1954 action, mint 1955 30-06 barrel, refinished 1957 stock.

Very nice.

Nice rifle, I'm thinking you'll appreciate the weight difference between it and the std wt configuration. I hate to break it to you though, the stock appears to be a '59 (or late '58) to '63 stock. It appears to have a composite butt plate, plus the color has post '59 written all over it.. Nice rifle/good picture.

Could be, I’ll check when I get home. Very happy with it though. I like this a lot better than the Edge on the Standard configuration I planned on doing.

Yeah, you should be very happy with it. Did Justin glass bed it too? Should probably be a good shooter. Throw a set of DD's on that rifle with your older gloss Leupold and it should be a good looker and light weight and comfortable to pack. My '56 weighs in at 6.5 pounds (bare rifle) and shoots very well with multiple loads. It loves 180gr winchester powerpoints, 180gr Nosler partitions, 200gr Nosler partitions, 165gr Hornady interlocks. Its really not very picky. Hopefully you'll find your rifle is the same way. Good luck with it...

I didn’t have him bed it. I’ll see how it shoots first. Great guys to deal with. When I picked up the ‘54 I didn’t think it had been shot much. Justin checked it out, and sent me an Email and said it was like brand new. Barrel was in perfect condition. So is the ‘55 Featherweight barrel I got from him. If it comes in under 8 lbs or close to it, I’ll be more than happy.

The load I’m hoping works is the Barnes TTSX 150’s. I’ve had multiple 30-06’s that shot that bullet well at about 3000 FPS. Mule Deer posted the load years ago, and it works. This rifle is going to be used for Deer exclusively so that’s where I’ll start.

You should definitely be under 8 pounds all up with that rifle.

Yep that’s the plan!

Well done sir. Looks great...

Yep, your right. Composite butt. I still love the wood. No blemishes and finish is perfect.

Nice looking Pre 64!

Scope is mounted, 7.5 lbs flat. Perfect.

Very nice!
IIIRC the breakdown of the weight differences b/w the std and fw are ~ 11 oz for the barrel, 3 oz for the bm, and a few ounces for the stock.

Nice rifle. I'll go out next weekend and buy an all original 1956 243 fwt for $800.00. It comes with a $200.00 elite 3200 as well...

Never needed to have any of my pre'64's bedded in order to get them to shoot, always able to find a load that shot accurately.

I have tweaked and tuned my pre 64 M70 feather weight .308 over the years to the point I just shoot my favorite factory ammo and kill game.

Recoil pad to adjust LOP
Leupould M8 4 power scope
Honed trigger
floated barrel
Magnaported
Braided light weight sling

Now take several head of game for every 20 round box of Hornady ammo.

It all depends on how anal a guy is about accuracy. Some more so than others. For chits and giggles ill take one of my pre 64's to our clubs centerfire matches and spank the savages and Tikkas. The older members of the club love it, but the younger generation dont appreciate it much.

That's how my '56 fwt 30-06 shoots.


This is how my lightweight 338wm shoots. ^^

I dont think your unbedded pre 64's would shoot as well as a properly glass bedded rifle, as ive never witnessed it. You just don't get the shot to shot consistency, especially with a 10-20 shot string you shoot in comp. The heavy barreled target models are less affected, but i'd still glass bed those as well. Also since the op's rifle was assembled from parts and not "coddled" at the factory with perfect inletting and fitting or marrying the stock to the action, i'd for damn sure bed it. As it is, its likely that the stock and barreled action are not a perfect union. When this is the case, you also run the risk of cracking the stock under recoil. Im hoping all that makes sense.

That's a beauty, JB. Hope It shoots as good as it looks for you.

My pre'64 .338 WM would shoot groups like that with the long discontinued Hornady 275gr, RN and IMR 43250, 3 shots into a neat cloverleaf @ 100yds. It was the most accurate M/70 I've ever owned, only modification was a previous owner had installed a Canjar trigger.

Very nice rifle!!

Curious, did you weight the bare rifle too?

It weighed 6.5 lbs sans scope.

Thanks. I just got my order of reloading stuff so now I’ll start working on some loads. Going to start with 150 grain Accubonds and 150 grain TTSX bullets. I’ve had good results with both of them in my other 30-06 rifles.

That’s a nice deal!

I have a couple of 30-06 FWT’s. One won’t shoot Accubonds for love nor money. I did find a great load that both shoot well.
IMR4350 - 58gr
Hornady Interlock 165 flat base
1-5” and less at 200 yards.

thank you, and very nice rifle!