Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors G prefix serial confusion

Im confused by the “G” prefix serial numbers WRT push feed and CRF made in New Haven.
I just picked up a M70 FW push feed sn G1680XXX; im assuming its 1984ish. However, it’s difficult to know for sure since I also have two CRF M70s that I bought new. One when they first came out in 92 if I recall correctly, sn G59XXX, and one when the New Haven plant closed in 2006; FW sn 2572XXX. These numbers indicate the 1984 FW was made between the 1992 and the 2006 CRF. All of them have the same thin red recoil pad.
So, do the CRF serial numbers overlap the same range as the others, the only difference being one is CRF and the other is push feed? In other words, could there be two Win 70s with the sn G1503452; one is a CRF and the other is a push feed?

This thread prompted me to ask here.
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11614705/Featherweight#Post11614705

Thanks for the help...i hope.

Chip

Serial numbers on the post 64's are all screwed up. Just keep in mind the 5 digit CRF classics started in '92. You can use Winchesters DOM sheet for the pushfeeds up until about 1992. The best reference for the pre 64 is Roger Rules book, "The Rifleman's Rifle"...

All you need to do is call BACO customer service, and they'll tell you the date the rifle left the NH factory. Simple.

Sure, while you are at it, why don't you ask them why they replaced a perfectly good trigger.... My Portuguese is a little rusty though....

Have you actually called to get serial no. verification? I have, no Portuguese necessary. They have all the USRAC numbers at their fingertips, no need to wade through the Rule book guessing.

As usual the principle applies, "If you're going to be dumb, you'd better be tough"...

Lawrence come on man you know that baco i.e. Browning is located in Utah so if you call more than likely you will get a good ol Mormon gal or guy on the phone...

Thanks all, Ill try to call next week; great idea.

Chip

BSA: How long are you-and a few others-going to fret about that old trigger. It's history, and not far from being old history. Obviously, there is no shortage of Pre-64's, or other takes on the 70, all of which have the old trigger. More than enough to get you and them thru.

Winchester even evolved the pre-64 as time moved on. Did the pre-war buyers continually fret when the transition rifles came on. The post war offering must have really had them spinning.

Naw that was before my time but the wheels really fell off in 1964 (which was still before my time but closer... After that they never made a move that was not designed to make the rifles cheaper.

Lets not forget that we pissed and moaned until they brought back the Classic....by then no one at Winchester knew how so they had to hire David Miller to help design it . So sometimes complaining will get you somewhere....even if it takes a couple of decades.

Bob I understand.

Buuuut....First I don't have a couple decades left and second, complaining for a couple decades about a trigger change is....well, that's a lot of complaining. Maybe I missed it, but have yet to read or hear about a hunt going belly up due to the MOA. I'm sure it happened however, someplace. Odds are???? I had a pre 64 safety go stuck. Odds are????

Nor do I think Browning has any intention of changing back to the old. I do think the new primarily came about as a way to make the old, i.e. model 70's have been around a long while, look newer. MOA has that advertising jingle going for it.

Nothing stays the same forever, the pre-64 triggers have been out of production for 53 years....

battue: How can a trigger go buns up when it spends most of its life in a safe,except for 5 days in a blind bordering a cornfield in Missouri or somewhere else?

Gotta remember the pre 64 trigger design was really quasi-military...designed to handle some dirt and lousy conditions. Just a step away from a Springfield, Mauser, Enfield...etc etc..

Watch an enclosed design freeze up a few times and it makes you wonder.

Not something I spend a lot of time worrying about....after 5 BACO's I just use a pre 64. Not many threads on those things not working right. I only complain when the subject comes up here....otherwise I don't worry about it.

It's funny....we hear how great todays rifles are then we get threads about this won't feed, that won't eject,lets bend some magazine lips,bend some springs but don't break them!?....we never had to worry about that stuff LOL!

Don't know your years, but they have pretty much gotten all of the new Model 70's they are going to get out of BSA, Bob and I. Now they have to sell them to the new crowd. And the majority don't want what we had.

Said it for years, they are missing the boat if they don't come out with a quality scaled down real, by today's standards, FWT.

Once again I get it.

Hell, today it has almost become a badge of honor to have to fiddle fart around with a new rifle.