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December 27, 2024
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Well, it has been six months since I bought this gun so I can barely remember it and don’t know a lot about it. .243 caliber. I get it tomorrow; we are going to sight it in for my KS deer hunting this year. I am pretty excited to finally being able to get it – makes me want to swim upstream and spawn. I will get pictures and post.
Dan #67288
November 7, 2015
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Congrats! Please don’t forget to post a range report and pics.
Mike
December 27, 2024
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Will do, the plan is after my buddy gets home from his Bird Dog Club meeting this afternoon.
Dan #67288
December 27, 2024
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Well, we shot a box through it yesterday evening and although it was not clover leafing it was a small group, I’d say a 2 to 2-1/2 circle, and it was pretty windy, and I am not sure when the last time it was swabbed out real good. Anyway, it is plenty ready for the deer woods. I am going to clean it and run it again before I go out.
Dan #67288
December 27, 2024
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Deg said
Oh – and also, this scope has been sitting in a drawer for a lot of years and we probably wasted a fair amount of rounds before we started thumping the scope – we think the hairs were kind of sticking some because it wasn’t moving as much as we were turning the dials. After deer season this year, I think I will send it to Leupold for a tune-up
Dan #67288
July 3, 2020
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Just a word of caution… if something is wrong with your scope, Leupold won’t fix it… they will replace it. They no longer produce gloss finish scopes, you will receive a replacement matte finished scope…
April 10, 2021
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Very nice looking (and I’m sure shooting ) 70! Standard grade 243s are actually on the rarer side of production wise (I believe it’s right around 6000)
December 27, 2024
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Ben said
Just a word of caution… if something is wrong with your scope, Leupold won’t fix it… they will replace it. They no longer produce gloss finish scopes, you will receive a replacement matte finished scope…
OH MY! I am glad you told me that – I was expecting they’d refurbish it. I want what I have. Thank you!
Dan #67288
December 27, 2024
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Dirtman324 said
Very nice looking (and I’m sure shooting ) 70! Standard grade 243s are actually on the rarer side of production wise (I believe it’s right around 6000)
Nice – I think, right? It is a soft shooter.
Dan #67288
January 20, 2023
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Dirtman324 said
Very nice looking (and I’m sure shooting ) 70! Standard grade 243s are actually on the rarer side of production wise (I believe it’s right around 6000)
I’d have to dig out Rule to see the production number chart but I think you’re correct. Most in that caliber were made in the Featherweight style, a few in the new Varmint style.
A new Featherweight in 243 is what I wanted but, by the time I could afford one in 1966, they were out of production. The ’06 came Decades later.
The OP’s is a fine specimen.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
November 5, 2014
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Rule’s numbers for 243 WIN, based on Shipping Department records, not actual number ordered or manufactured, are:
Featherweight (24,707)
Standard Rifle (6,812)
Varmint Rifle (4,614)
Target Model (683)
Standard Super Grade (291)
Super Grade Featherweight (260)
So it’s true that fewer Standard Rifles were made in 243 WIN than Featherweights by a wide margin. But none of them are “rare” (not even the Target Model) until you get to the (often faked) Super Grade styles. Be careful with those!!!
Deg’s rifle looks really nice to me too… The one I have was bought new by my Dad in 1957 (year I was born). I only imagine he thought it would be a good deer rifle for me. He was right, I guess, b/c both my Brother and I took Pronghorn with it in WY in the 1970’s… 
Best,
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
January 20, 2023
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Lou, given a. that there weren’t that many Super Grade Featherweights manufactured in all calibers, and b. the significant differences between Standard and Super Grade stocks, where do you start to fake one? Was there a parts sell-off to GPC when the style was discontinued?
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
November 5, 2014
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Hi Zeb-
Unfortunately it’s not as hard as you might think… I’m not giving away any “secrets” here, the fakers already know how to do it….
The Super Grade Featherweight stock is unique, of course. Hence the hardest part to “fake”… But a considerable number of factory NOS SG Fwt stocks were sold off by USRAC after 1980, and according to a reliable source, there was a time when they could be purchased off tables at large gun shows. Factory NOS aluminum SG floor plates were also plentiful back in the day. The factory apparently made far more parts than the number of rifles they ended up selling. I am talking forty years ago, however… 
I also believe that current repro SG Fwt stocks are available (for a rather princely sum). I think (???) I’ve seen at least one SG Fwt recently put together with a repro stock. I don’t think (???) the manufacturer deliberately makes them as fakes, i.e. they use a different wood finish, but externally they are perfectly accurate copies of an original and any faker worthy of spending jail time knows how to at least get close to a factory stock finish.
So… If you have a stock, then all you need to do is find a standard Fwt barreled action (usually 308 WIN b/c that’s the one Rule says is least common), rust blue the barrel, add a “SUPER” stamp underneath and maybe a “backwards “S” on the recoil lug, engine turn the bolt body/extractor/collar/follower, re-electropencil the bolt S/N so it’s on top of the jeweling, get (or make) the floor plate, and round up a Redfield 255 full gold.
Throw it all together and what have you got???
As for the Standard Super Grade, it’s easier. Sort of… This happens to 243 WIN a lot b/c of it’s relative rarity. You just start with a period correct post-1952 MC Super Grade in a common caliber and salvage the stock, steel SG floor plate, and Redfield 255, swapping in the same parts from a 243 WIN Standard rifle so the “donor” is still a functional rifle that can be sold. Now take the barreled action from a 243 WIN Standard rifle, apply the same metal touches as before, put it together and what have you got???
It’s a dirty business and IMHO it happens all the time!!! Or maybe I’m just paranoid!!!
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
April 15, 2005
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Louis Luttrell said
It’s a dirty business and IMHO it happens all the time!!! Or maybe I’m just paranoid!!!
Lou
I can send you a tin-foil hat if it will help…
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
December 27, 2024
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Zebulon said
Dirtman324 said
Very nice looking (and I’m sure shooting ) 70! Standard grade 243s are actually on the rarer side of production wise (I believe it’s right around 6000)
I’d have to dig out Rule to see the production number chart but I think you’re correct. Most in that caliber were made in the Featherweight style, a few in the new Varmint style.
A new Featherweight in 243 is what I wanted but, by the time I could afford one in 1966, they were out of production. The ’06 came Decades later.
The OP’s is a fine specimen.
This one is supposed to be Standard Weight – you’re scaring me. Could you make the serial number out?
Dan #67288
December 27, 2024
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Louis Luttrell said
Rule’s numbers for 243 WIN, based on Shipping Department records, not actual number ordered or manufactured, are:
Featherweight (24,707)
Standard Rifle (6,812)
Varmint Rifle (4,614)
Target Model (683)
Standard Super Grade (291)
Super Grade Featherweight (260)
So it’s true that fewer Standard Rifles were made in 243 WIN than Featherweights by a wide margin. But none of them are “rare” (not even the Target Model) until you get to the (often faked) Super Grade styles. Be careful with those!!!
Deg’s rifle looks really nice to me too… The one I have was bought new by my Dad in 1957 (year I was born). I only imagine he thought it would be a good deer rifle for me. He was right, I guess, b/c both my Brother and I took Pronghorn with it in WY in the 1970’s…
Best,
Lou
nice – what yardage, you remember?
Dan #67288
December 27, 2024
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Two things – 1. mine doesn’t have any faking crap going on does is? and 2 – what book or what can I read to see the difference between all of the different grades, I couldn’t tell one from the other.
Dan #67288
November 5, 2014
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Hi Deg-
Yours is a very nice example of the real thing!!! Standard Grade Rifle in 243 WIN… The ones with steel butt plates, like yours, are liked better by collectors. Roger Rule’s book covers it all. The 243 WIN chambering appeared in more different pre-64 M70 styles than anything but 30-06…
As examples, these are mine. Some maybe legit?
Featherweight:
Standard Rifle. The Pronghorn I shot with it was at about 175-ish yards. My Brother killed two with it, but I don’t know the range…
Varmint Rifle:
Target Model:
Standard Super Grade:
Super Grade Featherweight:
You cannot judge originality/authenticity from these photos, nor are you expected to… But this is kinda’ what they ought to look like…
Hope this helps,
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
December 27, 2024
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great – thank you sir.
Dan #67288
January 7, 2014
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Dan,
If your 243 is a standard Model 70 pre 64 it should have a 24″ barrel and a Monte Carlo comb stock. No other special features. There may be a few standard 243 Model 70 pre 64 with the low comb stocks. Since the Winchester 243 did not come out until 1955 most of the low comb stocks were used up (some were held for replacements).
Lou has covered most of the fake possibilities (the fakers never give up) so I cannot add anything to his comments.
In my quest to obtain the 4 different calibers in the Super Grade featherweights I encountered several different attempts to pass off a faked Winchester Model 70 pre 64 Super Grade featherweight.
Lou was my main mentor. His help was greatly appreciated.
Dan, if you should want to find the differences between all of the different grades, I suggest that you locate and buy Roger Rules’ book ” The Rifleman’s Rifle”.
Dick
