Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors pre 64 featherweight

Cleaned the bore and discovered it is in perfect condition, obviously fired very little. Mounted the old Lyman peep took it to the range shot great, though need to change to higher front sight. Now thinking will keep it and cerakote barrel. Will make a great rainy/snowy day deer rifle for AK rain forest hunts.

I have a beat-up pre-64FW in .308 (cracked stock, carry wear, scratches) with a great bore too. It shoots wonderfully. I grab it every time for nasty weather hunts. She is a meat-maker!

Sounds like a good solution without a mortgage.

I kinda like fiber optic front sights, although a white post with your peep would be nice.

Pictures when done.

DF

Sounds like something one of my buddies did. One of his buddies sold him a 1953 308 fwt that was in rough condition, but it shot lights out. He brought the rifle to me, asking what he could do with it to suit his needs better. He was having issues with the low comb stock. Sight alignment through a scope was troublesome at best. I thought he was full of it, until I shot the rifle and he was right. The rifle was hard to get behind. I told him I'd put a Mcmillan on it, and that's what we did. It is now his favorite rifle. He hunts the Oregon coast with it. He sent me a video of the elk he shot with it last year. This is how it looked before I did anything to it:

The front sight had been sweated off and a lot of the bluing was missing from the barrel^^^ He only paid $250 for the rifle. I thought it he said $500, back in 2009, but now his story has changed to $250. Still not sure about that one???

Anyway, after putting it in the Mcmillan he picked out and rebluing the barrel, this is how it looks:


That rifle shoots cloverleaf groups with the loads I worked up for him. He has no intention of changing the barrel, even though I've seen some really nice 1953 barrels on ebay for decent prices. He says he wants to keep it as it is.

Good work. Nice project.

That McM sure has better comb height.

Yeah, bottom line on a barrel is at the range.

DF

Thanks DF. Yeah, I hear some people complain about that particular Mcmillan stock, being too low. My buddy has a fat face, don't tell him I said that, so it works very well for him. Luckily I had a couple hunters edge/hunters compact stocks for him to try out. Definitely one of my favorite stocks as well. It made a heck of a difference with his rifle. You can see the difference on utah708's stock template.

The OP said he was going to make his an all weather hunting rifle, I imagine a stock like that on an ultimate "all weather" hunting rifle.

Mine was a bulged barreled 308. Got an original pre 64 chambering in a non original rifle, but I have it.

Agree on the Hunters Edge. I have several.

DF

I’d do, and did a JES rebore paying a premium for an original 358 barrel. Mine came back from JES this summer and it’s shooting great. I’ve killed 3 pigs with it so far and it’s definitely a thumper with a Hunter’s Supply 246 grain gas checked LFN bullet at just north of 2100 fps. The load is very economical yet very effective so far. That chunk of lead likes to penetrate.

If you want a high stepping, higher priced load, try the Shock Hammer 178 gr. over TAC, X-Term or RL-7, the latter being my fav.

My JES .358 Win is a shooter.

DF

I’ve got a 338 Fed that I load with premium bullets for elk. For slugging around the creek bottom and thickets at the ranch, that cast bullet I’ve been loading leaves me satisfied. Should kill any deer or pig I find in those situations.

Cool thread.

What about different POI for the different type loads.

I thought about having different scopes sighted for various types of .358 Win ammo, pistol bullets, cast, full power hunting, etc.

But my Pre-64 receiver was an tad off true so I used Signature rings with eccentric inserts to correct for that. I wanted my scope to be near optical center when sighted in. Those rings aren’t the easiest to swap on and off, so gave up on that idea.

I think JES drilled it true, bore seemed centered. Maybe the receiver wasn’t originally drilled and tapped fully concentric. Anyway Signature rings made it right.

DF

For now, I’ve got it in an original Monte Carlo stock. I mounted a Vari-X3HD 1.5-5x20 in Leupold QR rings on it. My 246 grain load hits pretty close to a cast 180 load I started with. Now I’m just shooting the 246 LFNGC for now. It’s no problem to shoot accurately at least to a couple hundred yards and it hits hard.
I’m keeping an eye out for an original low comb stock to put it in. I originally intended to mount a peep sight on it and that’s still on my radar.
Had no issue mounting the scope or getting sighted in.

JES bored .358 Win (Pre-64 FWT .243 originally), Bushnell 4200 in Weaver rings. I refinished the stock, re-cut the checkering.

Final version: Trijicon 3-9x40 in Signature rings. Trigger adjusted to a near perfect 3#'s. Hard to beat in a tree stand, hunting WT's.

DF

That's a sweet rifle DF..

I’ve got the same rifle. Just a lot more beat up. Haha.

Well, that one looks a lot better now than when I got it.

DF

Really interested in your 308. I am unable to PM yet if you don’t mind will you give me a call. Eric 904-449-3066

You brought that rifle back to life. Cool on you buddy. As for your scope mounting holes being drilled off on the receiver, I've had a bunch of pre 64's and have always gotten lucky there. Thankfully they have all been spot on. Checked with the proper alignment tools. I have had a couple classics that were slightly askew. Mainly the 7 digit classics. Generally those guys back in the day took great pride in craftsmanship. Unlike these days, where they let a computer do all the work. Wondering how many different sets of mounts you tried. Looks like you are using the cheap weaver aluminums on that rifle. I like the Leupold QRW/PRW mounts or the Warnes that I modify because they are steel and a little lower than the weavers. A different set of mounts may not have fixed the issue, but if the weavers were out of spec, it would have caused an alignment issue as well. I've actually seen that before.

Also wondering what route the OP went with his rifle. A good follow up is always appreciated. Like Scotty said, this is a great thread.