for one of the Echols stocks!! This 7 K gun is a fantastic looker! I love the paneled bolt knob and the sharp bolt release. I would love to own D'Arcys Legend in .264 win mag but for now Im tickled to death with my low round count Westerner in 264 win mag, I have almost saved enough for his cap and gun case decal!! I think back to that old rolling stone song, 'you dont always get what you want BUT you get what you need and can afford! I do plan on going up in GA and spending several days with the cat daddy, Mr Robert Gradous and help,watch build my own beanpatch Hammer. Ive spoke with him several times, I have a pal up in NC that has built three guns with Mr Robert, all are state of the art absolute finish nail drivers, All trips have been a blast, all say he is a great teacher AND ANAL to 1,100000th! very best WinPoor
http://www.gradousrifles.com/

I own an early original Echols. Well actually not a true Echols. When he was just beginning he worked in a small shop in Colorado. He installed a recoil pad on a Ruger 77 for me. Three elk seasons later the stock was broken. I saved the broken stock as this will probably be the only Echols work I will ever have.

Don't bet on it...

Lots of guys have that tied up in currently manufactured junk and several superfluous magic cartridges. $7k is no stretch at all for a rifle like that.

It'll hunt too.

Very nice. Think I could carry that bad boy for a couple more years. At least till 65. Pay the grandson to be my gun bearer, and he can have it after i'm done.

That's a beautiful rifle.

Who needs an 06, when you have an apple and a good sharp knife?





Just kidding....

LoL!! An apple and a sharp knife hunting kit would save a lot of $$$!

Eric

If you can live with that gouged wood near magazine well while somewhat overpriced that J.P. Sauer is better value. The original Mauser action is superior to the pre64 model 70 action. If you don't mind CRF plus lack of fixed ejector that HVA M8000 is very nice. Lots of hand labor there. I would take either over what you crave.

Laffin......

Ok, Goudy & Heilmann isn't G&H. You know, Griffin & Howe.

OK... I have to bring this up... a 1952 model 70 and they state that it "NOW" has a cloverleaf tang... Why in the world would you go to the effort to make the gun a Cloverleaf tang when it was not originally?

No reason other than to try to substantiate custom made status.

If you look closely there are really nice custom rifles out there. One I remember well was custom short clone Mauser action in either .358 or .350. It had hand finished fancy checkered walnut stock some action engraving and fine iron sights. It was true custom because action came from in house. The name on the rifle was Wells (someplace from AZ if I remember correctly). That rifle was well worth several grand.

You mean the one where the 4 wheeler is parked in the background. He probably thought it was out of the picture .....OOPS...

Turns out it didn't last the week.

Which is good for my bank account.

Glad someone got a handsome rifle and I hope they enjoy it to the fullest.



Some of the Eastern flatlander country we roamed around in this weekend. Correction: make that rocky flatland country. Long live LW rifles.

Addition: There are no as in none, roads in there. A highway runs up the middle valley of both sides, from 9 to 3 In the pic, but it is park the truck and pick your way up.




Not many "boys" from N-E-S or W will hang with this fellow when it comes to going-he wore my azz out - and if we would have connected with the Buck that did this I would have paid dearly for a 4-wheeler to get him out. That is up on a 50yard or so wide saddle and when it dropped off it didn't fool around. In fact a 4-wheeler wouldn't have got the job done.