Hello,
New guy question here. Did a quick search but didn’t see anything about when the transition exactly occurred on model 70 receivers regarding finish. Best I can gather, the “pre-war” receivers were more polished while later ones have a matte finish. I’m reading there are something referred to as transition rifles. Would something in 1948 fit that? The receiver on the model 70 I’m looking at doesn’t have the bead blast type finish on receiver and I’m trying to figure out if its a reblue. If you all tell me that since it’s made in 1948 (obviously after 1945) then it should not have a polished receiver, then I suppose I have my answer. If it’s possible that it could have a polished receiver in 1948, then I’ll have to get some pictures and figure out how to post them.
Thanks in advance.
November 5, 2014

Hi SDM-
Briefly, the terms “pre-war” and “transition” refer to the design of the receiver itself, not necessarily when it was made. The last of the “pre-war” receivers were made after WWII in 1946.
PRE-WAR (Type I) receivers have the cloverleaf tang and UNDRILLED rear bridge with wavy line roll marks. The bolt handles have a distinct “shoulder” at the root. These receivers were initially POLISHED (not bead blasted matte) and finished with bone charcoal blue. Winchester called it “machine blue”. When they changed to hot salt immersion blue for receivers, they began to bead blast the exterior. This occurred around serial number 23,000 or so and continued through the end of the pre-war receivers, around serial number 60,500.
TRANSITION (Type II) receivers still have the cloverleaf tang, but the bridge was SMOOTH and factory D&T for scope mounting. Bolt handles lost the pre-war shoulder that could interfere with low mounted scope. The transition receivers were all done with the bead blasted matte Du-Lite blue finish. These run roughly from serial number 60,500 to 87,000 (1946 to 1948).
Since you didn’t give the serial number, I’ll have to toss in that the LATER (Type III) receivers made their appearance around serial number 88,000 (still 1948). These have the oval shaped tang and smooth factory D&T bridge. Still, they all got the bead blasted matte finish…
Hope this helps…
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
November 5, 2014

Hi Greg-
You’re certainly right about the serial number ranges for the transition between “pre-war”, “transition” and “later” H&H MAGNUM length receivers being off a fair bit from the Standard length receivers. For example, in H&H MAGNUM the “transition” receivers were being finished out well into the 120,000 range (mixed in with later oval tang receivers after about S/N 100,000). It’s also true that the bridge on H&H MAGNUM receivers was not factory D&T for a scope mount until sometime in 1950, around S/N 160,000, which is well into oval tang receiver production. The factory catalogs as late as 1950 even say this, stating that the bridge was D&T for scope mounts “except in 300 and 375 H&H Magnum”…
I was trying to keep it simple…
If the original focus of the question was when the receiver FINISH changed from polished to bead blasted, then I think the answer was OK. Circa late 1939/early 1940 (around S/N 23,500) seems to be when the bead blasted receivers begin turn up in large numbers. So far, I haven’t picked up anything in the survey that suggests that pre-war H&H MAGNUM receivers were blued differently than Standard receivers, i.e. that polished receivers lasted longer in H&H length…
But who knows??? Like you, I’m still trying to learn…
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
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