Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing mod 70 barrel swap...need advise

I need some advise, when I met my fiance a few years back she showed me the winchester collection her father left her when he passed. In this collection is a 6.5X61 sharp & hart on a mod 70 action. The rifle shoots very well, but I always wondered how he came by such a rifle. A few weeks ago we were milling through his reloading/gun room and I found the original 338 win mag barrel I suspect was on the action the 6.5 in on now. I would much rather have a 338 win mag than the 6.5, can any decent gunsmith make the barrel swap or is the pre 64 stuff difficult? My fiance would like to have the 6.5 barrel on an action, will only a pre 64' 70 action work? or will others work as well?
Thanks for the help....

If that's the case,I'd leave the 6.5 barrel in the action that it is in now......get another action to put the 338 barrel in,..any good 'smith could put that barrel into a Model 70 Classic as well as a Pre'64

will i need a pre 64 action or will some other action work? like a ruger 77 or mauser 98?

This is easy. Leave the 6.5 assembled for your fiance since it's her rifle anyway. See if she'll let you have the 338 barrel and then you can find yourself a suitable Winchester Magnum action. You'll probably have to do a little fitting anyway so it can be a pre or post 64 Winchester action.

You are 100% correct, all of guns from her father belong to her. Please dont misunderstand my intentions. In the collection is a safari grade 458 and a super grade 375. The 338 is a 25" barrel i suspect is an alaskan. my thoughts were the gun should be put back to original, if she was to sell it at any point it would be worth much more as a 338 alaskan rather than a rebarreled 70 in 6.5x61 s&h. I told her if I were a buyer I would much rather have an original 338 alaskan. heck maybe I'm not thinking correct and it does'nt matter what action the 338 bbl is on. Thanks for the help so far guys.

My only addition to the above is that it's very possible that whoever installed the new barrel also machined a new face on the receiver.. If so, the old barrel may not line up correctly - and in order to have the extractor groove indexed the barrel might literally be 'loose' on the action...

Only way to know is to remove the existing barrel and inspect the receiver..