Model 61 forearm question.|Winchester .22 Rim Fire|Forum|Winchester Collector

ScottyW said
Hi…I’m new to this board. I just picked up my first model 61 last week and I have a question about the forearm, but first, Michael’s preliminaries:

S/n is 56159, no letter below. Round barrel, 22 S.L. or L.R., receiver is not grooved, 2 tang screws present, metal butt plate. An online website says this gun was manufactured in 1941 (so, pre-war). The 2015 Standard Catalog of Firearms, page 1349 says the pre-war guns had a short forearm. Another website says the short forearms were approx 6 inches long. Mine, however is 8.25 inches long. The 2 main takedown parts of the gun were not switched, as the 2 serial numbers match. Is it possible a later model forearm was put on this? Are the shorter and longer forearms interchangeable? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.  

Hello Scotty,

I just found your question regarding the Model 61 fore end.  Regretfully, I have not tracked that item in my survey but will refer to reference book by Ned Schwing who describes the change over to have occurred during 1939 when “Manufacturing Change Order #14,107” was issued.  The new sized slide handle appears in the 1940 catalogs.  The serial number range of the change is roughly 42,000.  

I have entered your rifle into my survey.  Any chance there is a small “W” stamped about 2 inches below the serial number?

Thanks so much

Michael

 
I have a model 61 SN#53992 which is 1941 with the grooved receiver and tapped tang. I found this thread looking for answers about the forearm and they have been answered thank you!

In the last reply Michael asked about a small W below the SN. Mine has the W- what does that mean?

Thanks-

Kendra

  

Kendra,

Welcome to WACA! 

The W below the serial number was Winchester’s way of testing whether the bluing would flake off the receiver, which was a problem during that time frame, due to the bluing process employed at the time.

All the best—

BRP

ANewDay said
I have a model 61 SN#53992 which is 1941 with the grooved receiver and tapped tang. I found this thread looking for answers about the forearm and they have been answered thank you!

In the last reply Michael asked about a small W below the SN. Mine has the W- what does that mean?
Thanks-

Kendra  

Hello Kendra,

The thread that you replied to was dated June of 2016.  I do believe that that question also prompted me to begin tracking the style of slide handle found on the Model 61’s.  The findings are pretty interesting and give some insight into the manufacturing flow of the Winchester factory.  Long slide handles with 17 grooves versus the short ones with 11 grooves fist show up on rifles with serial numbers that correspond to 1937!  The short slide handle is still in use on early 1939 serialized rifles.  By late 1939 all rifles have the longer slide handle.  Based on this data it is apparent that a good number of receivers serialized earlier than the change order referenced by Schwing sat around until they were used after mid 1939 and thus fitted with long slide handles.  

You rifle should NOT have a grooved top receiver and it was done after it left the factory.  Is the rifle chambered for .22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle?

Michael