Model 70 classic stainless Walnut


Copper BB
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:51 pm
PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:06 pm
Hello , I am hoping to find out some info on a gun I have , that I purchased new in 1995 , .... I remember seeing an add in a sporting magazine about Winchester making a special run of Classic Stainless Model 70's with a select walnut stock... (at the time stainless was only available in synthetic ) ... they were to make either 700 or 777 of them . I had my dealer order me one and now I would like any info I can find as people cant find the gun or serial number when they look it up .... it has a 5 digit serial behind the G .... G73xxx .... any help would be appreciated ..
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 11:54 am
Welcome to the Winchester Owners Forum wheelie !!

Copper BB
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:24 pm
PostPosted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:33 pm
I have this same rifle in 30-06 sn G649xx. Been trying to figure out when it was made. It fits this description because the wood looks to be a step above std Featherweight grade. However I have the original box and paperwork and nothing is mentioned about the wood other than "walnut".
PostPosted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:37 am
Welcome to the Winchester Owners Forum shootem !!

Copper BB
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:24 pm
PostPosted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 9:50 pm
Thank you sir.

.270 WIN
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:59 am
PostPosted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 5:59 pm
I still have yet to see a single Model 70 in stainless steel with a walnut stock. Too bad they are not a standard issue!

.410
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 1:28 am
Location: San Diego Area
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:34 am
For me here, something of a humorous 'Play it again Sam'. An explanation I've repeated often by now.

The short generalized answer:
It is not ordinarily possible to clearly identify manufacturing dates of USRA era Winchester Model 70 rifles by serial number alone. This is due to the fact that the firm has never chosen to release this information publicly. That although such information was necessarily maintained in accord with federal law.

The longer more detailed answer with explanation.
The federal Gun Control Act of 1968 mandated what amounted to new serialization systems and that affecting most domestic firearms manufacturer including Winchester. In compliance, Winchester reset serialization and distinguishing the Model 70 from other Winchester models, assigned a “G” prefix. All good and well. But factory wisdom did something unusual in subsequent production. Certain blocks of “G” prefix serial numbers were reserved; that is, set aside and not utilized. By 1983, U.S. Repeating Arms (USRA), acquired the license from parent Olin Corporation to manufacture Winchester branded rifles.

Perhaps first in the nineties, USRA began dipping into those reserved numbers and assigning them to certain then current production Model 70 rifles. (The early "Super Grades utilized such out of sequence blocks as did other certain sub-models.) Consequently a situation where a USRA product would seemingly be sitting in the ‘way-back’ machine; by serial number having ostensibly manufactured years before such actually were. This in combination with the fact that USRA continuously and to this day, declines to reveal their serialization/production date data, makes for a truly confusion situation.

So coming back to the original proposition advanced above, yet refined. As to Model 70 rifles made subsequent to the time USRA began their 'dipping', no competent way to absolutely determine manufacturing dates from serial numbers alone. As actually determinable, such rely on extrinsic data such as advertising, etc. Even a ‘new gun’ purchase date only indicates that the gun couldn’t have been manufactured after that date. (Duh! #2) But since a gun might sit in inventory even for years, purchase dates themselves aren’t exactly reliable either as sufficient indicators of manufacturing dates.

So thank USRA for all this. But thank them also for saving an otherwise likely bankrupt and out of business Winchester altogether. Thank them too for reintroducing Controlled Round Feed and for some really nice guns too. So more than a wash here!

Hopefully my explanation more ‘deconfuses’ the serialization/manufacturing date conundrum than contributes to it!

My take
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 11:55 am
Excellent write up...!!

.270 WIN
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:59 am
PostPosted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:27 pm
Hats off to Iskra for a very concise explanation of the serial numbers. This does exactly match what I have discovered but his explanation would have saved me a lot of time asking about serial numbers and what dates they were related to. This post has made being a Winchester Owners Forum member worth it alone. Add some other percs and I am very glad I decided to join up.

Copper BB
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Aug 04, 2013 4:03 pm
PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:53 pm
This is an interesting piece about wood stocked classic stainless 70's. I too thought they only came with plastic stocks until I found a little used LH wood stocked classic stainless cr boss 7mag. sitting on the shelf at a LGS. That's one rifle that came off the rack and never left my hand. It would be neat information if someone knew how common they were or the number built.

.270 WIN
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:59 am
PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 8:06 am
I asked Winchester about this. They say the New Haven Plant records do not have that information. I do know they were NOT common to come through as stainless barrel and action and wood stock. The synthetic stock Model 70s I feel are not as desirable as the new say Model 70 Ultimate Shadow which I have a photo of on this site under Ultimate Shadow. The wood stocked variant is a whole 'nother story!

It is a combination that should be brought back. In terms of finding one used.....good luck. I tried for four months checking every source I know about. I was told "Yes they made them, not many and the do not come up for sale. They are now "highly rated and scarse!" So that is the verdict. They should be re-introduced. CHuck Hawks and MANY other writers and MANY customers I talk to say.....Give me a wood stocked rifle or a wooden laminate, not a synthetic.

However I myself bought a new Ultimate Shadow .243 and set out to restock it with a Boyd Black Laminate. I built FOUR replacement stocks for it. They are all Black Laminate short action stocks, they all fitted perfectly and looked GREAT. However they ALL were heavier and longer than the Ultimate Shadow Synthetic stock. We then set out to try to shape one just like the Winchester Ultimate Shadow stock and found it was going to cost a FORTUNE to set up the Pattern Maker and CNC machine to cut the replacement stock in the Black Laminate if the swoopy lines on the molded stock were to be retained! Those molded stock lines were adorable!!! Again the photo of this can be seen on a big ice block (we handle thousands of 540 to 760 pound ice blocks each winter which you can see on Black Sky Entertainment on U Tube). I would LOVE to see Winchester do such a stock! However it would have to be put on a stainless barrel and action!
Last edited by DaveyJ on Sun Aug 09, 2015 8:11 am, edited 3 times in total.

.270 WIN
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:59 am
PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 8:08 am
And for you to be able to get one in left hand? Amazing!

.270 WIN
Posts: 150
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:59 am
PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:05 pm
According to my recent checks if you wanted a Winchester Model 70 in stainless with a walnut stock it would be a simple matter if it were fairly new model you wanted.....you could order a walnut stock for a Featherweight and replace a synthetic stock with the wood stock. This may be what I do in the near future. I already have four replacement Black laminate stocks fitted to my Ultimate Shadow SS .243. A photo of that rifle is shown on the Post I started named Ultimate Shadow SS. You could also do the same switch with a Chromoly Blued action and barrel or a satin blued barrel and action. Also a Featherweight Compact stock could be fitted to shorten the stock or get a different grain or stock detail. I think in the future Winchester will make this option available through the Arnold Missouri Repair shop. One advantage you could quickly reduce the length of pull. Midas youth models by Browning are intentionally set up to do such switches.

Copper BB
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:12 am
PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:23 am
Interesting thread here....

I picked up a used Model 70 Classic in 300 Win Mag a while back, stainless with the synthetic stock. Boyd's does some nice work and after looking at a new FN M70 Sporter at a LGS, I'm convinced they might be using Boyd's themselves. Looks and feels very much like a stock I have on another rifle.

My question is, since I have a post-64 CRF "Classic", would it use a pre-64 stock or something different? As it has a different action from the standard post-64, I would imagine it would be something different.

Thanks,

Kansan

.410
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:49 am
PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 10:16 am
One of the most frequent requests at Morgan Utah was Winchester Model 70 in Stainless Steel barrel and Action. So this year 2018 saw a number of these rifles introduced by Winchester. From a Super Grade to Featherweight, Stainless barrel and action and even two very popular Maple stocks. I have several of those and ordered the Shot Show Special Dark Maple Featherweight Stainless. They look like they will be awesome. The ONLY Model 70 notbavailable in Stainless barrel and action and wood stock is the Compact! To me that would have been a GREAT youth, ladies, or older guy rifle. Chuck Hawks on the Internet states that is his usual deer hunting rifle. In .243,6.5,or 7 mm08, that would be a perfect woods rifle!

.410
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:39 pm
PostPosted: Wed Apr 04, 2018 10:58 am
I was just trying to find a new Win 70 Super Grade Stainless in 7mm Rem Mag and came up short at Cabela's so I went with it's brother, the Browning X-Bolt White Gold Medallion. I still had to special order it and have not received it yet. I had a bunch of rewards points on my Cabela's card which made the price unbelievable and that's why I didn't special order the Win through my local FFL. I have a Win 70 Featherweight in 30-06, a X-Bolt Hells Canyon Speed in 300 WSM and love both of them.

.410
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:49 am
PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:17 pm
For the 2018 Shot Show a Model 70 Featherweight is being made in Stainless Steel,Barrel and Action and that includes the now almost most popular 6.5 Creedmore. The stock though is Grade 1 Walnut. Some come through fairly nice but it is a standard grade Walnut. The MSRP though makes this classic SS Model 70 a very good deal. In my experience these rifles could be the best Model 70s ever produced short of Super Grades or Commeratives. The current rifles are amazingly accurate.

Return to Winchester Model 70

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests

Winchester Owners Forum is privately owned and operated. It is not affiliated or operated by Winchester company. Views and opinions expressed here are not necessarily that of Winchester.