Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Yea or Nea

I acquired or inherited a 1953 model 70 featherweight in .308 winchester.
It looks to be in all original condition. It even has the sling that came from the factory on it. This rifle belonged to one of my uncles who bought it in 1961 in a hardware store in Washington state. My uncle lived in a part of the country with a lot of hunting opportunities and hunted a lot. This rifle has very little bluing left and the checkering is worn nearly smooth. Bore and rifling and all mechanics are in good order. lots of use but well cared for. My question is to restore or not. I don't plan to sell, would like to pass down in the family. I'm also amazed how well it shoots considering the lack of bedding and modern frills. It easily will put 3 150gr. ttx into an inch at 100yds. I plan to hunt some with it and have already killed a nice blackbuck in Texas this year. One shot, DRT.

If it ain't broke.....

Would leave it as is, a rifle is only original once. Don't believe that Fwt's were factory equipped with a sling....

Definitely not! How do you improve on DRT?

Yea. It's called taking care of it. It's long past looking what it looked like when original. When original it had a finish-not much of one, but something-to protect the wood. It had functional checkering along with blue. Today it is far from what it was when original.

If it were mine I'd do it in fact I did have a 308FWT stock refinished as the factory finish was non existent. Protect the wood and metal.

I actually found photo's of this same rifle in it's factory box with the exact same leather lace on sling. If I remember right, it was one of the auction sites.

I believe that some M70's were availlable with a sling, in fact in Rule's book there are pictures of some NIB rifles with a sling rolled up inb the box.

Too much great history to mess with, as long as it's shooting, take it out and make some more memories with it....

Can't recall ever seeing either in person or in a pic of a legit NIB Standard Rifle with a sling (especially with leather lace on it). There is a seller on Gunbroker who is well known for putting together boxed Standard M70's complete with bolt tags, instruction leaflets and other paperwork that ALWAYS include a rolled-up sling in the bottom right hand corner of the box. Super Grades were equipped with leather slings from the factory....

Dads old guns? think counterfeit .. VB WP