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December 27, 2024
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Got a friend looking at a 1955 M70 .243 Featherweight – first I thought that .243 didn’t come out until 1956 yes/no? And then there is this Butt Plate deal, this don’t seem correct to me. I thought in 1955/56 it would be a metal plate with the point at the top that rolled into the top of the stock. This one don’t even seem to fit nicely.
Dan #67288
November 5, 2014
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Deg-
The Featherweight in 243 WIN is not in the January 1955 catalog but is in the December 1955 catalog, so we can presume it was introduced sometime that year.
The plastic butt plates appear around s/n 430,000 around 1958. A 1955/56 M70 Featherweight with a plastic butt has a replaced stock.
Hope this helps,
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
December 27, 2024
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great – thank you
Dan #67288
December 27, 2024
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so my 1956 Standardweight has a metal plate and the top rolls up on the top of the stock in a point – is this what a 1955 Featherweight would look like also?
Dan #67288
November 5, 2014
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Dan-
Same shape but made of aluminum. The outside edges of the Featherweight aluminum butt plates were not anodized black. This is one…
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
December 27, 2024
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So, 1955 Featherweight would look like this?
Dan #67288
November 5, 2014
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Yes… The Featherweight butt plates from 1952 until about 1958 were identical in shape to the standard steel butt plates (as on your 243 WIN Standard Rifle) EXCEPT that they were made of aluminum and anodized black. The edges of the aluminum plates were bright (bare aluminum).
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
December 27, 2024
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thank you so much!
Dan #67288
December 27, 2024
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Me and another buddy are having a bit of a disagreement on this 1955 stock. My buddy, he is knowledgeable about older Winchesters, no question, but I am challenging him on this one. He is sure Winchester would have offered the flat hard plastic plate on M70’s in 1955 and believes the stock and plate are original. I am with Lou, that it changed. I also believe that it may have just been cut and therefore the notch at the top is missing. So, my next question is: on my 1956 Standardweight it is 32-1/8″ from tip of fore-end to the end of the butt (excluding the steel plate) – should the 1955 Featherweight be the same?
Dan #67288
November 5, 2014
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Dan-
Stock dimensions for Monte Carlo comb Standard rifles and Featherweights were the same. Please view the attached page from Winchester’s 1955 Catalog giving butt stock dimensions on the Featherweight.
On the subject rifle, there is a very good chance that the stock was simply replaced at some point with a 1959-1961 vintage Featherweight stock. In which case it will have the correct dimensions. It’s just not the original factory-installed stock.
The change from aluminum to plastic butt plates happened well before the change from hand checkering to narrow panel machine-cut checkering, so there were a lot of M70s made with factory plastic butt plates and hand checkering. Perhaps the original stock was damaged or fitted with a recoil pad somebody else didn’t want.
FWIW… I have no interest in convincing your “expert” Buddy on this point… To each his own… It’s his money… 
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
December 27, 2024
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ok, just to make sure everyone knows – me and my buddy we have a good time arguing, we don’t get mad or serious, but when we disagree, we will beat a dead horse. So, although we both want to be right, we are all good at the end of the day. And it is a mutual friend who is looking at this gun, he just asked us both our opinion. So, not to wear anyone out here but to tell you the truth, I am learning stuff through this. Anyway, here is the gun in question – if you’d be so kind to look at and evaluate the things that look correct and things that raise a flag I’d sure like a little ammunition. Scope does not come with gun.
Dan #67288
