Gentlemen-

There's no need to "agree to disagree" b/c everyone here is saying the same thing...

FWIW... The production figures in Table 2-2 of Roger's book, was well as those on the Winchesterguns.com (FN/Browning) website, are from research done by George Madis using surviving WRACo documents in the Cody Firearms Museum. These source documents are available as digital copies via the McCracken Library at CFM (in the MS20 collection, if anyone wants to look them up).

The challenge Madis faced in his research is that there are no records of M70 production by serial number, nor are there internally consistent records of the actual number of rifles MANUFACTURED by year in the pre-war period. Madis compiled most of his figures from “Net Orders Received” reports (NOT guns manufactured) from the pre-war years and Shipping Department records from the 1950s onward (guns SHIPPED, not guns MADE). So his numbers for different years are pulled from documents reporting on different aspects of the gun business. They are not “Serial Numbers Assigned” as the title of the Madis/Rule table suggests. The serial numbers were "assigned" in the polishing room when the receiver was prepared for bluing, and receivers were not necessarily used in sequence to assemble rifles. Sbrmike's example of early Alaskans is a good one. Short Magnum receivers originally made to build Africans in 1956-57 languished until finally being used to build Alaskans in 1959. That doesn't mean that the PR dates are "wrong", just that PR date and date of rifle manufacture are different things.

It's interesting to note that while Madis chose to use "Net Orders Received" for his pre-war production figures, there is another document, an internal memo to Mr. Olin dated January 15, 1944, in which figures are given (by Model) for gun PRODUCTION over the prior five years (1939-1943). Presumably these figures reflect actual firearms manufactured, not "orders received" or "shipped". For G70C (all styles/calibers, there's no breakdown) the numbers are: 1939 (4372), 1940 (5,507), 1941 (9878), 1942 (8,278), and 1943 (324). Compare these to the Madis/Rule 2-2 figures based on "Orders Received" which are: 1939 (6,147), 1940 (7,684), 1941 (10,078), 1942 (7,453), and 1943 (777). One would hope that factory employees generating a report for Mr. Olin would have at least tried to get the numbers right...

This is NOT to say that anyone is "wrong", just that reliable figures don't appear to exist and "estimates" (like those of Madis) based on "Orders Received", "Rifles Shipped", or summative reports to CEOs, are not consistent with one another. Should also be noted that Madis’ research was conducted BEFORE the Polishing Room ledgers were discovered. His estimates were the best that could be done without actual production records, but for many Winchester Models, including the M70, they are inaccurate (often by a considerable margin). Consider that Rule's Table 2-1, which is derived from PR records, contradicts his own Table 2-2, which is derived from Madis.

Once there was agreement in this thread that the S/N of the subject rifle is 51480 (1942 PR date) there's no controversy... The receiver was made in September 1942. The rifle was manufactured sometime later. Madis' figures, based on "Net Order's Received" indicate that the 51,480th M70 was made in 1946. Whether the 51,480th M70 manufactured bore S/N 51480 is unknown, and to my knowledge, unknowable...

Best...
Lou

P.S. Sbtmike- If you'd care to name your "top three" expert, I'd like to know... I bet I know him/her...