Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors 1st Pre 64 Model 70

I've been wanting a Winchester pre64 model 70 since I was a teenager. Over the years I've had several opportunities to purchase one, but I seem to always find another way to spend my money. Recently, I was in a pawn shop while working and noticed a lone rifle lying on the bottom shelf of a glass case. I noticed the hole in the bolt handle first and just knew it was a model 70. As I confirmed the rifle was what I thought it was, I noticed the price was set at a reasonable $750.00. It should be noted that the rifle was wearing a Weaver K6 in some very high see through rings. The rifle was also equipped with a vintage Bucheimer leather sling.

I asked to speak to the manager of the store. As he was walking over, I noticed this rifle was the only one in the shop that wore a wood stock. I informed the manager that I may be in the market for a more traditional looking rifle and asked if this old rifle was the only one that they had in stock with a wood stock. The manager looked behind him at the rifles in the racks and shrugged his shoulders saying, "looks like it." I asked to look at it and he obliged me. Upon further inspection the rifle was a 30-06 featherweight, the bluing looked good, and the bore was clean and bright. The stock had several small dings and scratches, but no cracks in the wood. After a bit of haggling, I offered the manager $600.00 out the door. To my excitement, the manager agreed to the price. Well, there you have it, I'm now the proud owner of a Winchester Model 70 pre-64. Check out the pics and tell me what you think.

Awesome man. Can't wait to see the pics. One of my most prized possessions/rifles is a pre 64 model 70 (made in '56, the same as both of my parents) 30-06 featherweight. That's the ONLY rifle I will never get rid of, unless I give it to either my mom or dad. Congrats on getting one of the best rifles on the planet!!!

Nice find, the bolt jeweling is a reflection of the times in which the rifle was made--think chrome and tail-fins on cars--and while it detracts from "collector" value it in no way harms the rifle's function. You've got a rifle to be proud of, now get out and shoot the heck out of it!

That's a great rifle, made in '56 just like mine.. You probably know that it isn't all original, with the recoil pad and bolt jeweled. Excellent shooter/hunter right there though. I'd take one of those old rifles over a new one any day of the week and twice on sunday.... Congrats and let us know how it shoots. Are you going to put a different set of scope mounts on it?

Now he just needs one of those spare mcmillans you have laying around to finish it off....

The rifle will be shot and hunted with. Im definitely going to switch the mounts to a vintage one piece redfield and some lower rings. I may put the K6 to use also. As soon as I get the scope mounted in some proper mounts, im going to put some loads together and see how it shoots. Very excited, and yes, I know it's not 100%, but I'm ok with that. The way it is, I'll definitely use the rifle.

Your picture of your "pre 64" shows NO extractor on the side of the bolt body!!



Explain.

Original pre 64 M70 action:

Savage: you need to have your eyes checked.

That's why he only shoots 2 shot groups.. He has a hell of a time seeing the target...

Show us a better picture.

The extractor has been jeweled. You can see that clearly.

Its there, tomorrow I'll get you a pic of the top view.

That action that does not show an external mauser style extractor again:

push feed action

Geese, we all know what a push feed M 70 looks like. And we all (except you,apparently) can see a pre 64 with a jeweled bolt and extractor. Try cleaning your glasses, or perhaps pulling your head out.

One can blow up the pictures already posted and the jeweled Pre' 64 extractor can be seen.

I do think some careful work with emery cloth can "un-jewel" much of bolt, if someone was of a mind to.

ChanceD, I don't know the market well, but if the length of pull is not too short (looks OK in the pics?) and if the rifle is accurate, then I think you made a hellofva deal for $600!

True for all but one apparently.

You can also see the extractor collar (now "in the white") which, of course, a push feed gun does not have.

Now, how in hell BSA can read the serial number to date the gun is a mystery to me . . .

Well, I guess I can blow it up enough to make pretty good guess. I'm having the most trouble with the second digit from the left.

Hey Moron, I hope you don't drive with that poor of vision.

One can also blow up the picture and see that the rifle has a 300k serial number.

Too late in the night time to be laughing like this...

It's an "8"

JFC. This explains much.
You SERIOUSLY can't see jeweled extractor?
Please tell me there's a blaze requirement in your state.

Dude. Its CRF all day. I do need a new prescription of glasses and I can see it. Nice jeweled ring.

Nice rifle Chance!

Sweet Jesus.

The stock is missing as well!! Explain!

Thanks for all the comments, I will post a picture later of the extractor. Lol. If the first three numbers are 360, what year was it made? I thought it was 1954?

Your gun (#360482) was serialized in mid-December of 1955....

Great pick up Chance, and welcome to the world of pre 64 model 70 ownership. There were a ton of guys that had their bolt and extractor jeweled, very popular mod back then. The only thing for us today other than it not being original if that bothers you or not is that most the time they jeweled the serial right off the bottom of the bolt. If they did jewel it off it may be wise to have it checked prior to firing.

Savage99: you make me embarrassed to be old !😀

Guess that will teach me to cast stones. I think BSA thought it was an "8" as well.

M-70 PF's were rare as hen's teeth in '55...

DF

Ha ha.. I thought it was a 6, but when I looked at the book late last night, I figured it was first of the year '56, since on the 3rd. of January they were at 361,355. Probably was a very late '55 model, or even possibly first of the year '56 though. However, Pocono might be right ("mid" to late December).... Those Winchester guys were probably partying right before Christmas and the New Year, when that one was being made. Hopefully it's a good one...

Ok, here's a pic of the extractor. Lol

Naw. I bet you found another bolt and snuck it in there!! 😂

You did well. If you are like most of us I can pretty much guarantee it won't be your last!

Nice gun. Bummer about the jeweling.

Maybe not that critical.

It's a shooter, not a collector. To me jeweling isn't that big a negative for such a gun.

IMO.

DF

I agree with Dirtfarmer. Jeweling sure wouldn't keep me away from a shooter gun! Not one bit. Nor would a pad, especially if the LOP was not overly shortened in the process. Pretty as those original "bird's beak" steel butt plates are, they are hard on the shoulder, especially on a hard kicking gun. In addition, they make it tough to lean the gun into a corner without fear of slipping. Having said that, I won't cut an unmolested stock.

As for stock refinish, re-blue, extra holes . . . those should get the price down even more. The refinishing is due to wear or damage, and holes are holes. But for a shooter, it comes down to what it really should be, which is how good a rifle is it? How well does it feed, eject, and is it accurate?

I read somewhere, I think from Terry Wieland, that one of the secondary, practical purposes of "fine grained, intricate" engraving was to hold a film of oil on the surface to prevent rust, etc. One wonders if there is some of that thinking going on with jeweling?

Gundoc,

I've read that jeweling does give more surface for oil/lube on the bolt for smoother functioning.

Makes sense.

DF

Congrats! Nice pickup, Chance. $600 + a K6? Yeah, man.

I wouldn't be bummed about the jeweling. If it's a shooter, then so what. If the action works smoothly, and feeds and ejects properly, who cares.

And I wouldn't be too worried about the pad, either. Many of that era are going to be found with pads. If the LOP is around 13.5", I wouldn't let that deter me.

Hope it shoots great for you!

I agree with DF. I actually like jeweling on bolt bodies. When on the extractor, it looks a little tacky though. However, for a hunting rifle, it's nice because it helps to smooth up the action. I had the bolt body jeweled on my semi custom 338wm, for function and looks.

Nice rifle and a steal for a Fwt. You can't beat a Fwt 30-06 to hunt with.

You could always remove the jeweling from the extractor with 400 grit wet or dry sanding paper.

DF

Now, if that were my rifle, I would do the following:

Add a front sight hood for looks. A reproduction would be fine.
Fit a RED Pacmayer decelerator pad. Close to a proper Winchester color, no white lines please!
Good quality low mounts, and a good scope (I'm not into vintage scopes on vintage guns, but that's just me.) IMO, a great choice for a Pre '64 is Leupold 3-9 Compact. The smaller diameter ocular (eyepiece) compared to the full size scopes allows the lowest possible mounting without the bolt handle hitting the ocular. (I'm all about low mounted scopes. Again, just me.)
I would consider QD sling swivel bases. The trouble is there is no easy way to do this. I believe the original wood screw pitch is 12 threads per inch (tpi), and the front correctly shaped Winchester nut is 10-36 machine screw. Nowadays, you tend to find 11tpi on the wood screw and 10-32 on the front, with no properly shaped nut available. Williams used to make 12 tpi wood screw QD studs, but no more as far as I can tell. I have never found a 10-36 front QD stud. One reasonably easy way is to modify the original swivels to make QD studs. This is not difficult. It goes against my aversion to altering original parts, but at least old Pre '64 sling swivels are common, and not too expensive (Super Grades and NOT, and are expensive!)

Anyway, those are the things I would do to make that rifle "my own."

Yep, very easy to do. I've done it before... Not on a pre 64, but a m1917 that I had..

I said 400 grit because it would look about right, not buffed shiny.

I'd cut it wet, seems to work better.

DF

Easy there all you critters. Just said bummer about the jeweling. I would not pass on this rifle either. "Bummer about the" flip flops she's wearing instead of high heels.

Yup.

Once I get the scope mounted I'll load some ammo up and start another range report thread. Thanks again for all the Interest, I'm very excited to see how it performs at the range.

I haven't had a disappointing P64 at the range yet.

Yep. Most of them shoot remarkably well - If the bore is good, I am sure this rifle won't disappoint.

Going all the way back to the Model 54 (which has nearly the same action and barrel design as the model 70) these are fine shooting rifles and are generally are more accurate than the rifles which followed from 1964 through 2008.



Don't let anyone give you a hard time about the jeweling or the pad. As a shooter, I think it's perfect. Some will argue a jeweled bolt will have less wear over a lifetime of use than a polished bolt. I'm not sure I've seen evidence of this being true, but this was the original thinking behind the machine turned finish on action parts.

Ur crazy. Its got an old wood Remmy 700 stock. I'll take it fer 4 hunnert big ones.

Very nice, congrats and enjoy a great rifle...........

Same here. They were built right to begin with, so they shoot right for years to come... Excellent rifles that can be passed down from generation to generation too...

I like a jeweled bolt on a custom rifle myself... My 338wm again:



I've even had it done to non custom rifles, like this old tang safety Ruger 77:


I'm like gundoc, and wouldn't do it to a collector rifle, but a shooter/hunter hell yes...

For sure, if I had to start over there would be more P64's in my safe.. Usually a good synthetic stocks dresses them up just right to me!

I found a similar rifle sitting in a rack of beat to death Alaskan village pre-64 M-70's for $650 while all the others were priced over $1000. I asked the owner why it was cheaper and was told that "the new Wincheters aren't as valuable". So I bought the newer one !

I have great respect for 458Win, but I don't understand what he is saying here. I'm simply lost. Am I the only one? What did he find for $650, what all was prided over $1000, and what did he buy????

He bought a later Pre '64 Model 70 i.e. an 1960-63 for $650. The owner of the store said "the newer Winchesters aren't as valuable" meaning the 1960-63 versions. The earlier models (1937-1959) are worth more,hence the $1000+ price tag.

Just guessing on the years,but do think I'm in the ballpark though.

Thanks for the clarification...I was cornfused, too.

Thanks,that is how I read 458Win's post. Hopefully he will come back and clarify his post.

my first p64 was a pre war 22 hornet !!

I'm imagining he wanted the pre 64 rifle, but knowing he hunts them hard, opted to buy the one (late pre 64) that didn't have as much collector value. He appreciates a fine working rifle and the pre 64 is like a good mauser 98, it just keeps ticking along no matter what you throw at it. One of the reasons I hunt with my m1917's as well.... However, maybe Phil can clarify what he meant exactly...

Try the "Zoom In" feature on View on your tool bar, this will show you that the rifle is intact with an extractor & collar .....

It will be a fun rifle to hunt with. I wish rifles could tell us the places they have been!

Great buy on my favorite hunting rifle, I hope you enjoy many days afield with that classic......well done!

My spin on what 458 was saying is simply this. The rifle that he bought was not beat to hell, therefore the shop keeper thought it was a newer one......

Best,

Jack

Nice! 30-06 or?

I picked one up about 15 years ago for $300 from a pawn shop in CO. I think mine is a 1941 vintage. It still has the goofy safety that sweeps reward from the 10:00 to 6:00 position to fire.

I'd drop it in a Bansner or McM Edge stock and put a 6x42 in Talley LW mounts on it. Hunt the [bleep] out of it!