It's interesting to see how we become enamored with these and how we started down this long and winding road.

My first pre 64 came from a client. It was her Dad's rifle and he had passed and she had no desire to keep it. It was a FWT 308 in fairly decent shape. The metal was fine but the stock finish was not good. I paid her price of $400 (this was 25+ yrs ago)and scoped it with a Leupold 2.5X8 and hunted it. Over the years the finish deteriorated more and more and I finally had the stock redone. I haven't used it in years and years and perhaps it's time to bring her back into the light. This gun started my quest for all the FWT which I now have and am working on the more obscure std chambering's.

My first firearm was Winchester 20ga shotgun that I used to get my first hare. I had several centerfire bolt action rifles including those made by: Steyr(1), Sako(1), CZ(2), Heym (1), High Standard (1), Remington (1), BSA (1), Browning (1). My last and only rifle is old Winchester. It highly unlikely I will ever buy another bolt gun.

One my friend told me I should have bought was W.W.Greener .30-06. That one was made for the Englishmen in 1930s by Mauser Werke often called Type A 'African' by collectors. It had rack of express leaf sights but no provision for scope mounting that is why I did not get it.

A mid 50's 06' M70 fwt, about 14 years ago, I got to know more hunters with them, bought the "book" and haven't looked back, it been a fun ride not likely to ever quit. I sure do like em', everything else is just a rifle.

My first one was, and is, a 30-06 with a custom stock, allegedly done by Al Biesen. Whether by Biesen or not, it is a work of art IMO.

It sat on a shelf at a LGS for months and I finally talked the guy into selling it to me for a reduced price. Many more have followed and I am still prefer "all original", but I sure do like that one.

donsm70

A transition M 70 chambered in .270 Win.

A 257 Roberts standard grade....back around 1968 or 69.

Geezz Bob, I was only a couple years old then(smile)

Pre War 1941 Hornet back in 1995 when I was 21 years old. Still have it, still shoot it, still shoots lights out. Not really sure how many ground hogs and prairie dogs have done " the 46 grain jig".

Sweet rifle.

Kids!......Geeesh

A Hornet as a first M70 how nice. I just bought my second Hornet, this one a carbine. I have sent a few prarie dogs to the heavens with mine as well. Do you reload for yours?

I've had my featherweight since 1957. Father bought it new in '55.

270 Win.

This is my first one... Someone took a rattle can of polly ? and sprayed it.. Not good,,,,But it is a real shooter, and when you close that bolt, you hear that Sound.....of a Model 70....

I had been home from my first BCFS fire Lookout, 90 days alone, no breaks, food, wood and water packed on my Trapper Nelson No. 3 for a couple of months and hung out with an older guy at a well stocked but crooked gunstore in my home town.

He was a rabid JOC fan, actually HAD a Biesen .270 Roy on a Pre-war action and was nuts about getting another .270Win. He told me of his desires and how he knew the location of an UNFIRED Alaskan .338WM in town.....

I had seen ONLY two, one at a ludicrous price at the above gunshop and one in a window of a now closed guns and electronics shop on the main drag of my town. This, was several years earlier when I was in Sea Cadets and always was late for parade due to standing in front of this window, wishing and hoping.

So, one fine day, I went to the home of the guy who had this rifle and it was the SAME one I had long lusted over as a high school kid with ZERO $$$$$. I had no money, BUT, the old chap knew my parents and we lived a few blocks away....he offered to sell me the rifle for $200.00 paying as I could.......

I was PUMPED and got it paid for in days, somehow, and then it was MINE!!!!

It is one of the nicest pieces of wood I have seen in scores of P-64s, as smooth an action as I have ever felt and it shoots VERY well.....I have it in the third synthetic stock I have used for it, the condition is VG and I now seldom use it, but, it will be with me until I die.....

I LOVE this fine,old rifle and trust it totally.

A pre-war standard model in .30-06 purchased in 1964 for $72.50. Bore wasn't so great and it became a 26" Douglas heavy-barreled wildcat .25-06 in 1965. Remains the same today.

A 1952 .308 FWT that had belonged to a friend of the family. My dad bought it from him in 1983 for $200 for me to use for deer when I was 15. I replaced the scope with a Burris signature 1.5-6x that's been on it since. Killed a bunch of deer with it, plan on handing it down someday, but not for a while.

SNAP, great story, thats the stuff pre 64 M70's are made of......

I love the sound you are talking about. I also like your rifle Brucie. Very nice, even though someone sprayed poly on the stock. Now it's more weather resistant, which wouldn't be a bad thing when hunting in some places. I really like the zeiss and steel talleys too. What size Victory is that? Some guys don't like big scopes, but I like your style. Great looking rifle there buddy!!

GSPfan: My first pre-64 Model 70 was a mint condition Standard Rifle in caliber 22 Hornet.
I paid $195.00 for it and had to borrow a twenty dollar bill from my buddy to buy it at that price!
Over the decades I have had many of my gun trading friends try to buy/trade/barter me out of it including offers of over 10 times what I originally paid for it.
Nope, its mine for the duration.
IIRC that first Model 70 acquisition was back in 1967'ish.
Early on I recognized that this was a rare and valuable Rifle and hence I have never fired this 22 Hornet Model 70.
I have fired others though.
Long live the Riflemans Rifle.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I started late in life, few years ago got a '59 vintage standard grade in 30-06 that now resides with my son. That gun loves 180 gr Partitions and accounted for his roommates first elk.

First mod 70 was an 06 Target, put it in a sporter stock. Still my favorite gun. . 'Carlos' v best winpoor

1951 std wt.....:

Picture was taken the first time I had it in my hands:

My Grandfather gave my Dad a 1957 FWT in .243 to deer hunt on the family place in San Saba TX. It still had the 10X Unertl Ultra-Varmint on that the previous owner, a judge in GA, had on it. He used it as his truck gun for crows. Apparently it went back to Winchester at some point. It was free-floated and glass bedded and there was a business card from the Winchester Custom shop under the forend for a little pressure point.

My Dad only used it once and determined he was much more a pheasant and quail hunter than a deer hunter.

When the USN had the wonderful insight to send me to Washington State my Dad gave it to me and I rescoped it with the a Leopold 2.5-8X33. I hunted with it many years in Washington and then on the other family place in Kentucky. Killed a lot of deer and groundhogs with it over the years. I have no idea how many rounds have been down that barrel but it still shot very well even though a 55 gr Sierra would just fall out of the case before it ever found the lands.

I gave it to Jake, my nephew, when he was 13 a couple years ago and he has killed his first 2 deer and a coyote with it so far.

Chapter 2.

It was the late 60s, I was 22 and all my friends were enrolling in the new college near my home, so, in a weak moment, I SOLD my beloved .338 back to the old dealer along with my Browning Safari LE .30-06, which had been my working L-O rifle.....what can I say, I was a kid......

I tried, over the next many years, to buy it from him again, but, no success and then, I moved to the BC coast to get married. I went home sometimes, but, lost touch with so many I had known as one does in life.

In autumn, 1987, my favourite aunt died and I drove the 450 miles to Nelson, BC, to then go to Trail, BC, to her funeral. I stopped at the sign for a small gunstore run by a guy I knew slightly and looked in the window, to see an old 70 on the rack.

It was almost closing time and I went in and asked to see this rifle; he said it was HIS and NOT for sale. I then noticed a closed guncase on the rack beside it and somehow, I just KNEW what was inside, when he said, proudly, Dewey, look at THIS one and pulled MY Alaskan from the case......

I went rigid with surprise and desire and then told him of my former ownership of this rifle and HOW I would LOVE to buy it back. He said that Al Biesen, from Spokane, some 170 miles south of Nelson, has heard of its presence here and offered him serious coin for it, but, he was not sure.

I said I would call once the funeral was over and I wss back in Vancouver and he told me that he would wait for my call. Christmas passed and I could NOT get this gun off my mind, so, called and offered him $1250.00 whereupon he insisted on $1400.00, at that time a high price for this model.

I worked a deal to pay in installments and sent him a large cheque, then, somehow, managed to talk my wife into paying the rest forthwith. Later that week, at 08:00 one grey and GREAT morning, the rifle arrived, 20 years to the day after I first bought it and at seven times the original price!

Big Tom Tom, named for my brother who had died of Diabetes in 1982 and for its thunderous report was HOME and has NEVER left my side again! I have many fine rifles, custom Dakotas worth several times the value of this old Alaskan, an original Oberndorf 9.3x62 from 1936 and so on and on and on.

But, there IS really ONE rifle in my elderly heart and not even a Weibe, Martini, Echols or Purdey could-would take its place...............

Awesome story Dewey!!!! Isn't it weird how you received the rifle 20 years to the day from the first time you bought it. Life is kind of strange that way. I had my 375 H&H put together on my dad's birthday. The rifle is a '56 and my dad was born in '56. I also just went back to a previous job I've been away from for exactly 3 years. I left on March 2 of 2012 and returned on March 2 of 2015

No interesting story here. Bought my first one in 08-09, an 30-06 fwt. Couple years later I bought another 06 fwt, with a reblued barrel and a refinished stock. Put it in a McMillan and planned to rebarrel to 25-06. Never did, I'm too lazy and like the 30 cal too much.

They are 2 of my 3 centerfires, and I've been quite happy with both.

In about 1990 I was about 20 years old and was starting to get into fox and coyote hunting with a group of guys and I was using a variety of different guns from a Ruger #3 in 223 to a 80's Featherweight in 270. My dad surprised me with a P64 M70 Varmint rifle in 243 with a 6.5-20x Leupold on it and said that if I was going to fox hunt I had to have the right rifle for it! I lugged that tank of a gun many a miles through snow field (we hunted them by driving with both dogs and people and since I was one of the young ones I always was the driver). I still have the gun and it still shoots light bullets into tiny little holes. This was the gun that got me interested in M70s.

It didn't take me long to realize thought that while it was a super accurate and classy rifle there were much better options for a walking fox gun. I was the first of the crew to buy and use an AR15 which I found to be perfect. I no longer hunt with the crew but the guys who still do all gave up their heavy barrels for AR's.

Mine is a 1957 M70 Varmint model 243 that I ordered new in 1957 while working a summer job.

That barrel is SS, medium heavy and 26" long.

I used it for competitive target shooting at 200 yds and for chucks.

The barrel wore out however a friend had a new one in 220 Swift and it's on the rifle now and shoots as well as ever at varmints.

I paid about $140 for it.

Bought a standard grade 30-06 "shooter" for $500 when stationed in FT Bliss, TX in 1988. Shot one deer with it in PA and later sold it for $500 a couple of years later.

I bought my first M/70 in the mid 1970's while in gunsmithing school in Colorado, it was a prewar .30-06 which I restocked with a fabulous exhibition grade walnut blank purchased from Herters. Over the years between then and now I have owned many pre '64 M/70's. Currently I own two, a prewar standard grade .257 Roberts and a Super Grade '06 that I had rebored to a .35 Whelen. Will probably never sell either of those rifles, I have hunted whitetail with the Whelen and would like to take the Roberts deer hunting some day.

About three years ago after spending a bit of time on this subforum I bought this 1948 .257 Roberts in a fit of irrational behavior:

Dear God, Thank you for blessing us rifle loonies with irrational behavior.

I'm new here but this forum has provided me with a very nice 243 varmint.

You should be flogged to death with a wet noodle....

I have not behaved irrationally since about 6pm this evening when I lost a bidding war for a 270 Featherweight. I'm still not sure if the irrational act was the amount I bid or the fact that I didn't bid enough!

My first was a late 50s Fwt in aught 6.

Nice hunting rifle with no nonsense rings & bases that work, but the scope is an old clunker that should be replaced by high quality modern one.

When you get over your lunatic fringe.. call me.

Razz, don't fell bad. I've missed a lot more than I've hit. There's always another one coming along.. Besides, you'll have another dollar or two by then.

I got my first pre 64 in 2005.
It was made in 1956
The owner in Alaska, "Bert" Den herder, was said to have died, but I see now he lived for 6 more years.
He had it re barrelled from 30-06.
He had the barrel counter bored.
He cut off part of the stock but.
The previous owner shot:
2 grizzlies
6 moose
10 mountain goats
6 sheep
109 Sitka Black tailed deer
16 black bear
2 caribou

----------------------------
I paid his nephew $585 with Redfield TV scope.
--------------------------------

I put a 22" Pac Nor featherweight 270 barrel on it.
I put a Bordon Rimrock stock on it.
I put a Leupold scope on it.
I put a Harris bipod on it.
It now weighs 8.9 pounds and kills everything to 400 yards.

-----------------------
A age 56 in 2007 I shot my first deer with it.
I shot 5 deer that year with it.
I shot 4 deer the next year with it.

Not my first but a few of my favorites.

Mine was a 308 FW also with poor finish.. Paid 325 for it. The guy saw the look on my face and said yes I know what it is but I make my money selling not sitting on this stuff.
Turns out the rifle was actually really nice, not cut down with the alum butt plate and floor plate. It was a real easy refinish. And a good shooter.
Since I have scored many ultra rare 30/06 s a few in FW... Nothing common you know..

My first Pre '64 M70 was a 300 Win Mag.
I wasn't into them at all at that time.
This was in '97 or '98.
I still have the tag the store had on it.
$550 with a steel tube 4X Weaver.
I really didn't appreciate what I had and sold it
after a few months.

This is my first time posting on here. Here is my first. 51 Super grade hornet and it big brother M54

[img][IMG]http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b536/HueyTiny6/Winchester%20M70-3_zpsiurrkmo2.jpg[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b536/HueyTiny6/Winchester%20M70-2_zpsbqxyd6ca.jpg[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b536/HueyTiny6/M54-13_zps6y5qiuqu.jpg[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b536/HueyTiny6/M54-12_zpsdn8xfo8n.jpg[/img][/img]

S70, thanks for the pictures...beautiful rifle there. Welcome to the fire, visit often as this is the forum where all the smart folks hang out....

... I don't know about smart, but at least we have good taste in rifles...

This is what we call helping a brother out:





Beautiful rifles there too. Welcome to the fire...

Mine was passed down to me, Wife's Step Mothers Elk rifle, saw it once and said this one is rather rare, if you want to let it go ask me first. No idea why she gave it to me and not her side. A '55 300H&H. Never had a scope mounted and I got all of the ammo and boxes it had ever shot. All old Winchester Silvertips two in the grizzly boxes. There is a reason they say it is the Rifleman's rifle. It does what it was said to do.

Great first post, a pair of fantastic Winchesters !!!! If you ever decide you do not need the Hornet anymore or need another cal. Im on the hunt, I have a pre war Target but need that SG post war to finish my collection up, I have a pile of other pre 64 model 70's we can trade or I will pay top dollar on that one!!!! Welcome to the fire, lotta good pre 64 ,mod 70 looney tunes here, 90% are nice good folks and we run the other 10% azz holes off after a short while!! LOL very best Winchester POOR

[quote=winchesterpoor] but need that SG post war to finish my collection up,

Winpoor, I'll bet you a bag of bagels that if you got that one your "collection would be complete" and you'd stop looking.
Ain't gonna happen. There's always one more out there with your name on it.
yooper

Mine was a '55 SG National Match 30-06. Like an idiot, I sold it.

Eric

Very surprised when I saw that gun in the Classifieds. If it hadn't been bedded would have been impossible to pass up at that price....

My first came through my family. My eldest cousin owned it and was a great hunter and marksman. He served our country with distinction in Vietnam and was awarded a couple of Bronze stars along with several purple hearts, an All American swimmer at IU, and successful attorney who practiced law in Colorado and Wyoming. He unfortunately passed away in 84'

His step father (which was his father)then had the rifle and it sat in a gun cabinet in his basement in Kenmore, NY until 2008 when he called me and asked if I wanted it. I of course said yes and he sent it to me.

Time in the basement wasn't kind to the rifle, the finish was mostly gone and wood gray to the point you couldn't even see grain. The metal had a white scum crusted to it, it had a un-ground whiteline recoil pail, missing front sight, extractor was jeweled and just kind of ugly. I don't think my Uncle could even stand to look at it all those years, his death was very hard on the family.

I decided to rescue it back to the condition it deserved. I refinished the stock, lifted dents and dings, cleaned metal up with steel wool and break free, found sights, found extractor, and put new optics on it. I was able to take a pronghorn in Kansas with it and send a picture to my uncle shortly before he passed away. A decorated WWII veteran himself and a great man.

1961 270 fwt

Southwind, I like the fwt...

Looks like it really shaped up.

Hey Supe, welcome to the forum, and nice looking rifles. You're gonna have a lot of fun here!

Best Wishes,
LD

EricM has my first Pre 64 model 70 1951 std wt. 30-06..... Good shooting sombeesh too..

A 358 Win Featherweight bought whilst we were living outside El Dorado Kansas in 1998. Long down the road.

A standard grade 7x57 purchased in 1966 or 1967. I bought it along with a M12 nickel steel 20 gauge from a bartender at a local tavern.

I should have kept it all original. Huge mistake, there. But for the Roger Rule rifle that I recently bought, now I tend to look for shooter grades in great condition, that I won't mind taking out in the field or modifying/bedding. I have a 338 Alaskan project in the works.

Eric

I had no idea the '51 was your first pre-64!! What an honor. I don't expect to ever sell it but if I do you will always have first dibs, BSA!

Eric

southwind,

As much as I like that .270, I must say I like the story even more. Major karma points for restoring that rifle and putting it to use!

My first pre 64 Winchester model 70 was a 1949 300 H&H opened up to a 300 Weatherby with the barrel cut to 22 inches, and in a full blown custom stock.

I had the gun on layaway, was $500 and met a guy at a gun show, who would become a best friend, and told him about it. I told him I wished it was just a unaltered 30-06. He wanted that H&H length action because he had a nice 375 H&H barrel. He traded a nice 1952 30-06 with me on faith and I delivered the H&H to him a month later when paid off. I never shot the first one that was technically mine.

Cool story, Southwind, and nice rescue job on the .270 FWT!

+1!

southwind, great story! I love to hear the history behind these rifles and also about ones that were revived. Takes me back to a simpler time and people no longer with us!

I hate to keep seeing photos of this one as I had taken a computer vacation and missed this one coming up for sale! very best WinPoor

My first Model 70 was a 1956 300 H&H. I still have that rifle.

Southwind my thanks to your cousin and your uncle for their service and thank you for rescuing a fine rifle. I have done the same with both rifle and shotgun. These classics need us as much as we need/want them.

Regards,
Rich AKA GSPfan
US Army, 10th Special Forces

Thanks for your comments gentlemen, it is an honor to own it. I feel those men are with me when I carry in on the hunt.

Besides the family history it's the iconic rifleman's rifle I grew up coveting. With many other rifles in my stable this one has become this rifle loonies go to rifle.

My first is a 1957 Standard rifle in 270 Win. I bought it in the summer of 1986 for $550. A lot of money for a teenager making $4 an hour!

It put my first sloppy handloads into groups way smaller than I had any right to expect.

I put a Leupold 6X42 with heavy duplex on it the year they came out, 1988? Than about 1992 I gave it to my dad. He still uses it occasionally for WT tree stand work.

I will have it back someday but am not in a hurry.

And as an observation well over a hundred rifles have passed through my hands since. None have worked better for a field rifle than that old 270.