Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Pre-war Model 70 30government06 ballpark

You’re doing well then.

In this day of thousand dollar Marlins and high dollar Remingtons, lots of things make sense. I think I’d have bought it too. Good for the OP. He can always make more money, but won’t always be able to find such a rifle.

My thoughts Exactly!

I can barely afford jc Higgins any more


I think you did great on the 3006

Howdy,
Congrats on the purchase! Nice rifle!

I've had my '39 carbine up for sale in the past and receive occasional offers, but I haven't accepted them. I've seen prices all over the place, but no where like this!

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...iver-sight---cool--.cfm?gun_id=101872235

Pluses & Misuses. As noted (honest) 95% condition gun IF all original, pretty uncommon in those factors.. Moreover the price curve in respect of such "high condition" all original specimens is steep. Conversely the most common chambering of the most common "Standard Model" configuration of the 70".
A formula I often applied as a collector, when the next such likely comparable "opportunity" and value of my own time IF needing to seek. I would buy such a gun as reflected here and definitely not spend any time looking back to "post-mortem" the transaction! Not the matter of someone, somewhere getting a better deal. the question of your positioning and how it 'fits' your budget, whims & needs. "Disposable income to accommodate!
I appreciate the above referenced Lew as the Model 70 expert's expert. All as true and I've recommended him before. But here not exactly a true Winchester expert question involving Model 70 rare sub-model evaluation. Where common model & config "value", nowadays all over the board and also vary by such factors of whom as seller, method of sale, competition, urgency, regional price and particular collector interest factor variations, etc. Objective evaluation one matter, personal subjective factors" as beyond normal expertise. The value gamble, a 'pay to play' game. Simply that! I'm not knowledgeable of contemporary prices but that always second for me, as noted. My own criteria and desires. as often "grab it" while available!

The saddest words of tongue and pen, are those that say "it might have been..."

Just my take!
Best!
John

no one makes land so the price you pay for land is what it is , no one makes pre World War 2 Winchester model 70`s either so it is what it is i think its a fare price 10 years from now you will be glad you purchased this rifle. enjoy,Pete53

That may be questionable, in regards to value. A lot of things actually depreciate after a while, when the "demand" goes down. I'm starting to see that with some things Winchester related. The old guys die off and the new generation like the plastic rifles better. As for the rifle in question, it is not a "95% condition" specimen. Nice rifle, for sure, but not what someone who collects these would consider that prime of a condition %. The rifle in question is not even complete, as it is missing the front sight hood ($50) and rear sight (22G 3C elevator: $150). That's only based off of 1 picture. I realize in this day and age, it's nice if everyone gets a trophy, but facts is facts... The main thing to take away from this is if the OP is happy with it, then that is the important thing.

We are getting close to the time when the next crew will reply, “O’Connor?”

Dad rebuilt a Model A Ford and a 39 Dodge…finally sold them for decent money. You would be hard pressed to find a buyer today. The old guys want muscle cars from the 60’s, and they will shorty see the same….when the new old guys will be wanting rice rockets

Not necessarily missing the rear sight, if the Lyman 48 WJS is factory a Lyman 12S flat top blank would be supplied in the rear dovetail.

Something about that buttstock looks refinished to me. The dark staining around the buttplate and lighter color..Hard to tell from the one pic but I'd take a closer look.

Its missing the rear sight. No ifs and or buts about it. That is a deduction of approximately $150.00 in todays prices. Very nice rifle, but not complete by any means..

I moved on- its in the gun room. I am buying a small frame marlin 1881 in 32-40 at 45% for 850.00 today. Bore isn't bad and the piece has character that pushes it towards me. Pretty hard to find a decent operating lever manufactured in 1886 for that. I know that this is a Winchester Collectors sub-forum so I will desist.

You 100% sure about that?? On the model 54’s if a Lyman 48 was factory installed it still came with a rear sight. But Winchester changed that when they introduced the model 70. Like poconojack stated if the Lyman 48 is factory installed then it would have the Lyman 12S.

Ok John, let me try to explain to you guys my reasoning: First, the OP claims the stock, was not cut or in his words "factory", to allow for the Lyman 48 rear sight. That means that sight is not correct for the age of that rifle. In fact the 48WJS sight was such that in 1939 you had to cut the stock in order to fit it to the rifle. Again, only going off of what the op is telling us here:


I'm not trying to be a di ck and prove pocono wrong here. Just pointing out the facts given on this rifle. See, this is the issue you have with these rifles at times. Either the OP is wrong in his evaluation and the information he is giving us and the stock has in fact been cut, or it is not an original sight, or it is not a "lyman 48". I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume what they are telling us is factual, so I'm going with what the op originally told us. I'd like to ask you guys how many of you have bought used rifles with these sights installed? I have many times guys. You can also buy an aperture and anyone can install it. That DOES NOT mean the rear sight is original and how the rifle was issued. In this case, with the information given to us, the rear sight is not original, thus it should in fact have the 22G/3C rear sight on it, like I had previously stated. Yes, it could also have a 1c or 2c elevator, but that was not as common. Now, had the OP said, the rear sight is a Lyman 57W, which was a cheaper version of the 48WJS, we can all agree that there would be a blank installed where the rear sight would go, but the op did not make that statement. He in fact states it is a "lyman 48 peep sight". Now, to be clear: the question about the stock being cut was asked:


Here was the response:
That is like a Jen Psaki response to a question. Does that mean it's been cut or has it not been cut for the rear sight? I took it as uncut, unmolested factory stock.. I may be wrong here? This is a "collectors forum", the op says he has a "95%" condition rifle he is interested in. We should in fact be pointing out all we can to aid in the decision. Otherwise why ask the question?

Chopped or not I care less. Every Alaskan better have the state gun if you want to consider yourself a proper Alaskan. The Pre-War Model 70 in 30-06 was voted to be Alaska's State Gun so I better have one.

This is the standard model 71. I wanted one for a shooter. This will do fine. I have other guns that can serve in this purpose but when I move out to Basin where I grew up I like having very good guns in calibers that nobody can get ammo for. The reason is that then nobody will try to steal it if they can't find ammo. I did this when I was living in the Bush and growing up. I had zero problems with gun theft while others lost every gun that they had. There is not as much of an interest in guns in weird calibers.

The forend of this old gal is beat up and has been repaired. It was made in 1886 but it is a small frame 1881 Marlin deluxe (checkering) in 32-40 caliber. They only made about 1700 of them. The fact that this has been up in Alaska since at least the 1950s from an old collection probably has something to do with me liking it. It has an silver plate on the buttstock that has a cursive G. It is a pretty interesting old gun.