Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors .243 Varminter FS, one must go

All right Winchester pre 64 loons, Ive ended up with 2 , .243 Varminters ,an early and late one, both are 85 to 90% ,one needs to go to make room,I wanted to come here before class or GB. IIRC Winchester made 2400 or thereabouts. photos to follow. I may be wrong and will take a magnet and check but I think the late gun is CM vs SS barrel, both are tackdrivers. I think I will sell the late gun as Ive only had it a year or so. Photos are inbound! very best WinPoor

Folks Im on a learning curve vis gun photos but this is the gun I want to move,scope stays at home base and rings stay with gun unless buyer does not want em'.Easy .75 gun using 70 gr. Rem factory ammo. I will try and take better photos, it is prob better than 90% I tend to be low and let buyer be happy, happy! WinPoor

FYI a magnet will stick to the stainless barrels also - been there and tried it. I've had 2 243 Varmint guns and both were super accurate, it seemed they both liked lighter (55-70gr) bullets over 85gr.

How much?

1750.00 on the money ,very best WinPoor

I will try and get outside and take better photos today, While feeding up yesterday ,like a nut I was answering a text and a spirited cow decided I was not pouring the feed out fast enough and floored me. damn knee is letting go this morning and Im hunting Grandpas walking stick! v best winpoor

My early, 56' gun has that 'mottled' SS look and this late gun has the slick CM blue look. Both shoot great and given the good factory ammo we have now I would not be afraid to have one for a 'do all' varmint and whitetail gun. Even at 61 I still like a heavy barrel gun. Im sure another year or 3 will have me hunting the fwts. very best winpoor
PS, Mr Reelman ,I will check ammoroom but someone gave me a box of HSM? or hunting shack ammo loaded with 95 gr bergers and after 4 shots I said dog dam I better put these up for deer hunting! Even though I rarely use under a .25 cal on whitetails! Those things were super accurate and I was told wicked on whitetails, I had never used hunting shack ammo before or since. v best winpoor

Very Nice WP!

That is the one rifle I would like to have in the collection. I have a standard .243, but having a second .243 ( actually third) Model 70 in the safe would be a good thing.

I will get outside and get fresh better photos today, I have a knee packed in ice and eating Ibuprofen like M&Ms. Plus photobucket is one more PIAzz today! Is there a better deal than that to use for photos? very best winpoor

Hornet, I don't have records handy but I bet a standard weight 243 is actually rarer than a Varmint 243. I know I've seen a lot more Varmints than standards. Featherweights in 243 are common but not standards.

Yep Reelman you are correct.

According to Rule, it is number 5 for rarity with only 6812 standard 243's made.

Only the .300 savage, 35 rem, 7mmx57, and 250-3000 are rarer..

I found it new without box, bolt intstalled two years ago. And yes it shoots very well..

2400 or there about in .243 Varminters, 904 in the mighty 220 swift Varminters. A fair number of Targets in .243 but not as many as varminters, both were less than Std guns, The std in .308 is the hard to find gun! I will post actual numbers when I dig my mod 70 Bible out. At one time, a year or so before half or sometimers set in I could quote from memory! I do know on a calm cool fall afternoon I shot a 5 shot sub 1 1/4 inch 300 yard target with federal premium 70 gr BT's, I was so happy I got my 3 pals to sign and date the target, not bad for mid 50's old school rig and factory ammo! very best winpoor

Im thinking this is the 56' gun as the scope and 'mottled' SS barrel.

I will sell the 56' mottled SS gun but I want more money for it as I will have to look back but I think I have 1850. in it! All Im going to say is both are accurate, I put 36X scope on when I buy one and take several , all I can gather up factory loads to see what they like and just what they will do, I take them to my airstrip at farm and can pick bluebird, no wind days to test. Its almost like cheating but it allows me to' see what they will do' the very best WinPoor

OK guys this is the .243 Varminter Im selling.

It is very accurate and the price is very reasonable!I will leave it here a day or 3 before going classifieds or GB... very best WinPoor

same gun with old school scope on it! The fellow spotting for me said if I knew how close the scope was coming to eyeball I would never shoot it again. New guys do not understand how these old scopes and springs work!

very best winpoor

243 standards are hard to find but nothing like a 308 standard. A 308 standard is the holy grail of post war M70's with probably only 1 or 2 made.

The mention of the .308 Standard brings back some memories. Back in the late 70s I had begun attending gun shows of which the OGCA quickly became my favorite. I quickly became acquainted with men who were true experts on the pre 64 M70. Two sellers from Michigan were regular sellers and always had rare guns for sale. They were pretty much shunned, however, by my expert friends, but for no apparent reason until one time they show up with four really rare Standards-a pair of .358s and a pair of .308s....story was these guns came from a filling station owner in the Upper Peninsula who had special ordered all four guns then quietly put them away. He had passed away and this pair of dealers bought them from his estate.

Didn't take me long to track down one of my pals to tell him what I found. Asking price was $5,000 for each rifle-a lot of money back in those days and completely outside my financial reach at that time. I asked Randy if he had seen them and he said Yes. Next question was what he thought about them. He told me to stay away from them. No more explanation but that was good enough for me. Came across another friend and Wayne told me essentially the same thing as Randy had.

I finally pried a little more from Wayne as he took things slower at a show than Randy, who cruised the tables as if on roller skates, looking for guns to buy. It was then I heard the story about the fellow from Michigan who was turning out M70 barrels, using original Winchester stamping dies, which could not be told from the original. Seems a certain dealer from New York had even turned up at Randy's shop one day with six 9mm barrels in his trunk that the Michigan guy had sold him which the NY dealer was peddling..

I'm only relating all this to let others know that sometimes it isn't always as it appears when it comes to our beloved 70s.
Interestingly, since I've been on the Internet these past 15 years or so, I've seen none of these rare guns for sale. Somebody, somewhere has these rifles stuck away. Pretty scary and probably one of the reasons George Madis told me, many years ago, he decided against writing a book on the 70 because he did not want to destroy friendships (almost his exact words).

There's a lot of money being made these days on rare 70s and sometimes I'm sorta glad I got out of the game.

Click on the video. Model 70's are a piece of cake compared to what this fellow can do. Think he could make a SG FWT stock?


https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motor...a-out-of-his-chicken-shed-153957117.html

balltownbob, that is an interesting but unsettling story. If some of those fake barrels were of the vintage that the front sight ramp was integral to the barrel, that took some serious effort compared to a sweated on ramp. But $5K in late 1970's dollars is a pretty big motivation.

battue . . . which brings us to battue's link, which proves you can fake just about anything with enough skill, time, money, and motivation.

Balltownbob, I'm pretty sure I've run across your "friends" at some of the Michigan shows. A couple guys that always have such "common" M70's as 250 Savage Super Grade carbines and the same in 7mm Mauser, etc. All in superb condition, naturally, and at superb prices. Fortunately they are all above my pay grade, so I haven't been tempted. Hopefully Karma will bite them in the butt one of these days.
yooper

Oh, I'm sure you know those two as I see you're from their home state...A couple other of their rarities come to mind-a .220 Swift Carbine and a .300 H&H Carbine...

I did buy a very nice 7 M/M SG from a well driller in Michigan.
Took two men and a boy to get that one out of the stock which gave me much comfort...I passed on a 75% 9 M/M that same day...