Purchased a Pre-64 M70 Custom today.

[taylorce1]

Serial number dates it to a 1958 M70 action most people are guessing it was originally a feather weight as it has aluminum bottom metal. Scope is a Vari-XIII 2.5-8X36 I at first thought it was a VX-III but it is in my favorite power range from Leupold so it is a keeper. Stock best guess is a Brown Precision and the barrel seems to be a #2 Douglass contour. Rifle weighs in at 7.65 lbs on a postal scale so should go right at 8 lbs all up with sling and a full mag. The only thing I don't like about the rifle is its a .280 Rem, I've owned the chambering before and I still reload it for my BIL but the cartridge never warmed up to me. Maybe this rifle will change my mind but I still say I'd rather have a .270 Win.

 

[TX Hunter]

Great Looking Rifle, If you reload for the .280 your set. I think It looks awesome the way its set up.

 

[TXGunNut]

I guess if you're already set up to load for it no problem. Looks good to me. Didn't the featherweight have a special bolt and action?

 

[Winchester_73]

Nice rifle. I bet it will be a great shooter.

Serial number dates it to a 1958 M70 action most people are guessing it was originally a feather weight as it has aluminum bottom metal.

Didn't the featherweight have a special bolt and action?

Featherweights had a 22 in barrel, aluminum triggerguard, butt plate (before 1960 approx) and an aluminum floor plate. Their bolt handles were not full, with the hole in handle, not found on standards. Their barrels also lacked the barrel boss (the wider portion that had the rear sight dovetail). They were also only available for select cals: 30-06, 270, 243, 308, and later the 264 win mag and perhaps 1 or 2 others that I forget. Here is mine, second from the bottom.

 

[taylorce1]

Well, I won't be shooting this rifle unless my hunting partner's son will let me handle it again in the future. I had been tasked a while back to keep my eye out for a hunting rifle for my buddies son (10 year old), who just got his hunters safety card and will be going on his first deer hunt this year in Oklahoma. My buddy saw the rifle and asked what I had to have for it I told him to pay me what I had in it. It was a little more than he wanted to pay so I sold it for $325 and kept the scope, he had a VX-II 3-9 to put on it anyway. Besides I was needing a good scope for my new Whelen anyway.

He is an avid reloader and started his first boy (18 year old now) out with a downloaded .284 Win in a Ruger 77 flat bolt, and he has taken a couple of elk and several deer and pronghorn with that rifle. It is going to a good cause so I'm not sad to see it go, besides how many of you guys out here would have loved to have a first hunting rifle like this one? I imagine when I see his boy enjoying that rifle and hopefully taking his first elk with it in a few years, I know I made the right decision to pass this rifle on. I didn't need this rifle nor was I too excited about it being a .280 but I knew that I couldn't leave that rifle sitting in a pawn shop.

I was going to have to add a recoil pad and move the scope forward to get it to fit me anyway. It currently has a 13" LOP and the scopes eye relief was all wrong for me to get a full sight picture. So it should be about perfect for his son in two years when he is able to start hunting big game here in Colorado. My buddy is stopping by after church today to pick it up hopefully he will be bringing his son so I can get a picture of his boy holding the rifle.

 

[PawPaw]

Good on ya, helping the kid find a nice rifle that will stay with him for the rest of his life. The .280 is a great caliber that never really caught on and the Winchester Model 70 is an iconic rifle.

 

[TX Hunter]

Taylorice

Mighty fine of you, Im all for helping the young get started.
Kid sure has a fine Rifle to start out with.

 

[taylorce1]

Here is a pic of my buddies son straight from his Hockey tournament still wearing his cowboy boots. He has some growing to do, but he was happy to get the rifle. He is already a good shot with his .22 lr and .223 Rem.

Besides I have more rifles than I can shoot anyway, so it might as well go to a good home.

 

[dgludwig]

Just curious. What caliber is the Model 88 chambered in, Winchester_73?

 

[Winchester_73]

Just curious. What caliber is the Model 88 chambered in, Winchester_73?

Of course, I can't have a 308 like everyone else! Its a 1956 243.

I also had a 1963 88 284 (one of the rarest 88s) - I sold them both to the same collector last year. For high powered cals, I prefer a model 70 and for levers I prefer 99s or older Winchesters, like pre war models.

Here is the 284 I sold last year.

Below is an example of what I like better than a 88 and why I sold both of mine (I could buy something I like better with the money) Model 64 deluxe 30 wcf. I did actually sell that because it had problems, but stuff like that is what I like in a lever. I sold that either last year or the year before. It was a first year production model 64, 1933.

 

[dgludwig]

Regarding the Model 88 (and I apologize to the op for this brief excursion from the topic of the thread ), I owned one chambered in .358 Winchester for about five minutes in 1963. At the time, I was stationed @ Anderson AFB on Guam and had ordered one from the Base Exchange (BX). After about a month or so and much anticipation, I was notified that the rifle had arrived from the states-but my euphoria was short-lived. Upon opening the box, I was crushed to see that the stock of the Model 88 was broken clean through! Even worse, I was informed by the BX personnel that their policy (and I've never understood the rationale for same) was that the identical firearm could not be re-ordered. So I ended up ordering a Winchester Model 100, chambered in .308.

Upon my return to the states, I was stationed @ Wurtsmith AFB in Oscoda, Michigan, where I used the Model 100 to take my first whitetail. However, before my discharge in 1966, I foolishly traded the Winchester auto for a beat-up, oil-burning '57 Chevy wagon. Sometime in the early seventies, I bought a new Savage Model 99, chambered in .358; a rifle I still have and is my "go-to" rifle now for most of my deer hunting.

Maybe the biggest regret I have concerning firearm acquisition decisions also happened on Guam. One afternoon, I was in a small hardware store in Agana (the capitol city of this U.S. Territory) for some long forgotten reason when I spotted a brand new Winchester Model 71, replete with the yellow and red hang tag, selling for under a hundred bucks. I have no idea why a rifle chambered in .348 was in the rack of a store situated on an island that had a population of deer that are no bigger than a collie but there it was. And I didn't buy it . Now, it's true that $100.00 was worth a lot more back then than what it is now but still...have you noticed what Model 71s are going for now?

By the way, that's a very nice Model 64. What kind of receiver sight is on it?

 

[hooligan1]

Wow did this just turn into a Winchester thread? just kiddin, those are beautiful rifles and Taylorce1, you just might of made that littlemans millenium!!

P.S. Taylorce1, try to shoot those suckers once at least,,,, maybe a treasure in the next "pawnshop rifle",,, some turn out to be real shooters!

 

[taylorce1]

Wow did this just turn into a Winchester thread? just kiddin, those are beautiful rifles and Taylorce1, you just might of made that littlemans millenium!!*P.S. Taylorce1, try to shoot those suckers once at least,,,, maybe a treasure in the next "pawnshop rifle",,, some turn out to be real shooters!

I've only bought a few brand new rifles in my life. Most of my many rifles were pawn shop hems. I've tried several 7mm rifles and just can't like them no later how hard I try. I would have rebarreled this rifle somewhere along the way.


Needless to say, that little man is excited to shoot his new rifle.