Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What does it take for a special run from Lipsey's?

Not sure where to ask this but this forum seems as good as any.

What does it take for Lipsey's to get a special run from a manufacturer? Mr. Obvious' answer is something that will sell enough for a profit, but beyond that what do you have to do to beg Lipsey's to do this?

Winchester has been hemming and hawing about more LH Model 70's for years now. Seeing the prices being paid for them (a LH plain M70 .270 just sold for $2,325) prompted me to think that they might be good candidates for a Lipsey's special run. There seems to be a large pent up demand and very limited supply. A run of 200 or 250 each LH .30-06's and 270's would probably sell fairly quickly, especially if they did them as Featherweights or even standard sporters.

I know Jason here is a Lipsey's contact but there are a lot of Jasons in the user list so I'm not sure which one he is.

I'm not sure that Lipsey's buys from Winchester.

In my time as a sales rep for a major gun maker, the minimum for a standard item (no major re-tooling needed' was anywhere from 1000 units to 2500 depending on how 'custom' the item was.

If all that was needed was a special run of different pressed engraving (rolled engraving) it might be only 1000 units. (look at the DU, RMEF, Friends of NRA 'Gun of the Year' models for examples)If it required some fairly serious re-working or investment, it might be upwards of 2000-3000 pieces.

Looking briefly, on the Winchester website I see that they have made them in the past. I would wonder if they still have the tooling? If not, what the OP is looking for may be one of those runs that would need in the neighborhood of 2500 or so SOLD pieces from a distributor to make a special run of them.

At that point, it would fall to the distributor to pre-sell the 2500 or so pieces before Winchester would build. Or at least give Winchester the guarantee that they would take all 2500 (or whatever number it comes out to) before the build would take place.

I checked their website and they do list Winchesters for sale.

From what I understand, for special runs Lipsey's does buy the entire run and then distributes them exclusively. They've done several for Ruger that way, including having Ruger make entirely new frames for revolvers such as the new adjustable sighted Bearcats or the bird's head grip Bearcats. They commissioned the first .44 Special Blackhawks on the mid-size "Anniversary" frame. I think that was a run of 1,000, 500 in 4 5/8" barrels and 500 with 5 1/2", those were so successful that Ruger began to catalog them as standard items.

Left hand rifles are always a hard sell, Ruger just quit making their LH Hawkeyes although they offer the American in LH and Davidson's commissioned runs of LH stainless Americans in standard and compact models.

But with used left hand Model 70's with a .473" bolt face typically selling for close to or over $1,000, often WAY over, and especially if Winchester still has the tooling squirreled away, it seems like a run of 500 new rifles priced the same as current right hand models would sell pretty well.

Good thought, but I don't think either company would take the risk. Winchester doesn't want to get stuck with them, nor does Lipsey's. Their argument would be that the value of the old ones is false and collector driven. The last lefty run was the WSM versions and that didn't do so hot at the time. Bottom line is, they don't care about the less than 20% of the shooting public.
Ruger has done several unannounced runs in lefty, but that was just basicly throwing together misc. parts to come up with a variant, without much extra investment. And the Ruger American is a proven seller, so not much risk there, for an entry level rifle that is outshooting guns 3 times it's cost.
I think Winchester will try to expand the push feed entry level concept at some point with the XPR, if they can perfect it. At that time, they might pop some leftys, but not really something to wait for. I don't think we will see a model 70 lefty, especially because they flat out say so every time they are asked.

FWIW, Grice Wholesale in Clearfield, PA, has been selling special, non-cataloged, runs of Remington firearms for years and their runs seem to be quite a bit smaller, maybe as small as 250 units.

Years ago, I have heard that Ruger would do very small limited runs if you were a friend of WBR, Jr., like the run of tang safety 77 RSIs in 358 Win for the members of the Blue Mountain Forest Association, or the 416 Taylors that he had made for his friend Robert Chatfield-Taylor, or the 256 Newtons that he had made up for ???.

260: I saw samples of all three you mention. Frontier Sport Shop, Danvers, Mass......back in the day of course. The 416's were spoken for.

My memory may be faulty, but when I purchased one of the Ruger No. 1AH .25-06's with Circassian walnut stocks that Lipsey offered a few years ago, the run was only 250. But then almost any variation on a No. 1 is going to sell to some Ruger collector, somewhere.

Give Jason a shout and find out. He's often on the Ruger Forum.

I remember when Ruger did the .303 British in the Ruger No.1 the Australian Importer for Ruger told us that the minimum run for Ruger was 250. Winchester might be different though.

If you could get a run of Featherweight's in 264 Win Mag made I would be interested nothing else would interest me from them anymore. Would love the 264 though.......

It's people wanting one and only one rifle that that keeps manufactures from making any.

gerrygoat, I don't they will make one for ya, buddy.

It may be good marketing to manufacture one different left hand M70 chambering every year, like Remington did with the Classics.

FN did build some M70 Featherweights in .264WM in 2011. If memory serves, these were listed as a regular production item, but I could be wrong on that. At any rate, these had a 24" barrel with the standard contour, not the Featherweight contour barrel, so are heavier. Might could still find one, if you are interested.

Correctiion. I see these Featherweight .264's are still listed on Winchesters web site as a regular production item. I did not realize these were still available. The one I own, was built in 2011. Perhaps these have been available ever since.