Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Stirring the pot - pre 64 Winchesters

My one remaining Model 70 is a pre-war. It isn't stock but pretty close. Serial number indicates a 1937 build date. It is the second bolt action centerfire I ever owned. It isn't going anyplace.

It has a transition safety. I cut half a coil off the trigger spring to get the pull down to three pounds. I altered the extractor so it would fit over a round dropped itn the chamber. I put a Pacific Research stock on it. That's all.

The pre-64 Featherweight I had is my oldest boys now. It has been restocked (Bansner) and matte blued but that is about it.

I find the Pre-64 FW to be very workable. Maybe the most ready to use sporter as it comes out of the box.I have drifted toward stainless rifles lately but still use the blued ones.

I, for one, don't think it is time to put them to rest.

There isn’t a stainless/plastic gun that is capable of killing more game or making a better hunter out of the owner, just by virtue of it’s machining and close tolerances. If there is anyone that needs 1/2 inch more accuracy from a rifle, I doubt he could use the extra accuracy to his advantage.

The entire shooting industry has been hungry for some sort of improvement in accuracy and cost of production, only to produce a POS like a Ruger American, which incorporates all the attributes that the more recent shooter has embraced. If this is improvement, I stand firmly in the past, with an outdated, but capable rifle that won’t give up a single measurable feature to the new standard.

60 years from now, a Ruger American and many of the now hyped rifles and cartridges, will hardly be the collectors items a Pre-64 Winchester is today…

Well said, Shrap. I’m a millennial, but I have the sense to know soul and craftsmanship when I see it.

I hunt primarily with Kimbers these days, but there is no replacing the feeling of an old American made rifle that was built in the hands of craftsman. If someone can’t acknowledge the difference between a modern rifle and a pre-64, I opine that they probably haven’t handled the pre-64 much. I think I could easily tell the difference between a new Model 70 and old while blindfolded and wearing gloves.

Maybe I really am older than most of you guys - in a thread about pre-64 Mod 70s I have been comparing those with two Win Mod 54s here.

i must be getting old too. let's see....

1891 Argentine Mauser in 7.65x53, 3 of them
1944 Mauser in 8x57
1916 Spanish Mauser in 6.5x55 and 7x57
1937 Husqvarna m46 in 9.3x57
1898 Springfield Armory in 30-40 Krag, 2 of them
19?? Carcano m36 in 6.5x52 and 7.35x52
19?? Arisaka Type 99 in 30-06
1908 Brazilin Mauser in 7x57
1924/30 Venezuelan Mauser in 7x57
1898 Springfield Armory action, 2 of them
1895 Chilean Mauser action
1926 Remington m14 in 30 Remington
1943 M2 in 30 Carbine

the newest rifle i still have is two TC Encores' in 20 Vartarg, 444 Marlin and 500 Linebaugh (all 3 of them are 23" MGM barrels) and High Plains Laminate gunstocks.

i have other "newer" rifles, but they are wood and blued steel. i got rid of my "plastic" rifles about 6 or 7 years ago. wood and blued steel have a soul. "plastic" guns do not.

There are couple outstanding examples worth considering: .270 Featherweight, .338 Winchester Magnum.

The folks that care about pre 64s won't be around in 20 years.

As long as people collect things, there will be at least a few folks around who will still care about pre-'64 Winchesters, pre-'60 Savage lever actions, Marlins built in North Haven, pre-WW2 Remingtons, etc.

When are you moving to California?

100% correct. Nobody collects Model Ts anymore, nobody collects Rev war anymore. The fools paying a million for a Graveyard car better enjoy it now as in 50 years no one will care.

Fine American single shots are now selling for 1/3 what they did 30 years ago.

pre 64s are well made massed produced items. Cult status will fade when the Boomers pass on.

Oh look.

Another dumbass sockpuppet.

Surprise, surprise. LOL

in 20 years i'll still be shooting my old rifles, i doubt that you be shooting your "newer plastic" guns.

And this is exactly the point. I think many of the naysayers here are simply trying to justify the purchase of the “paint by numbers” rifles that will end up in a pawn shop rack with dust on them.

Which leads to another point. Go into any dingy pawn shop and see what’s in there. There is a reason that you don’t just walk into any pawn shop on any given day and see classic rifles sitting in the racks. They either get bought when they do show up, or the people who own them appreciate what they have and understand that they just don’t make them like they used to.

Who is building these "plastic" guns?

Fine American Single shots selling for 1/3 of what they did? Go try to buy an Ithica Sousa grade Single barrel trap or a Parker and get back to us on the price. Fine guns are Fine guns and will always bring premium prices. The Ruger American was/is made to a price point. The Winchester M70 pre 64 was essentially a factory produced simi-custom rifle. A lot of handwork went in to producing them. As the dollar has devalued and wages went up it becomes impossible to sell at a price most can afford. Idiot management goes a long way to driving a company under as well. LC Smith gave up making fine doubles to make typewriters and Parker slowly died on the vine as American shooting public wanted more firepower of the simi-auto and pump shotguns. Remington, like so many companies, was acquired by a holding company that only cared about the bottom line.

Smart man....


But the old ones had the GOOD trigger.... That MOA pos needs to be relegated to the dump...

I had a custom pre 64 70. It was ok but I’ll take a Sako or Rem 700 any day.
Glad some like the pre 64 and are not competing with me.

Some folks are easily triggered, but sometimes the truth hurts. Your kids/grandkids won't care about most of your crap when you're gone, and that's just how it is. I'll be one of those gone in 20 years and all my blued steel, fine walnut stocks won't impress anyone. Sorry, I've no plastic guns to shoot now, so yep, I doubt I'll be shooting any from the grave. If I did have some though, that's what the grandkids would ask for.

The number of people who care about pre 64s have been on a steady decline for years. 20 years from now they will be such a small segment of gun ownership to be statistically insignificant. Sure, there will be a very small number of people who want one, but it will be very small, even compared to todays number. I'm sure you raised your kids right and all the blah, blah, blah, but pre 64s aren't what they once were and 20 years from now will be even less.

Yeah.... antiques are a thing of the past and lose all value!!! lmao

You didn't answer my question.