Liike my standard M71 so much I had to add a Special model|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

I have had my M71 about a week, and I must say it is my favorite rifle I have ever owned.  I have read and heard people talk about falling in love with a rifle, but it has never happened to me.  Parker 12 gauge shotguns? sure.  Various handguns/revolvers in 45 colt/45 acp? Definitely.  But I have never fallen in love with a rifel.  I have an old 257 pre 64 M70 that belonged to my grandfather that I hunt deer with and am very fond of, but even it never made me want to just go out and shoot it like I would a pistol or shotgun.  I would blame it on the bolt action not being as fun as a lever, but I own several levers from 32-40 up to 33 wcf, 38-55, and 45-70 and have never had this much fun shooting a rifle.  I have blown through the 3 factory boxes of winchester 200 gr bullets that I got with the gun.  So while I have loaded pistol ammo for about 10 years, currently on a dillon 550, I am apparently jumping into reloading rifle ammo now.

Have dies, bullets, powder, trimmer, and a forster press on the way.  Mostly because I don’t want to mess with caliber changes for a rifle on a 550, and I have heard really great things about reloading on a forster with rifles.  Stumbled onto a heck of a deal on a giraud trimmer and a harrel powder measure.  They may be overkill for my purposes, but they weren’t much more than buying something else would have been.  Have some 180 grain bullets coming from Hawk and picked up some 200 grn A-frames to try in it as well.

So anyway, all that to say, I have also added a Special Model 71 to the gun safe.  Thanks to Bert on his education that 71s are Specials and not Deluxes, also enjoyed the excellent article he wrote in Fall 2013 on the M71, along with ones written by Daniel Shuey, Dr. Shroeder, James Triggs, and Ronald Stadt in the magazine archives, which is really a treat I had not dived into until Bert brought it to my attention.  Nothing about the 348 winchester itself according to the search function but I am still checking.

Anyway, all of that brought me to the decision that as much as I like shooting this 24 inch standard model, I should really see about adding a Special model to keep it company.

At first my goal was to be responsible and find a used shooter version of a 71 that had some wear and was a more economical price.  Surprisingly, I found more than a few of the M71s for sale met that description, quite a few were in the 2000 or less price range.  I even found one that was listed for $1000 that seemed legit on inspection, but the forearm had either been replaced with a standard one or the checkering had been sanded off.  The other issue that narrowed down the selection was the rifle I own has a Bolt Peep.  Which I absolutely love.  This paired down the numbers substantially as there are a lot more economically priced Specials made from 1950 on than there are pre wars with the bolt peep. 

I should also add that for a number of reasons I was not interested in a carbine length. 1) The difficulty in determining originality on 20 inch barrels. 2) The much higher expense associated with Carbines. and 3) I have read various posts and articles in my research of the M71 that all seem to agree the gun itself handles much better with a 24 inch barrel than it does with a 20 inch.  This may be similar to felt recoil varying from person to person, but since I love shooting my current 24 inch model I will stick with it.

I found a possible rifle for sale for 1800 or so that looked to be legit, that came with a special engraved pistol cap with the engraving “From the Boys  A. D. David 12-25-1940”.  There is a colt SAA that has almost the exact same engraving on it except it was dated 12-25-1895 that was presented to a US Marshal in the Eastern District of Texas.  If I had been able to find a link between them or even determine who the heck A.D. David was I might have been more interested.  

But as I was considering this, I found a very nice 1936 special model that appealed to me greatly.  It wasn’t a mint rifle, but what is the fun in owning a gun that is too nice to hunt with, but it is definitely in 90-95% condition.  The bluing was gorgeous, the wood was nice, the checkering in good shape, 24 inch barrel and most importantly it had a bolt peep.  It also had a pistol grip cap and recessed sling mounts like a  special model in addition to the checkering on the butt stock and forearm.  It has a 4xxx range serial number which I believe puts it into fall of 36 production, though Bert can correct me on that.

It costs me more than I was hoping to pay for it, but within budget.  I will have to sell something to completely pay for it, but a thinning of the herd is probably due.

Anyway thought I would share.  Again, I thoroughly love this firearm. It may not be for everyone, but if you have a chance by all means check out a M71 if you haven’t before.