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I can’t remember when, if ever, the Model 61 tang was factory drilled and tapped for a tang sight. Maybe initially but I don’t think so post WWII. 

I have a Lyman 66 NIB for the 61 but it would require tapping the left receiver wall and the first 61 I owned had already been tapped for top mount Weaver bases, as many have been. A collector’s nightmare, I put a 2X Leupold Compact  in really low rings on it. That rifle became an unholy terror to squirrels messing with timer wires on our lease game feeders.

I remember one November afternoon, sitting under a big Liveoak that faced a feeder 40 yards away. Inside an hour, a big red squirrel ran up the feeder legs, ate the corn lying on the spinner platen, and then sat up like he was going to make a speech. Missed his head by an inch but the HV hollowpoint struck the steel leg bracket right behind him and the lead fragments instantly put his lights out. 

Not ten minutes later, a second squirrel, larger than the first one, ran up a feeder leg, checked the platen for corn, and then sat up. I paid more attention to the trigger and did not miss.

You may not believe this, but within another half-hour, a third squirrel ran over the bodies of his two defunct pals, up the feeder leg and assumed the position. Bang. Fried squirrel for supper and no more chewed wires for that season. 

When I found a later, grooved receiver Model 61, I sold the other one but discovered the little 2X would not position in the grooves for good eye relief. Too short in the body. A 4X compact did the trick but would not set quite as low.

The Model 61 is too accurate for its factory iron sights and really wants a telescopic sight. As fond as I am of receiver sights, this particular little Winchester is best fitted with compact glass for hunting, which is its true purpose. Not a kid’s rifle. 

Zebulon said
I can’t remember when, if ever, the Model 61 tang was factory drilled and tapped for a tang sight. Maybe initially but I don’t think so post WWII. 

  

The Model 61 was indeed drilled and tapped on the small upper tang for fitting a peep sight there.  From the begining of production until during the 68000 SN range.  That puts it into early 1946 but I believe these are pre WWII manufactured receivers that were used when production restarted after the war. 

Michael

Concur.  Rick’s mint, tapped 61 shouldn’t be messed with but he needs relief from that open rear sight. 

My 1949 62A is not all original, having been competently reblued before I got it, so I had no qualms about a current production Marble’s tang peep with windage adjustment and a tall, fat white bead up front. 

I grew up in a very “inclusive” Gulf Coast farm town-turned-postwar-exurb, where everybody was from somewhere else. 

Most were country folk who moved there to work in the petroleum industry after the war.  A half-Comanche, several swamp-loving Cajuns who fished every day after work, East Texas farm boys, and a family of Arkansas hill people who made lye soap in their garage.

Every one of the men had one thing in common: they hunted seriously and I suspect some were poachers. Nobody seemed to have a lease. 

Another thing these men had in common was Winchester brand rifles that were old enough not to have been factory tapped for optics — but all of which wore Weaver K-series scopes. In one case, a 6X.  

I doubt if there was a high school diploma among them, although most were highly skilled at some trade. They certainly ate a lot of fish and game. Although I never asked, the concept of keeping their Winchesters “factory original” didn’t seem to be something they understood or cared about.