Hi Gary-

The Westerner first appeared in the 1960 catalog and the first batches of them were built on receivers in the 465,000 to 470,000 range (1960).  Many of these had matte stainless steel barrels and hand checkering.

The plastic butt plates became the dominant style pretty early in 1959, showing up in significant numbers on Standard rifles and Featherweights by around S/N 440,000.

Short story is that of the (220) 264 WIN MAGNUM Westerners that I’ve surveyed to date, all had plastic butt plates except those with added non-factory recoil pads. So I suppose its POSSIBLE to find a very early Westerner built with a steel butt plate stock, but the VAST VAST majority were plastic.  If I saw one with a steel butt plate I’d be inclined to think the stock had been replaced with an earlier one.

Hope this helps,

Lou