Winchester 71 prices...

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Mike Irwin

Staff
Last week I stopped at a gun shop I frequently pass, but which has never been open before.

They have a very nice condition -- bluing is probably 85-90%, wood MAY be refinished, but possibly not -- and it had both the buckhorn barrel sight and the peep sight on top of the bolt slide.

Price was $1,500.

That seems as if it's a good price, but I'm just not certain as I don't know much about the 71 at all.

I have NO need for a 71, I have no real desire for a 71, but that one is just... whispering to me.

Any thoughts?
 
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Scorch

New member
If you want one, that's an OK price. The bluing could very easily be factory, Winchester 71s are a good rifle, with a few strikes against them (ammo has been hard to find for the past 50 years, they are heavy and kick like a mule), but if you want the pinnacle of 1930s-1950s Winchester quality they are hard to beat. There is a lot of demand in AK for them, especially to be converted to 50 Alaskan. Most people in the lower 48 have no need for a 348, but then again what's "need" got to do with it?

Price, that seems about right. The availability of the Chiappa 1886s and 71s has driven the prices down for the originals, much like the Norinco 1897 shotgun clones did to the Winchester 1897s.
 
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dgludwig

New member
I have NO need for a 71, I have no real desire for a 71, but that one is just... whispering to me.
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I guess no one ever needs a Model 71 but the desire I've always had for one shouts in my ear. In my neck of the woods, in the condition you describe (assuming the finish on the stock and the bluing is original), $1,500.00 sounds about right.

I am haunted by the memory of a Model 71 I passed up when stationed at the Andersen AFB on Guam in 1963. I happened to be in a hardware shop in Agana one day when I spotted a new Model 71 on a rack, with the yellow and red Winchester hang tag with the price of ninety some dollars on it. I still have no idea why a rifle chambered for .348 Winchester was being sold on an island where Lassie would dwarf the biggest buck in the island's meager deer population but there it was.

Sadly, I passed on the opportunity and eventually opted for buying a Winchester Model 88 rifle, chambered in .358, at the Base Exchange. Later, I got a Savage Model 99, also chambered in .358 (still one of my favorite whitetail, black bear rifles), but the Model 71 (and its Model 1886 ancestors) continues to be the best lever-action rifle ever made in my estimation.
 
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natman

New member
The action on the 71 is super smooth.

The stock was designed by Townsend Whelen and the rifle handles and points like a fine shotgun.

IMO it's one of the best looking rifles ever made.

The cartridge will stop just about anything in North America. You can even get spitzer bullets for it (God bless Hornady!)

Not that I'm trying to influence your decision or anything....
 
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105kw

New member
Brass is still available, so is some ammo if you look. The 71 is one of the slickest operating lever guns ever. I really like mine. If it is speaking to you , go for it. One of the best leverguns around. Really popular in Washington for elk when I was a kid, you never saw a used one in the 70s.
 
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44 AMP

Staff
A friend of mine has a 71 that has been restored by Turnbull's shop. If there is a more beautiful Winchester lever gun, I've never seen one.

He is currently looking for some NON LEAD bullets so he can use the gun on his next trip to CA. He has A box of the discontinued Barnes X, but so far no luck on anything else...
 
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Sure Shot Mc Gee

New member
With such purchases called> angst for.
You loose all common sense. So goes you're will power. Its called >impulse buying by those who at the moment are more lucid than you are.

I've only seen one and handled such rifle once. Not really my cup of tea. But to each their own.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
See, I don't think the 71 is particularly good looking.

It's the cartridge that really speaks to me.

But, I've decided that I have many, many other things sucking my money down right now so I don't need to spend even more on a rifle I'll never take hunting.
 
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elmbow

New member
Best be a reloader and start stocking up on brass and bullets. I owned one once, got rid of it and I'm into Ackleys and other reloader only stuff. The 71 was just too much hassle for me. Get yourself a modern 1886, or 1895. Have a '95 converted to 35 Whelen. I think collectors have taken the 71 out of the realm of practical ownership. Now if you want a safe queen..................
 
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dgludwig

New member
I think collectors have taken the 71 out of the realm of practical ownership.
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Sad but true. :( Though I have a Model 1886 (Miroku replica) chambered in .45-70, I have long thought that the Model 71 is the best looking lever-action rifle ever made. Certainly, the 1886/71 models have the slickest, smoothest action of any lever-action ever made; the only rival, in my estimation, being the Sako Finnwolf.
 
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TRX

New member
I still have no idea why a rifle chambered for .348 Winchester was being sold on an island where Lassie would dwarf the biggest buck in the island's meager deer population but there it was.
Click to expand...

I was flipping through Sharpe's "The Rifle in America" the other day and saw his account of visiting the Winchester factory and having the chairman show him the prototype of what was to become the Model 70. The chairman told him the action was so long because they were going to offer the rifle in .300 H&H as well as shorter cartridges.

Sharpe asked what the company thought people would use such a rifle for.

The chairman said he had no idea, but he was sure they'd sell a lot of them...
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
"I was flipping through Sharpe's "The Rifle in America" the other day and saw his account of visiting the Winchester factory and having the chairman show him the prototype of what was to become the Model 70. The chairman told him the action was so long because they were going to offer the rifle in .300 H&H as well as shorter cartridges.

Sharpe asked what the company thought people would use such a rifle for.

The chairman said he had no idea, but he was sure they'd sell a lot of them..."

That became a prophetic statement when, in 1935, Ben Comfort used, I believe, a custom rifle based on a Winchester action in .300 H&H to win the Wimbledon Cup at the National Matches.

Demand for the .300 positively took off.
 
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