Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Model 71

I had posted previously that I won an auction for a Winchester Model 71 and that I wanted to make some changes to it. Well after I picked up the Model 71 and got a real good look at it I am going to leave it as it except for changing out the recoil pad for a red Pachmayer. The checkering actually looks really good. It is a little different than that found on a Deluxe but I like it. I am going to just use the peep sight as long as my eyesight will let me. It does have the extra holes from a side mount and the stock was cut for the pad but I have seen much worse for a lot more money than I paid for this one. I believe it is a keeper.






















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Looks good. Leaver right there. They are wonderful rifles.

Nice gun. Front sight hood is not correct.
That checkering is the Winchester I pattern.

A red WINCHESTER pad would look alright on there. I have some 71 wood and could look for a stock. I don't THINK I have any, just forearms but I can look if you like.

Beautiful rifle pacecars! Good call leaving it as-is but a solid red pad would look nicer than the whiteline on it now.

Nice rifle. I'm in agreement about the Red Pachmayr, if the OP wants to go that route. It will soak up more recoil than the galazan Winchester repro. BTDT. Nice looking rifle. The stocks looks pretty short. What is the LOP? I'm also assuming you are going to set it up for sling mounts? Are you going to do some deluxe sling studs? I wouldn't fret the extra holes in the receiver. That puppy will hunt. My buddy has one that was drilled and tapped for a side mount. He uses an old gloss Leupold 2-7.

Congrats, I'm sure you will enjoy hunting and shooting it.

If I could find a deluxe forend cap with the sling mount I would love it. I might have to have someone to make me one. For now I am going to go with a mag tube mount for the front swivel. The stock fits me well. I am 6’ 1” and about 225 lbs. I will measure the LOP tomorrow.

Very nice!

I sold mine a while back. I still have a lot of brass and bullets hit me up if you need anything. I don't want to sell it all but I will let some go. Keeping some back if I find another. I did keep my 64. 71’ was a second year bolt peep.

Over a half century of gun collecting, the Model 71 was just never on my radar due to the very fact that Winchester wanted to have such rifle exactly its own way and did! One singular chambering, long now technically obsolete,one basic half-magazine & only pistol grip style! Dang! Only choices of regular or deluxe & 20" or 24" barrels! Such "marketing: to me missed too much potential including my $$$! What I did like was its Model 1886 really great design origins in more modern metal! I had several '86 models, straight grip in full & half mags, all .33 Win, but enough for me.

Only as post Millennium, my collecting winding down as calling "time"! In my mid sixties age needing to start another college fund for my then four year old son! Priorities!

Just into a gun shop in about 2008 to pick up some ammo and "there She was". Standard model 71, 14K serial number range. Long tang, quietly exuding originality and a "too tall" price tag for a 'bottom fisher' collector as me. But I bit! And haven't looked back. Never fired it! And what to say. These guns exude Winchester quality and it sort of rounded out my humble Winchester numbers - or such excuse my story anyway and sticking to it!

Mr. P, You do have a nice looking rifle there and as said, the quality is generally 'primo'. Winchester with some several decades of the Model 71 as an "also ran" but what they did, they did well. Congrats on that gun!

Just my take.
Best!
John

The Model 71 was one that I bought and then sold off, having too many deer rifles. I want another one...

Any 71 is good in my book!
I would replace the pad but otherwise hunt it as is.
My guess is you’ll enjoy it enough that you’ll pick up another when you find the right opportunity.

My obsession started in my early teens when I saw one in a magazine. took me until my late 30s to finally get the first one. A Browning repop then a few months later I found a mid 50s model. Recently I picked up a late model deluxe. Love them 71s. Mine both have been cut and pads placed on them. I would love to find an unaltered stock to replace them with. That metal butt plate probably smart when shot but not like I'm going to be shooting glass balls out of the air like the Winchester trick shooter did with his.

As it sits now with a new red Pachmayer pad, rear sling stud and the magazine end cap was threaded
for a sling stud

Looks like a proper killing rifle to me!

I had one, I hunted it a little bit. Due to poor eyesight, I sold it to someone that could use it and appreciate it more than i did: 1937 long tang deluxe with original bolt peep:


When packing it around the elk woods, It was funny, I kept seeing an old cowboy in the woods. He came up to me and told me he loved my old lever gun. That year, I saw him a few times. Kind of weird.

The last long tang 71 with bolt peep I saw was in a small town gunshop, 2 years ago, and priced right at $2,000.00. It was pretty damn nice. It was a deluxe model, just like the one pictured, but in about 5 times better condition. The one above was a shooter though. No problems getting 3 shots into an inch at 100 yards. I think the new owner even shot a 3/4" group, but he's better with irons than I am..

A 71 carbine is still my #1 bucket list rifle. They're available, but I haven't found one at a price I can justify. As much as I dislike a "Made in Japan" stamp on my firearms, the Browning replica is one I might make an exception for. Might but probably not once I see the stamp. Given that they now sell for as much as an original rifle, I'm more inclined to buy a shooter grade original and have it shortened. Probably couldn't bring myself to do that either. The hunt continues

The true joy in owning a 71 ....is hunting with it .

But , to shot a deer or bear with it is ...great joy.

I have original standard and deluxe carbines (and LOVE them), but…
I’ve broken down and decided I want/need/can-accept the browning 71 high grade carbine remake… but agree that the prices are climbing. I’ll find one on the secondary market at a price that I’ll justifying paying (hopefully).

Congrats! I've always wanted an original. I have a Browning version, and have mine set up the same way, with the peep sights. You will like them. Easy to hit with. Believe it or not, mine keeps them inside an inch, from the bench, just using those peep sights.