Hi All,
I was just given my Uncles, who passed away in 2009, 1953 model 70 featherweight .308. He bought it in 1961 when he was 17 yrs. old.
My question is about the sling that is on it. it is all leather military type and does not look like it has ever been off of the rifle. The rifle is in well used condition because he was a lifelong hunter and spent a lot of time in the woods but shows no abuse or rust. I found a parts diagram that shows what appears to be a sling just like the one on the rifle and was wondering if they came from the factory with a sling back then. This is my first pre-64.

Thanks

I've seen many old originals with this same type of sling. It may be factory issue. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on this. Sounds like my buddies rifle. That's the only rifle he uses. The front sight has been sweated off, the trigger guard is dented in, is glass bedded and the barrel freefloated. You will love that rifle. Good luck with it and welcome to the Winchester forums..

When I bought new M70's in the 50's and 60's they did not come with a sling.

The military slings were everywhere on army rifles and target rifles. We all had many of them. The clubs had them on their rifles for matches.

I have some of those slings on rifles now. It's no big deal. If you find a sling you like then use it and put that one aside.

I hunt with an old M70 Featherweight 308, I would have to look to see what sling is on it.

The 308 M70 has a 1" military type sling that I reversed to use the rough side out leather. I removed the hooks so they could not mar the rifle and laced it with rawhide.

It scoped with a Zeiss Diatal C 4X32 in Weaver mounts.

The Super Grade came with a leather sling....the ones that I've seen were stamped/embossed with the Winchester logo and had silver hardware.

Interesting. None of my original straps on SGs, a 71 Deluxe or 52 Sporters have anything embossed on them and all have brass hardware....

I have owned many pre'64 M/70's and M/52 Sporter's, none had slings with any embossing nor sliver hardware. I have owned a Winchester embossed sling but believe it was from the post '64 era. Don't believe I've seen embossed/silver hardware slings mentioned in any of the Winchester books about pre '64 rifles.

Very possible that I am wrong, don't personally have any and have only seen a couple on 70's....those that I've seen may not have been original to the rifle.

I'll try to post some photo's in the next couple of days if I can figure out how to get them to show up without using a link.
I know it can be done because I see others posting photos directly here. I just haven't figured how to to do it.