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December 8, 2025
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Hi, Y’all-newbie here. I have come across what I believe is a real find. It is a 1940 Model 70 in 22 Hornet being sold by the original owner (now 91 years old). He states that he put about 20 rounds through it, then put it away in his safe. So.. anyone have an idea of the value? 
The remarkable thing is that the gun appears new! Sorry about the picture orientation!
December 9, 2002
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The pictures look nice, but aren’t enough to go on, for me to give you a number. With him being 6 yrs old when the rifle was mfg, we know at least one other person owned it, and with his 20 rounds added to whatever the original owner threw into it, and sent them downstream, how’s the bore? I’m assuming it’s in very nice condition. It’s a rifle that I’ve been looking at, for a while, and have handled a few. I would have to handle this one, before I threw a number on the board.
Anthony
August 27, 2014
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Welcome to WACA Olddog…
Looks like an extra hole in the bridge (pic #11)? If so, substantial hit to collector value. Might just be the lighting/pic, but is the wood proud to the butt plate? Again maybe just the lighting/pics, but the bluing on the bolt handle and barrel look pretty shiney in a couple shots. The bluing wear on the butt plate relative to bluing on the rest of the gun is a concern
“If you can’t convince them, confuse them”
President Harry S. Truman
November 5, 2014
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Hi Olddog-
I cannot assess this rifle from the photos. It looks “correct” insofar as the parts I can see, e.g. the Lyman 31W front sight… But to my eye it also looks 100% refinished, wood and metal. How good is the provenance??? Is that a “shop tag” on the gun???
Pre-war M70 barrels were rust blued. This looks like hot salt immersion blue (maybe it’s the photos). Even though some M70 wood finishes are pretty smooth, they don’t look like a Weatherby… Again, maybe the lighting. Checkering looks very “fresh”, but sometimes near new pre-war M70 stocks look like that…
One more thing… When Winchester rust blued barrels the muzzle face was deliberately protected from the acid rust vapor. So the muzzle face should NOT be blued. If it is, then the gun’s been redone…
So… A genuine unaltered 98% or better pre-war M70 Standard Grade 22 HORNET is probably a $4000 rifle these days. A refinished/restored M70 Standard Grade 22 HORNET +/- a hole in the bridge is still a $1500 gun unless the receiver is Swiss Cheese… Whatever you do, make sure it’s still a 22 HORNET… Many of these rifles were rechambered to 22 K HORNET and NOT marked, since you can fire regular 22 HORNET ammo in a K Hornet chamber (that’s how you make K Hornet brass)…
Here is a pretty legit high condition pre-war M70 22 HORNET (of mine) for comparison. This one is very close to “new” condition so should also be approached with caution. 
Not much Help… Sorry…
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
January 20, 2023
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Louis, what say you?
The barrel and bolt handle looks aaaaaaawwwful shiny and the condition of the steel of the buttplate is in stark contrast to the barreled action. As Ted has noted.
The outer edges of the buttstock appear not to mate with the outer edges of the steel buttplate, suggesting the stock was sanded with the buttplate removed, which would conclusively indicate a refinish. In addition, there appear to be dents in the wood filled with uncracked stock finish.
If memory serves me, the stock of a 1940 standard style Model 70 was finished with a sprayed nitrocellulose lacquer, which over 85 years would be expected to darken and take on an amber patina I do not see on this stock. The buttplate doesn’t appear to have spent virtually all of its life in a dark safe. Even in a dark safe, away from UV rays, the lacquer would be expected to oxidize and darken over three quarters of a Century. [CAVEAT: as photographers know, lighting can effect color, including tone, tint and saturation. A conclusive opinion of wood finish originality is difficult to give absent a hands on inspection in known lighting. In close cases enuine experts can differ and a sample of the finish would have to be spectrographed to settle it.]
I would want to go over the steel with a magnifier and an angled light to look for additional evidence of a reblue. Even I can spot a really amateurish attempt but it gets hard to near impossible fairly fast after that. Dr. Ron Stadt, an advanced Winchester shotgun collector and himself a skilled craftsman teaching industrial arts at the university level, wrote that if the steel were properly processed a reblue was impossible to detect. Many collectors disagree with him but every art critic I’ve met is sure he or she can’t be fooled, either.
An all original standard grade Model 70 Hornet with no extra holes, in actual 98% condition, might have once brought $4500 and up but i don’t think there’s as much bloom on that rose as once. People buy them as shooters too, so there’s certainly more floor than under a 30/06. Reblued with refinished wood is anybody’s guess but I’d say maybe $1500 to $2000 on a very good day. In these matters my opinion is worth slightly less than what you paid for it.
I’d take what either Lou or Ted says to the bank.
- 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.
December 9, 2002
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I’m in full agreement with Zeb, as far as Ted K, and Louis expert opinions. Those would be a couple of the best go to guys for me, on the model 70, as a few others are also very astute, on them.
I most certainly didn’t notice the extra hole on the bridge that Ted pointed out, as I lost my ambition with the pictures or lack of better pics. IMO!
Louis pointed out something that I also had my doubts on, and that was the tone of bluing or the color of what appears to be re blued or re finished. Looks to be more than just bad lighting to me.
I would ride these guys backs any time it came to a model 70, and value they’re opinion, as they might have saved you some valuable $$$!
Anthony
August 8, 2024
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I concur with what Louis said. Anthony brings up some good points as well. The last Model 70 I saw at the OGCA/ WACA show in .22 Hornet. A post war Standard rifle did sell for $4,000.00.
August 4, 2023
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If I wanted to check value on a gun I owned or thought I’d like to own, I would ask questions about features, and issues I should look for. Posting pictures and expecting a valuation is a problem. Cell phone compression of digital photo’s can make objects look vastly different from what is seen in hand. You can never convince someone what they see is not there either. I think the answers given here are very helpful. If the OP is asking for a value to feel better about his purchase, that’s kinda understandable, but hopefully he bought what he did because he liked it, and didn’t buy it because it was just a good deal. At the end of the day the value is what he paid for it at that moment, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks it’s worth until he wants to sell it.
August 9, 2022
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For comparisons sake, there is a 1951 deluxe .22H for sale at a shop I frequent, looks like about a 95% gun to me, and they are asking $6500. I dont know how much of a premium the deluxe goes for though. Always happy to learn.
April 15, 2005
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For comparison, here is my Model 70 Super Grade 22 Hornet… and I paid well under $5K for it two years ago.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
November 5, 2014
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First off… Bert is a sharp horse trader!!! Gotta give him credit…
As for M70 22 HORNET prices… Considering only original finish, unaltered, factory correct specimens in 98% condition (less common caliber in uncommon condition)… Pre-war versus post-war and Standard versus Super Grade command different prices.
For post-war (oval tang) guns; a Standard Grade 22 HORNET as described above is about a $2800-3000 (retail) gun these days. I sold a nice early oval tang one at Cody for $3000 this year… A similar Super Grade is about double or a little more. Within the past month Dave Morris (Frontier Guns) sold a very nice oval tang 22 HORNET Super Grade on GI for $6500. I sold one as good (IMHO nicer) from my collection at the WACA Cody Show for the same… So everything else being equal, I think a 100% difference applies.
Then there’s pre-war (cloverleaf tang, undrilled bridge). These guns (IF you can find an unaltered one in high condition) will be 30-50% higher than the later oval tang ones. I think a really nice pre-war 22 Hornet Standard Grade would sell for $4000 (or even a bit more). It might not sell in 20 min, but it wouldn’t languish on the shelf. As for a pre-war Super Grade, what do you think? I’m inclined to think that a really collectable one is beginning to approach $7500-8000 these days.
Question for the members… What’s this one worth nowadays? It used to belong to Vic Vanb, who used it in his M70 displays at gun shows. Pre-war (s/n 26401) from 1939, near new condition. Vic was a stickler for originality, and you’ll note that the front swivel base position on this one is close to the black fore end tip, a feature only found on early Super Grade stocks… Most likely a legit 1939 Super Grade IMHO… I paid $5581.25 (including Buyer’s Premium) for it in November 2019. Probably too much, but I’ve never bought guns as an “investment strategy” and I like this one…
Once you move away from 98% all original condition prices should fall off dramatically. But as Zeb said, shooters LIKE the M70 22 HORNET, so the “floor” is still notably higher than an equivalent 30-06…
Just my take… YMMV…
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
January 20, 2023
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Lou, I think Bert has proved both your closing points:
1. Once a piece departs 98% all original factory condition, prices fall off dramatically. Bert’s Super Grade appears to be in very high original factory condition — except for a Lisle Kilbourn improved chamber. He was able to buy it for “well under” $5K. That’s a very substantial discount for a modest and useful chamber modification to an otherwise near-pristine M70 SG Hornet.
2. Even $4K would be a pretty stiff “floor” price, compared to, say, what a Super Grade 30/06 with an Ackley [dubiously] Improved chamber would bring. [the “magic” of the 06 AI chamber was proof load chamber pressures, it turned out — a tribute due less to Parker Ackley than to Peter Paul von Mauser and his Gewehr 98 design.]
Taking non-factory modifications over the extreme edge, My 1948 cloverleaf tang Type 2 Model 70 Standard action, seated in its 1953-54 Super Grade stock, re-barreled with a new medium contour SAKO barrel chambered for the 22-250 Varminter wildcat by H. H. Nagel of San Antonio, is in 98% Frankenbuchse cosmetic and perfect mechanical condition. It languished on a consignment shelf until I rescued it for $700 USD. [Shown here for comparison with my 1950 Super Grade 30/06.]
The price included its spotless 
Leupold Vari-X II 3-9X in Leupold rings and one-piece base. Mr. Nagel was laid to rest long ago but his name and works are still honored by South Texas riflemen. His sons and grandsons still operate the gun emporium he started. I’d probably have to fight to get $700 for it unless I took it to a San Antone show. But I like it.
- 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.
August 8, 2024
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Well, I guess that I am one of the odd balls that like the .30Gov’t06! Since 1992 the .30’06 has been my medium game rifle. My Feather weight is light, handy, powerful, and accurate. Jack O’Connor wrote that if he could only have one rifle it would be a .30’06. If he could have two. One would be the .270 Win., the other the .375 H&H Mag. I understand that each collector may value different things. I myself would rather have a clean original Model 70 in .30’06. Then one that has been modified. Through the years you could buy a Pre 1964 Model 70 chambered in .30’06 at a pretty good discount. Around 10 years ago I bought a real nice 1955 Super Grade chambered in .30’06. When I was walking the rifle out of the show. Some folks came up to me, and asked me what caliber my rifle was. I told them it was the great .30’06. Some said that that was too bad. Or, I got a look like I insulted them. That’s OK! I really like the rifle, and it is still in my collection. Now, I do like the .22 Hornet as well. It is the opposite of the .30’06 in the Pre 1964 Model 70. Even though they did make a lot of them. They always required a premium if one wanted to acquire an example for his/her collection. The Hornet that I saw at the OGCA/WACA show was indeed a post War Standard rifle. That was above 98%. It sold pretty quickly at $4000.00. To tell you the through I thought it was priced fairly.
August 27, 2014
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“If you can’t convince them, confuse them”
President Harry S. Truman
November 5, 2014
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Ted-
As long as it’s “show and tell” time…
IMHO the “quintessential” Model 70 is a Type I-1 Standard Rifle in 30 GOV’T’06, b/c that’s what’s pictured in the early catalogs. This clip from the 1938 Salesman’s Handbook and corresponding rifle.
Unless, of course, you like Super Grades…
I do LIKE your leather couch though!!! As I’ve told you many times… But maybe you ought to put in on the floor rather than the wall…
Happy Holidays!!!
Lou
WACA 9519; Studying Pre-64 Model 70 Winchesters
January 20, 2023
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I had a 1951 Standard in 270 with the same Stith Streamline Mount and Weaver K3. It was missing more blue and some of it had turned to plum. The lacquer had flaked off in places. Ren Wax. Auctioned it on GB and it closed a little shy of $1,100. Our friends at Pre64Win got it and I always wonder whether they parted it out or refinished it.
Anybody who calls himself a Winchester collector and sneers at a nice 1955 Super Grade 30/06 is a moron with no real understanding of our hobby.. Like a corpse, he’s unpleasant to be around and probably smells bad. He just doesn’t know it.
The Model 70 that will rest in my cold dead hands is the 1950 Super Grade .30 Gov’t ’06 I illustrated. It now wears a Lyman 48 WJS-H and a Redfield Sourdough up front. Because I like the way it looks and carries. When it wore a Leupold 2.5 – 8 VariX III it would consistently shoot Winchester 180 grain premium factory into 1.2 moa for 3 rounds. A joke by current long range standards but if I could hit a coffee can lid at 300 yards, it was all I ever wanted. I will not shoot at an unwounded game animal past about 250 yards. Not the rifle’s fault; too much coffee.
- 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.
August 8, 2024
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Zebulon, I agree with your ethics. Also 1.2 MOA is about all I would need, and have some cushion to boot.
Louis, That is a fine pair of .30Gov’t06 Model 70s.
March 31, 2009
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Zebulon said
Anybody who calls himself a Winchester collector and sneers at a nice 1955 Super Grade 30/06 is a moron with no real understanding of our hobby.. Like a corpse, he’s unpleasant to be around and probably smells bad. He just doesn’t know it.
Zeb, you talking about me again?
April 15, 2005
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Chuck said
Zebulon said
Anybody who calls himself a Winchester collector and sneers at a nice 1955 Super Grade 30/06 is a moron with no real understanding of our hobby.. Like a corpse, he’s unpleasant to be around and probably smells bad. He just doesn’t know it.
Zeb, you talking about me again?
If the shoe fits… you know the rest of that story!
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
November 7, 2015
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Due to the skillful efforts detailed in this and other threads I have no desire to collect the Model 70. I love the gun and hope to someday own a standard rifle in 30-06 but I don’t trust my ability to recognize a good fake as I know there are some very good ones out there. I suppose they won’t go to great lengths to fake a lowly standard rifle in 30-06 but I’m not willing to risk $4000 on it. I don’t need a pristine example, I like my rifles with a little character. I started hunting with a Model 670 in an ugly birch stock that has morphed into a 35 Whelen in a nice Boyd Walnut stock. I’ve also hunted with a beautiful BACO-produced Super Grade in 30-06 and a future project will also be a 30-06 so I obviously have no issues with the 30 Guvmint 06 and will make no apologies for it.
Mike
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