Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors The model 70 gods smile occasionally

One of the few if he still does. I know he uses a Ruger 77 in a 06 and his primary gun is a 458 win mag built on a Mauser iirc.

It would be very hard if not impossible to improve on functional classic Mauser like the one he bought. All it needs is couple of x-bolts, quality modern scope plus perhaps newer recoil pad.

OP - Congrats on your new rifle!!! I'd hunt the heck out of it and serve up some crow here!!

Eric

What a sweet find! That rifle is absolutely gorgeous.

I think a lot of us here have a sweet spot in our heart for a rifle like that. My 2 most prized pre 64's are my 338 Alaskan and my 375 H&H and those are the 2 rifles that have seen the most use (well definitely carried the most and shot little). I shot 40 rounds from my 338 the other day and left with a smile on my face . I need to take my 375 out more often though..

I get the same feeling when I eat jelly donuts

Good catch - yeah, that style pad didn't occur until '59 or so, and from the pic it does look like that stock was cut a bit to keep LOP..

Beautiful rifle though overall..

If I'm not mistaken the standard LOP is 13.5. This one measures 13.75 with a 1 inch pad which is what they came with. I do have atleast have one hunt that this beauty will go on I am super excited.

Beautiful rifle, but the pad is not original to that rifle. I'm not trying to discredit the rifle or put it down in anyway, just stating facts. Like redneck said, the ventilated recoil pads weren't used until after '59. The 1953 supergrade 375H&H had a solid red recoil pad. This is according to Rule: Page 169 of "The rifleman's Rifle" book:

"Recoil pads: There were no changes from those of the standard rifle. The 375 H&H Magnum super grade was phansed out about the same time that the webbed recoil pad was introduced. Since the African lasted through the end of production many of those serial numbered above 460,000 feature the ventilated style."

You are a real Debbie downer

Ohh no the pad is totally not original its a whiteline, which were never used that I know of, but as far as I can tell the stock has not been cut to put a different pad on. I'm getting it replaced with a decelerator so I can hunt it, but the fact that it came with one originally is nice so you don't have to cut a stock. Like most of the standards that had the curved metal butt plate.

Yep, I agree. You could go with a Galazan (Winchester reproduction) on that rifle too. It won't be original per se, but it will look almost original. The red decelerators are nice too and soak up a little more recoil than the reproduction pad. Sweet rifle!!

Mr. 79S: I just returned from an Alaskan goat hunt and I used a re-barreled pre-64 model 70. My son worked for Phil Shoemaker in both the spring and fall hunts this year and Phil allowed him to carry his 9.3x62 as a back-up rifle which is a re-barreled pre-64 model 70. One of Phil's guides is a model 70 man. I spent a couple hours looking over his bear rifles when I was in Kodiak and while he uses the classics, he's wanting to put a pre-64 together in .35 Whelen. He thinks it just might be the ultimate back-up rifle. Then there is Dick Rohr who has outfitted on Kodiak for many years. According to his son Sam, his dad still uses his old 70 in .375 as his back-up rifle. Perhaps there might be more old 70s being used up north than you might think.

I'm sure there are a lot more old model 70's in use than 79s might think...Much more..