Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Help with rifle identification

A friend has a rifle i believe to be a Weatherby. The only markings on the barrel is a stamped oval with a R and a W. The same stamp is on the action and the only other markings on the action is Winchester with the serial number 184179. It sits in a nicely figured stock that also appears to be a Weatherby and has the diamond on the pistol grip cap like the Mark Vs.

Model 70 Winchester, with a aftermarket stock?

Just because the stock is a "calafornia modern" style, dosn't make it a weatherby

[Just because the stock is a "calafornia modern" style, dosn't make it a weatherby]

Exactly.

The year before last, I restocked a rebarreled 7x57 Argentine M-1909 Mauser with the rollover cheeckpiece stock off an older H&R M-300 - that was virtually a "drop-in".

Your friend's rifle has most likely been "custom assembled", too.

Have either of you taken the barreled action out of the stock & inspected the barrel further?

I once bought what I thought was a nice .222 Sako L-46, until I dismounted it and found "Remington" on the bottom of the barrel, from where someone had replaced the Sako barrel with one from a Remmy, installing it upside-down so the Remmy inscription would be hidden inside the stock inletting.

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The oval is likely the Winchester proof mark. The letters are a superimposed P and W.

--Bob

Before reaching a conclusion as to what it really is you may want to do some checking on Weatherby history, I seem to remember reading that some early Weatherbys were built on Winchester actions. I know for a fact that some were built on FN actions because I owned one once.

The way I remember it is that when Weatherby was first starting he was building his rifles on Winchester actions because they were common and inexpensive at that time, he later made a deal with FN and used their actions for a while.

You may want to "google" Weatherby collectors and find a board that specializes in them and pose your question, and perhaps a picture, there.

The serial number comes up as a Winchester Model 70 1951 mfg.

http://armscollectors.com/sn/winlookup.php

Before Roy made the FN deal he used whatever action was available (or provided by the customer) for building rifles.

Ok, the proof marks are identified as Winchester. The question is why the barrel has only proof marks and no other markings regarding model or caliber.